Allan Vache

Allan Vache was graduated from Roosevelt Elementary School, Rahway Junior High School, and Rahway High School, Rahway, New Jersey 1959-1971. He also attended Jersey City State College, Jersey City, New Jersey 1971-1975. At this time he studied with David Dworkin of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, and independently with famed jazz artist Kenny Davern.

From 1972-1975 Allan also performed many professional engagements with such jazz greats as Bobby Hackett, Wild Bill Davison, Pee Wee Erwin, Gene Krupa, Dick Hyman, Max Kaminsky, Clark Terry, Dick Wellstood, Ed Hubble, Cliff Leeman, Bob Haggart, Jack Lesberg, and many others. He also made numerous appearances with his brother, famed jazz cornetist Warren Vache, Jr. From 1974-1975 Allan appeared in the Broadway musical "Doctor Jazz" at the Winter Garden theater, starring Bobby Van and Lola Falana. He performed with a band that appeared onstage, and Luther Henderson and Dick Hyman wrote instrumental arrangements.

In late 1975 Allan joined "The Jim Cullum Jazz Band" of San Antonio, Texas, formerly "The Happy Jazz Band." He traveled extensively with this band to Europe, Australia, and Mexico, as well as to many concert and festival appearances throughout the U.S. He has recorded nine albums and compact discs with this band, including the only jazz CD of the entire score of Gershwin’s "Porgy and Bess," released on CBS Masterworks records. Concerts of "Porgy & Bess," many featuring opera great William Warfield as narrator, were performed by Vache and the band throughout the Western hemisphere, including The Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., and "The Cervantino Arts Festival" in Mexico City, for the U.S. State Department.

Allan has appeared in several "World Series of Jazz" concerts in San Antonio. These concerts featured the "Cullum" band alongside such jazz luminaries as Benny Goodman, Pete Fountain, Joe Venuti, Teddy Wilson, Scott Hamilton, Bob Wilber, and many others. Allan appeared with Jim Cullum at Carnegie Hall at the "Tribute to Turk Murphy" concert in January 1987. He has also performed with Culllum on the CBS Morning News, and PBS television show "Austin City Limits." He also performed on NPR’s "A Prairie Home Companion" with Garrison Keillor, and was a regular performer on PRI’s "Riverwalk" Live from the Landing," from 1987-1992. This program aired on over 200 public radio stations in the U.S. and abroad. Many of these shows are still rebroadcast today.

In the summer of 1992 Allan left San Antonio to pursue a free lance career. Since that time he has appeared as a solo performer at several jazz festivals and parties around the country and abroad. He has appeared with pop performers Bonnie Rait and Leon Redbone and can be heard on the soundtrack of the 1998 film “The Newton Boys”.

In 1993 he moved to Orlando, Florida to perform at various Orlando attractions including Walt Disney World and Church Street Station. Vache has numerous recordings to his credit, several under his own name, for various labels. These include Audiophile, Jazzology, Arbors, and Nagel-Heyer, of Hamburg, Germany. Vache has presently recorded twelve CDs for this label, six of these as the leader. His latest CD’s are “Ballads, Burners & Blues”, released in March of 2004, which includes his wife, Vanessa Vache’, on clarinet, as a special guest, and “With Benny in Mind”, a tribute to Benny Goodman, released in April of 2007. Both for the Arbors label.

Having toured in Germany, Austria, England, Scotland, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Switzerland, France, and Israel, Allan continues to work as a freelance artist in the Orlando area as well as appearing at many concerts and festivals in the U.S. and around the world.

Gear

Yamaha YCL - Custom "v" Model