It’s not often that I buy a mystery album when I go shopping for music. The closest I usually get is an album or an artist I’ve heard of and can make a blind judgment about, as far as “Should I spend money on it?” goes at least.

On this specific occasion I was particularly jazzed up and was craving anything new. So when I came across George V. Johnson Jr.’s LiVe @ JazZ Inn (perhaps a later release from Sounds Saved from Time), who I had never heard of before, I happened to be in the mood for new as long as it was jazz. It helped that the black-and-white album artwork seemed to express a sort of fringe-jazz feel I thought I was looking for at the time.

For four dollars I really could not go wrong and this “JazZ Inn” was making me very curious. When I returned home I started searching everywhere over the Internet to find information on George V. Johnson Jr. and The JazZ Inn. George had a MySpace page, articles written about him and numerous other references with a pretty solid biography; The JazZ Inn on the other hand, had nothing. The URL printed on the CD’s back cover was no longer working and there were only a few notes here and there of what the establishment actually was. So I ventured to the Internet-time-machine, Archive.org, and back-tracked the history of the website. Luckily, between about two months’ worth of cached pages I was able to actually view the content.

From all of my reading I discovered The JazZ Inn was a bed and breakfast in Albuquerque, New Mexico, established and owned by Sophia and Nicholas Peron, jazz-radicals. Opened in 1994 The JazZ Inn catered to jazz artists and fans alike, acting as a venue for jazz musicians both local and major. It worked blood, sweat and tears to keep the spirit, the music and the culture of jazz alive in New Mexico. It also aided in recording the sessions, and on some occasions even releasing CDs. The JazZ Inn sadly closed in 2002 and the Perons retired, moving to Truth or Consequences, New Mexico and in the process bringing many Albuquerque players with them, inevitably carrying The JazZ Inn’s legacy along.

It was a strange thing to find this CD in a Tallahassee Goodwill, five states east of its origin and of course I came up with about a dozen stories of its journey in my head. The ultimate wonder of this whole find was this little piece of jazz history that had closed eight years previously, known as The JazZ Inn.

I was so compelled to find out more and soon discovered that two years before Johnson’s live-album was released, The JazZ Inn released their first production, an album titled gone with the wind… by a man named Richard Allen, now deceased. Once again, a name I did not recognized.

Besides a blank AllMusic.com page and a similarly barren Amazon.com listing, there was nothing to be found on gone with the wind… or Richard Allen. By chance there was a copy being sold on Amazon so I decided to order it immediately. I had no expectations; I hadn’t even seen a cover for the album.

It was an exciting moment to have obtained another one of these JazZ Inn gems and the one that started it all at that. Richard Allen’s beautiful baritone voice soon became a regular sound coming from my speakers and it was hard not to be captivated by not only the music, but the enigma of the artist at the time.

At that time I contacted Sophia Peron regarding The JazZ Inn’s history and had a short correspondence with her, but hadn’t learned much about Allen beyond that he had passed away in 1997, was a close friend of the Perons and a favorite to local jazz fans.

By happenstance, I had recently contacted Sophia with intentions of featuring both Johnson and Allen’s albums as a sort of “JazZ Inn special”, but upon learning today, May 25th, would be the 69th birthday of Richard Allen, who passed away nearly fourteen years ago, I decided the focus deserved to be entirely on him and this album, his only release.

Sophia Peron, owner of The JazZ Inn and producer of gone with the wind… wrote his obituary (originally published in The Albuquerque Journal and since revised), which provides the most detail and insight into the artist’s life. The document is provided in PDF format below:

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Richard Allen began his career in music, theater and acting at an early age and continued on until his death; from Broadway to his career as jazz singer, his life story is, to put it simply, astounding. Beyond just his work, his addiction to heroin and his subsequent break-away from it and redemption is fascinating in itself. As are his later years living with HIV and his work within the AIDS community. His life is a testament to humanity and the triumph of human will and spirit.

The recording of his first album carries an interesting tale itself. It must be understood it was recorded only nine months before his death in 1997. In a matter of a sentence advertising the album on The JazZ Inn’s new website (a tome to the establishment’s legacy) one can note what Allen was going through during the recording:

Richard Allen sings 5 tunes with emphysema + full oxygen.

Although the album contains ten tracks, Allen was only able to record five songs, so it is augmented with jazz instrumentals recorded by local jazz artists Doug Lawrence, Pete Amahl, Bob Fox and John Belzaguy after Allen’s death, who are all also present on the songs actually featuring Allen. The album was released two years later, in 1999, and was a love letter from friends to the man, his art and his legacy.

Shortly after recording gone with the wind… a lifelong dream of Allen’s came to fruition. He recorded with the historical Blue Note jazz label. Sophia Peron fleshed out the story a little more, beyond what the obituary noted:

He went to NYC and recorded a dozen songs produced by Don Sickler (7 time Grammy winner) it was never turned into a recording because Richard died and no one produces a record of an unknown dead person… We [recorded] it because Richard’s voice was so beautiful and we wanted the world to hear it – plus we had some extra money to do it with… Richard sent a tape to his friend in NYC, a trumpet player (now RIP) who gave it to Don [Sickler] on the street.

Unfortunately, as Sophia noted, the recordings of Richard Allen at Blue Note have not been released and are somewhere deep within the label’s vault waiting to be re-discovered.

Sounds Saved from Time is honored and very excited to present Richard Allen’s gone with the wind…, the swan song of a man with a beautiful baritone and an album truly worthy of more ears.

As always, the music presented on Sounds Save from Time is FREE and with the permission of the artist(s). For this release of Richard Allen’s gone with the wind… I have provided, as always, high resolution, full-scans of all print material included with the album as well as the PDFs of both the obituary written by Sophia Peron and a collection of every published review found regarding the album.

For further information on Richard Allen, The JazZ Inn, the Perons or the New Mexican jazz scene, visit: www.JazzInn.com

Artist: Richard Allen

Album: gone with the wind…

Year: 1999

Genre: Jazz

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Happy Birthday, Richard.



