Trumpeter Shamarr Allen of New Orleans joined KGNU’s D Rider for a studio session. Shamarr shared his musical journey, which began at age seven. He discussed his evolving sound, blending traditional New Orleans music with modern pop structures on his albums (Interview date: 9/24/2024)
D Rider: In the studio live, we have straight from New Orleans, the great trumpeter, Shamarr Allen.
Shamarr Allen: What’s going on, brother?
D Rider: Welcome to KGNU.
Shamarr Allen: Thanks for having me.
D Rider: And before we get into it, I don’t want to wait anymore. Can you give us a tune?
Shamarr Allen: I got you.
D Rider: Shamarr Allen, welcome to KGNU. Shamarr is continuing the dynasty of great trumpet players coming out of New Orleans, way back Preservation Hall, Louis Armstrong, etc.
Shamarr Allen: Yes, sir.
D Rider: Kind of fitting that mold.
Shamarr Allen: You think so? I got some big shoes to fill.
D Rider: There is a video that just came out, and maybe you can tell us. It’s in front of Louis Armstrong’s statue on Congo Square in New Orleans, and tell us what you’re playing on that one.
Shamarr Allen: So there’s this new AI thing that came out. It’s a music program. Any time innovative things come along that allow me to do things that I haven’t been able to do musically that I always wanted to do, I take that time to use it. There’s this AI program that allows you to remove vocals from old songs and use those vocals. There’s another program that I could use to line up the vocals perfectly, So I did a song with Louis Armstrong.
D Rider: I gotta say both of you sounded good. You’ve put out a number of albums and you’ve been playing. If somebody came up to you, they’d say, okay, he’s a new guy in town, but you’ve been around for quite some time. When did you actually start playing?
Shamarr Allen: I started playing trumpet when I was seven years old. I got my first professional gig at a French Quarter Festival with Tuba Fats at the age of 14. So from 14 on is when I started making my way as a professional musician.
D Rider: Alright, so still learning.
Shamarr Allen: Yeah, still learning. I’ve been playing trumpet for over 30 years, man.
D Rider: If people haven’t seen you, you’ve got a tiny trumpet.
Shamarr Allen: Pocket trumpet.
D Rider: Pocket trumpet. Tell the folks what that is.
Shamarr Allen: So it’s basically the same thing as a trumpet, except the tubing is turned a couple extra times to make it look more compact. So it’s the same amount of pipe tubing as any other trumpet, but it’s just turned a couple times. It’s B flat, there’s nothing different about it.
D Rider: Yeah, when I saw that, I thought, okay, he got something out of a Cracker Jack box. It’s less than half the size, I think, of a regular trumpet, right?
Shamarr Allen: Yeah, length wise, yes. But same tubing.
D Rider: First, I wanted to talk about a song that came out a couple of years ago that I’ve played. “Hit the Sean Payton”.
Shamarr Allen: Yeah, y’all have our coach now, man.
D Rider: Yeah, you’re here in Denver/Boulder, and so is he.
Shamarr Allen: It’s a cool thing to see. I like Denver, so I have a lot of friends here. I’ve come here during my days of touring with Hot 8 and Rebirth, so this is almost like my second home a little bit. So I come here a lot. For Denver to have him, I’m cool with that. He brought a Super Bowl to our city. So for us as Saints fans, that’s pretty much the most important thing.
D Rider: Yeah. New Orleans, as if it wasn’t hopping enough, then you go to the Super Bowl right after Katrina. It was like, God, this is a storybook.
Shamarr Allen: Yeah. They needed it. We needed it. The Saints are probably the most important thing. When the Saints are doing well, the city is calm. Everybody’s happy. When the Saints are doing bad it’s like, I’m staying inside. I don’t want to go anywhere. The Saints are like the heartbeat of New Orleans during football season.
D Rider: I wanted to talk about a couple recent albums. The True Orleans album, which I thought had a lot more trumpet solos. True Orleans 2, to me you do a lot more singing.
Shamarr Allen: Yes.
D Rider: I’ve seen you at the Dairy Center here in Boulder and down in Denver, we’re fortunate that you like coming to Colorado, especially Denver and Boulder here. What you just sang is the same melody that is on a lot of the tunes on True Orleans 2.
Shamarr Allen: That song was actually the lead single off of True Orleans 2, “Dance With Me”.
D Rider: Okay.
Shamarr Allen: I understand New Orleans music to the fullest. I’ve been around it, been immersed in it since I was a child, so I understand that. But I’ve also gotten to tour with some serious songwriters and producers and work with a lot of great performers over the span of my career. So I’ve learned to take the New Orleans thing and turn it into more song structure because New Orleans music doesn’t necessarily have pop music structure to it. I’ve decided to take that music and give it more structure than it would usually have and make songs and put hooks in the right places as if it was a song being played in rotation on somebody’s radio station, which is why I approach it the way that I do.
So True Orleans 2 is my interpretation of what New Orleans music probably should be if it was not stuck in the past a little bit. New Orleans is one of those places where, to me, as a musician that has lived in it, it’s like forcing the tradition of being stuck in one place forever. Really, jazz in general, if you get on Spotify and you look at the top 10 songs of what’s going on right now, Miles Davis and Louis Armstrong remastered albums are still number one on the charts, so nothing about it is changing, which kind of makes it a little weird for me to want to continue to do the same thing when I’m competing with somebody from 50 years ago. So it’s telling me that the evolution of it is not being pushed forward as much as it should be. That’s where I come in and add my own little seasoning to it and sprinkle some of that New Orleans fun on it and make sure that everybody has a good time while trying to push the music into another direction. So that’s what True Orleans 2 is.
D Rider: Oh, yeah, I really like the tunes on that album. It just came out last year. Before we talk some more, how about giving us another tune of New Orleans interpretive music.
Shamarr Allen: I gotcha. So this one is called “H. A. F.” I have a little son. He talks to me in acronyms a lot and text messages. So when I text him back and forth, I just sent him this random one that he didn’t know what it meant, so I got him. I wrote a song about it and it goes like this.
D Rider: All right. Shamarr, you’re going to be tonight at the Roots Music Project here in Boulder.
Shamarr Allen: Yes, sir. Don’t miss that party.
D Rider: Why don’t you let us know who’s in the band sounding so good out there?
Shamarr Allen: On the guitar, which you just heard on the solo, that’s Daniel Edwards but all his friends call him Timmy Two Pistols. Y’all make some noise for Timmy. In the back on the drums, holding the groove down, the ladies call him the teddy bear. Y’all make some noise for Big Merv on the drums. Over here on the bass, the gamer of the band. If you play Playstation, Call of Duty, Madden, 2K, his gamer name is Javi Lobby. Y’all make some noise for Javier Mateo on the bass y’all.
D Rider: Like I said, you’re gonna be here in Boulder at the Roots Music Project starting at 8 p.m. And if before we go on to where you’re going from there, why don’t you tell us about what you’re playing right now? You have a new signature trumpet?
Shamarr Allen: What I’m playing right now, because nobody can see me, is the first trumpet I bought myself. I pulled out my full size trumpet, which is now in a museum in New Orleans, because I have a ton of signatures on it. So when I pulled that one out, I pulled this one out.
It’s a Selmer 80j. This is a rare trumpet. Now it’s rare, you can’t really find them. I just decided to play it for a little bit and reminisce a little bit. That’s what I’m going to do.
D Rider: Okay. But the people that show up, we’re going to see you play the pocket trumpet also.
Shamarr Allen: Yes, sir. That’s what they’ll see me play. I play both. I’m playing both of them in this room, but yeah, I’ll have it with me.
D Rider: You said you’d like to come to Colorado, so you’re going to play tonight at the Roots Music Project, and then this weekend, heading out to the west side. Hotchkiss, you’re going to be at Big B’s Orchard Fest. And after that, the next day at Dolores River brewery.
Shamarr Allen: Yes, sir. Two places I like to go, Paonia and Dolores, Colorado.
D Rider: There’s one place we like you to be and that’s in Boulder and Denver. And then heading back back home to do the NOLA Fried Chicken Fest. I haven’t been to that one.
Shamarr Allen: When you come, don’t eat for three days. And then just digest as much as you can when you get there, because there’s some amazing food, some amazing chicken, and some amazing vibes.
D Rider: If you ever go down to New Orleans, it’s the music and the food. You gotta experience both.
Shamarr Allen: You got to experience them together. It’s even better.
D Rider: Yeah. Shamarr, can you give us one more tune to go out with here?
Shamarr Allen: Okay. This one is called “Ruin My Day”, and it’s dedicated to anything or anybody that has ever tried to ruin your day.
D Rider: We’ve been listening to Shamarr Allen. And thank you so much for stopping by KGNU.
Shamarr Allen: Thanks for having us.
