Archie Alleyne (January 7, 1933 – June 8, 2015) was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

drummer."Archie Alleyne, renowned Toronto jazz drummer, dead at 82"

CBC News CBC News is a division of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the news gathering and production of news programs on the corporation's English-language operations, namely CBC Television, CBC Radio, CBC News Network, and CBC.ca ...

, June 8, 2015. Best known as a drummer for influential jazz musicians such as

Billie Holiday Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan; April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959) was an American jazz and swing music singer. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and music partner, Lester Young, Holiday had an innovative influence on jazz music and pop s ...

Lester Young Lester Willis Young (August 27, 1909 – March 15, 1959), nicknamed "Pres" or "Prez", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and occasional clarinetist. Coming to prominence while a member of Count Basie's orchestra, Young was one of the most ...

, Stan Getz,

Coleman Hawkins Coleman Randolph Hawkins (November 21, 1904 – May 19, 1969), nicknamed "Hawk" and sometimes "Bean", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist.Yanow, Scot"Coleman Hawkins: Artist Biography" AllMusic. Retrieved December 27, 2013. One of the first p ...

and

Ben Webster Benjamin Francis Webster (March 27, 1909 – September 20, 1973) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. Career Early life and career A native of Kansas City, Missouri, he studied violin, learned how to play blues on the piano from ...

, he was also prominent as a recording artist on his own and with Canadian jazz musicians such as Oliver Jones,

Cy McLean Cy McLean (1916 – 1986)Earlscourt History ClubBlack Pioneers of St. Clair Avenue West, January 25, 2009, citing ''Toronto Star'' Cy McLean obituary, November 1, 1986, A10: "Jazz pianist Cy McLean, 70, led Toronto's first Black band". Retrieved ...

and Brian Browne."RIP Archie Alleyne"
''

Ottawa Citizen The ''Ottawa Citizen'' is an English-language daily newspaper owned by Postmedia Network in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. History Established as ''The Bytown Packet'' in 1845 by William Harris, it was renamed the ''Citizen'' in 1851. The new ...

'', June 9, 2015. Born and raised in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

, Alleyne became the house drummer at the

Town Tavern {{Short description, Jazz club in Toronto, Ontario, Canada The Town Tavern was a jazz club located at 16 Queen Street East in Toronto, Ontario. Operating between 1949 and 1971, it was one of Toronto's preeminent jazz clubs and a regular performanc ...

jazz club in his 20s. Following a serious car accident in 1967, Alleyne stepped away from music for a number of years, becoming a partner with Dave Mann,

John Henry Jackson John Henry Jackson (1938 - December 11, 2018) was an American-Canadian football player and restaurateur.Morgan Campbell"John Henry Jackson was a quarterback, restaurateur and pioneer" ''Toronto Star'', December 13, 2018. Football career Born in C ...

and Howard Matthews in The Underground Railroad, a

soul food Soul food is an ethnic cuisine traditionally prepared and eaten by African Americans, originating in the Southern United States.Soul Food originated with the foods that were given to enslaved Black people by their white owners on Souther ...

restaurant in Toronto. After being bought out of the restaurant in 1981, he returned to music in the early 1980s with Oliver Jones' band. Alleyne was named to the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada (french: Ordre du Canada; abbreviated as OC) is a Canadian state order and the second-highest honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the cen ...

in 2011. He established the Archie Alleyne Scholarship Fund to provide

bursaries A bursary is a monetary award made by any educational institution or funding authority to individuals or groups. It is usually awarded to enable a student to attend school, university or college when they might not be able to, otherwise. Some aw ...

to music students, and wrote ''Colour Me Jazz: The Archie Alleyne Story'', an autobiography which was published a few months after his death."Colour Me Jazz: The Archie Alleyne Story launch, reading"

CJRT-FM CJRT-FM (91.1 MHz) is a Canadian public radio station and charitable arts organization in Toronto, Ontario, known as JAZZ.FM91. The studios are on Pardee Avenue in the Liberty Village neighbourhood of Toronto. The station describes itself as Ca ...

, October 28, 2015.

References

External links

Archie Alleyne archives
are held at the

Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections Clara Thomas (née McCandless; May 22, 1919 – September 26, 2013) was a Canadian academic. A longtime professor of English at York University, she was one of the first academics to devote her work specifically to the study of Canadian literatur ...

York University Libraries York University Libraries (YUL) is the library system of York University in Toronto, Ontario. The four main libraries and one archives contain more than 2,500,000 volumes. History The first York library opened in 1961 at Glendon College and ...

Toronto, Ontario Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

1933 births 2015 deaths Black Canadian musicians Black Canadian writers Businesspeople from Toronto Canadian autobiographers Canadian jazz drummers Canadian male drummers Canadian people of Nigerian descent Canadian restaurateurs Canadian male jazz musicians Members of the Order of Canada Musicians from Toronto Writers from Toronto 20th-century Canadian drummers 20th-century Canadian male musicians 20th-century Canadian non-fiction writers 20th-century Canadian male writers {{Canada-musician-stub