Allen Eager was an American jazz tenor and saxophonist. He was born January 10, 1927 in New York City, and died May 13, 2003, Daytona Beach. Eager began playing jazz in World War II as a teenager, when he was a member of the shorty sherock, Sonny Dunham and Shorty Sherock bands. He also played with Woody Herman, Tommy Dorsey and Woody McIntyre. He was a regular player on the New York jazz scene at 52nd Street. From 1946 to 1948, he had his own group. He played in 1948 with Tadd Dameron. In 1951, he was with Gerry Mulligan. In 1952, he was with Terry Gibbs. Buddy Rich followed shortly thereafter. He led his own group from 1953 to 1955. From 1956 to 1957, he lived in Paris. He recorded again with Mulligan in 1957. After that, he retired completely from jazz. Eager mentioned Charlie Parker’s death and his drug addiction as the reasons he left the jazz scene. Eager continued to pursue other interests, including skiing, auto racing and LSD experimentation with Timothy Leary. He did occasionally re-enter music, performing with Charles Mingus in 1960 at the Newport Rebels Festival and with Frank Zappa during the 1970s. He made a comeback in 1982 with an album for Uptown Records and toured with Dizzy Gilespie. In 2003, he died. Text contributed by users is available under Creative Commons By–SA License. It may also be available under GNU FDL.
