Allard, Joe (Joseph A.)
Allard, Joe (Joseph A.)
Allard, Joe (Joseph A.), saxophone teacher; b. Lowell, Mass., Dec. 31, 1910; d. 1991. Allard enjoyed legendary status as an educator. He studied clarinet at the New England Cons., took saxophone lessons from Rudy Wiedoeft, and played alto saxophone with Red Nichols before settling in N.Y. in the late 1930s. He was bass clarinetist with Arturo Toscanini and The NBC Sym. and played first clarinet on Bell Telephone and Dupont radio shows. A saxophonist with the N.Y. Philharmonic in the 1940s, Allard also worked for many years in the Radio City Music Hall Orch. He taught for many years at Juilliard, the Manhattan School of Music, and the New England Cons. And specialized in teaching how to hear the sounds before one plays them—well into the altissimo registers, which he was able to demonstrate awesomely and without warming up—and how to develop a personal tone. His students included Dave Liebman, Michael Brecker, Bob Berg, Pepper Adams, Eddie Daniels, Paul Winter, Dave Tofani, Kenneth Radnofsky, Harvey Pittel, Roger Greenburg, Paul Cohen, and David Demsey. His students, led by Radnofsky, commissioned Gunther Schuller’s saxophone Concerto (premiered January 1984), which is dedicated to Allard in honor of his 75th birthday
—Lewis Porter/David Demsey