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Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular MusicA B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZALLYN, David(b Albert DiLella, 19 July 1919, Hartford CN; d 21 November 2012, West Haven CN in a VA hospital) A highly rated singer who began during the big band era. His family was musical; his father played French horn in the Hartford Symphony Orchestra. Allyn's career began when he was a teenager; he recorded with Jack Teagarden in 1939 (reissues on Savoy '86) and credited Teagarden with teaching him how to let his emotions out rather than masking them. He saw action in WWII, was wounded in North Africa and introduced to pain-killing drugs. He was clearly a victim of what we now call post-traumatic stress syndrome; he joined the legendary Boyd Raeburn band '45 ('Forgetful', 'I Only Have Eyes For You') but by then was a heroin addict. Imprisoned in the mid-1950s, he came out clean but with not much of a career. Albums on World Pacific or WB were later reissued on Discovery: Sure Thing (songs of Jerome Kern arranged by Johnny Mandel), Yours Sincerely (with Bill Holman) and I Only Have Eyes For You (Dave Terry) '57-9; In The Blue Of The Evening '69 (with Mandel again) was unreleased then. Don't Look Back '75 with Barry Harris on piano was on Xanadu. With Soft As Spring on Audiophile almost everything was in print for a while, but the singer who got even better as he got older and had been highly praised by Frank Sinatra and Alec Wilder had left music, and worked managing a hardware store (he also did drug counselling). He heard one of his own records on the radio in Minneapolis in the early 1980s, rang up the disc jockey to say thanks, did an interview and ended up back on the bandstand: to NYC and a new album on Discovery with pianist Clare Fischer. Discovery is a label that comes and goes; the only CD available in the mid-'90s was the Audiophile. |