Archie Alleyne

{{short description|Canadian jazz musician and autobiographer}} {{Infobox musical artist | name = Archie Alleyne | honorific_suffix = CM | image = Archie Alleyne.jpg | image_upright = | image_size = | landscape =  | alt = Image of playing drums | caption = | birth_name = | alias = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1933|01|07}} | birth_place = Toronto, Ontario, Canada | origin = | death_date = {{Death date and age|2015|06|08|1933|01|07}} | death_place = | genre = Jazz | occupation = Drummer | instrument = | years_active =  | label = | website =  | notable_instruments = }}

'''Archibald Alexander''' "'''Archie'''" '''Alleyne''' {{Post-nominals|country=CAN|CM}} (January 7, 1933 – June 8, 2015) was a Canadian jazz drummer, and advocate for Black musicians and Black rights.<ref name=cbcobit>[http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/archie-alleyne-renowned-toronto-jazz-drummer-dead-at-82-1.3104666 "Archie Alleyne, renowned Toronto jazz drummer, dead at 82"]. CBC News, June 8, 2015.</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite web |title=Archie Alleyne |url=https://soundsliketoronto.ca/en/stories/artists/archie-alleyne |access-date=2024-02-07 |website=Sounds Like Toronto |language=en}}</ref> Best known as a drummer for influential jazz musicians such as Billie Holiday, Lester Young, Stan Getz, Coleman Hawkins and Ben Webster, he was also prominent as a recording artist on his own and with Canadian jazz musicians such as Oliver Jones, Cy McLean and Brian Browne.<ref name=citizen>[https://ottawacitizen.com/entertainment/music/jazzblog/rip-archie-alleyne "RIP Archie Alleyne"]. ''Ottawa Citizen'', June 9, 2015.</ref> He is also known for fighting against systemic racism and discrimination throughout his career and breaking colour barriers throughout the 1940s having appeared in previously "whites only" music clubs in Toronto such as the Town Tavern in the 1940s.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Archie A. Alleyne – TMA 149 |url=https://tma149.ca/portfolio-item/archie-a-alleyne/ |access-date=2024-02-07 |language=en-CA}}</ref><ref name=":3" />

== Personal life and career == Born and raised in Toronto, Ontario,<ref name="cbcobit" /> Alleyne grew up in Kensington Market which was home to many Jewish families and the city's small Black community. His father worked as a railroad porter with the Pullman Company and his grandmother was a domestic worker.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Weekes |first=Jabbari |date=2015-03-08 |title=The Life and Times of Archie Alleyne, Toronto's Greatest Jazz Drummer |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/the-life-and-times-of-archie-alleyne-torontos-greatest-jazz-drummer/ |access-date=2024-02-07 |website=Vice |language=en}}</ref> Realizing he did not want to follow his father's footsteps, Alleyne set out to follow his passion of music and his first engagement was as a drummer at a church on the corner of Bathurst and College.<ref name=":1" />

He then started to play with talented white, jazz musicians such as Bill Goddard and Dave Hammer and eventually was introduced to several jazz clubs by Jack McQuade, the co-owner of Canada's largest music store, Long & McQuade.<ref name=":1" /> Between gigs, Alleyne would practice at the St. Christopher House and the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League hall.<ref name=":1" />

Over time his reputation grew and Alleyne eventually became the house drummer at the Town Tavern jazz club between 1955 and 1966.<ref name="cbcobit" /><ref name=":0" /> He would also play at the Colonial Tavern which was the first Black-owned club in Toronto. He became the drummer of choice for many visiting artists such as Billie Holiday, Ben Webster, and Lester Young.<ref name=":0" /> He became an international artist, touring countries across Africa and the Caribbean.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |last=grantj |date=2020-02-10 |title=Celebrating Black History Month - Archie Alleyne · News from the Clara Thomas Archives & Special Collections |url=https://ctasc.blog.yorku.ca/2020/02/10/celebrating-black-history-month-archie-alleyne/ |access-date=2024-02-07 |website=News from the Clara Thomas Archives & Special Collections |language=en-US}}</ref>

Following a serious car accident in 1967, Alleyne stepped away from music for a number of years,<ref name="cbcobit" /> becoming a partner with Dave Mann, John Henry Jackson and Howard Matthews in The Underground Railroad, a soul food restaurant and first of its kind in Toronto.<ref>Rosemary Sadlier, [https://www.toronto.com/news/black-in-toronto-remembering-howard-matthews-and-the-now-closed-underground-railroad-restaurant/article_ae105dd5-b1fa-5b77-b54e-1c46452327dc.html "BLACK IN TORONTO: Remembering Howard Matthews and the now-closed Underground Railroad Restaurant"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220817112505/https://www.toronto.com/news/black-in-toronto-remembering-howard-matthews-and-the-now-closed-underground-railroad-restaurant/article_ae105dd5-b1fa-5b77-b54e-1c46452327dc.html |date=2022-08-17 }}. ''Scarborough Mirror'', September 15, 2016.</ref><ref name=":3" />

After being bought out of the restaurant in 1981,<ref>Mark Miller, "Alleyne is back, and so are his 'chops'". ''The Globe and Mail'', February 18, 1982.</ref> he returned to music in the early 1980s with Oliver Jones' band.<ref name="citizen" /> During this time he also became an activist whose accomplishment include successfully protesting the exclusion of jazz artists from the Canada Council's funding opportunities and ensuring the representation of Black musicians at the Toronto Jazz Festival.<ref name=":0" />

In 2000, Archie Alleyne and Doug Richardson created the hard-bop jazz band, Kollage.<ref name=":4">{{Cite web |title=Alleyne, Archie - York University Libraries Clara Thomas Archives & Special Collections |url=https://atom.library.yorku.ca/index.php/alleyne-archie |access-date=2024-02-07 |website=atom.library.yorku.ca}}</ref> Kollage’s original lineup included Jeff King (saxophone), Chris Butcher (trombone), Alex Brown (trumpet), Stacie McGregor (piano), Artie Roth (bass) and Archie Alleyne (drums).<ref name=":4" /> Kollage disbanded in 2014 but reformed in 2015 with Isaiah Gibbons, as the percussionist.<ref name=":4" /> In 2001, Alleyne provided mentorship and performance opportunities for young African-Canadians when he created the Evolution of Jazz Ensemble.<ref name=":0" />

He also established the Archie Alleyne Scholarship Fund to provide bursaries to music students in 2003,<ref>[https://www.vice.com/en/article/the-life-and-times-of-archie-alleyne-torontos-greatest-jazz-drummer/ "The Life and Times of Archie Alleyne, Toronto's Greatest Jazz Drummer"]. ''Noisey'', June 8, 2015.</ref> and co-authored ''Colour Me Jazz: The Archie Alleyne Story'', an autobiography which was published a few months after his death.<ref>[https://jazz.fm/colour-me-jazz-the-archie-alleyne-story-launch-reading/ "Colour Me Jazz: The Archie Alleyne Story launch, reading"]. CJRT-FM, October 28, 2015.</ref>

== Awards ==

* 2011, Member of the Order of Canada<ref name=":0" /><ref name="citizen" /> * 2011, Toronto Musicians’ Association Lifetime Achievement Award<ref name=":2" /> * 2015, Black Business and Professional Association's Harry Jerome Awards, Lifetime Achievement Award<ref name=":0" />

==References== {{reflist|2}}

==External links== *[https://atom.library.yorku.ca/index.php/archie-alleyne-fonds Archie Alleyne archives] are held at the Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections, York University Libraries, Toronto, Ontario *[https://www.aasf.ca/ Archive Alleyne Scholarship Fund]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alleyne, Archie}} Category:1933 births Category:2015 deaths Category:Black Canadian non-fiction writers Category:Businesspeople from Toronto Category:Canadian autobiographers Category:Canadian jazz drummers Category:Canadian male drummers Category:Canadian people of Nigerian descent Category:Canadian restaurateurs Category:Canadian male jazz musicians Category:Members of the Order of Canada Category:Musicians from Toronto Category:Writers from Toronto Category:20th-century Canadian drummers Category:20th-century Canadian male musicians Category:20th-century Canadian non-fiction writers Category:20th-century Canadian male writers Category:20th-century Black Canadian musicians