Dick Allen, at 80; was jazz historian

NEW ORLEANS -- Dick Allen, a jazz historian whose scholarly command of traditional New Orleans jazz was matched only by his role as a French Quarter character, has died. He was 80.

Mr. Allen died Thursday at the Veterans Memorial Hospital in Dublin, Ga., where he had been confined to a bed since leaving New Orleans in 2003. His older sister, Betty Smith, said he died of heart failure.

Mr. Allen and Bill Russell began recording interviews with traditional jazz musicians in the mid-1950s in an oral history project that grew into the William Ransom Hogan Jazz Archive at Tulane University.

He was associate curator of the archive from 1958 to 1965 and curator from 1965 to 1980. He retired in 1992.

Mr. Allen also was the author of numerous articles, liner notes, and program notes.

He was also a consultant, instructor, production adviser, producer, or curator for many institutions, including the Smithsonian Institution.

In addition, he was among the original founders of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, which draws thousands of people to the city annually.

He studied trombone under Manuel "Professor" Manetta, the teacher of Jelly Roll Morton, Red Allen, and many other New Orleans musicians.

Mr. Allen was born on Jan. 29, 1927, near Milledgeville, Ga., at Allen's Invalid Home, a home for mentally ill patients established by his grandfather, Dr. Henry Dawson Allen, and later operated by his father and uncle.

Like other family members, Mr. Allen attended elementary and high school at Georgia Military College in Milledgeville. He studied at Princeton University before serving in the Navy during World War II and returned to the United States to graduate from the University of Georgia.