Sad news today that Laurie Allyn passed away. Her daughter Carrie Pierce posted the news yesterday that her mother fought like a champion after battling cancer.

David Gasten introduced me to her music many years ago and her story was fascinating

Thanks to David Gasten,Producer of the This Is Vintage Now Series, provided further info on the Laurie Allyn Story we brought you on the Cocktail Nation. Briefly the story was that Laurie Allyn had her break with a contract with Mode Records but that was sadly short lived.

Fortunately she was re discovered many decades later. As David Gasten explained:

“Mode Records existed briefly in 1957-58, recording albums at the famous Radio Recorders recording studio in Los Angeles from June through October of 1957 before running out of money and not being able to pay for the sessions of their own recordings or even pay their session musicians. One musician tipped them off to the local musicians union, an act which effectively snuffed their ability to record anything more.  The Mode masters were bought out by Tampa Records, who were able to sell the Mode albums as budget albums in department stores.  Mode’s and Tampa’s catalogues were then bought out by a record pressing plant that went bankrupt in the early 1980’s.  By this time the word had gotten out on the high quality of the music in these labels’ catalogues, and they landed in good hands—those of VSOP Records  an independent label who jumped at the opportunity to market these esteemed albums to the jazz collector audience.  VSOP have steadily kept the Mode and Tampa albums in stock over the years, and have done excellent mastering work on them that makes them sound like they were recorded yesterday.”

It’s a sad day for music but so wonderful that she received the recognition she deserved, albeit many years later . You can hear the interview I did with her by clicking on this link

https://cocktailnation.podbean.com/e/cocktail-nation-twilight-show-laurie-allyn/