Dick Allen, 80; jazz historian archived musicians’ oral histories

Dick Allen, 80, a jazz historian who founded a premier collection of oral histories of traditional jazz at Tulane University, died Thursday at the Veterans Memorial Hospital in Dublin, Ga. The cause of death was heart failure, said Betty Smith, his sister.

“In a town that enshrines and cherishes characters, Dick was one of the great ones,” said Robert H. Patterson, who worked with Allen at Tulane University’s Hogan Jazz Archive.

In the mid-1950s, Allen and Bill Russell began recording interviews with traditional jazz musicians. The collection grew into the Hogan archive, which Allen helped curate from 1958 to 1980.

Allen was born Jan. 29, 1927, near Milledgeville, Ga. He attended Princeton University before serving in the Navy during World War II and returned to the United States to graduate from the University of Georgia. A trombonist, Allen was among the founders of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.