Pianist Alan Logan

I have referred previously, in this space, to pianist Alan Logan. 

His lengthy musical career included performing in the big band era, and in early television.  Through the years he released many records, and performed at New York hotels, nightspots, and other venues.

He died in 2021, at age 97.  Last Monday was the second anniversary of his death.

We first met, by telephone, when I interviewed him in the early 1980s; this was a few years after I had begun researching the period of early television.  Alan and my mother, singer Sue Bennett, had performed together on a weeknight musical show on the DuMont Television Network, in 1949. I spoke with him, in the 1980s, about the program.

In 2002, I moved to northern New Jersey, to host a radio show.  The town I moved to was about a half-hour from Alan's home.  In the ensuing years we became good friends. 

Over time, we had innumerable, very enjoyable conversations, often on the phone, about music.  We talked about songs, composers, performers. We spoke in particular about the American songbook of the 1930s, '40s, and '50s, songs he had been playing for decades.  He spoke often, too, of his affection for classical music. 

Alan was born in 1923 in Brooklyn, and grew up there.  He moved from New York to northern New Jersey in the early 1970s.

His given name was Abraham Login, and in the early years of his musical career, he used the name Abe Login, professionally.

For part of the 1940s, he had been the pianist with the Louis Prima orchestra, and then with Charlie Spivak's band.  

Here is a recording of the song "Brooklyn Boogie," by Prima's band, and featuring Prima's vocal at the outset. The song, for which Alan was the pianist, was recorded in March of 1945.

https://soundcloud.com/user-615710337/louis-prima-orchestra-brooklyn-boogie-1945

Alan Logan, publicity photo, date unknown

Here, too, is an excerpt from a radio broadcast of Prima's orchestra (circa 1944), in which the band plays the song "Together."  The announcer, in his introduction, notes that the number "features the nimble fingers of Abe Login, at the piano." 

The performance includes a fine piano solo (from 1:15 to 1:57):

https://soundcloud.com/user-615710337/the-song-together-by-the-louis-prima-orchestra-circa-1944

In late 1947 and early 1948, Alan released his own recordings, on the National Records label; by this time (see the advertisement, below) he was using the name Alan Logan, as his stage name.  In the spring of 1948, his Alan Logan Quartet appeared on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts radio show. The Quartet won that evening's competition.  

Billboard Magazine ad, National Records, 1948

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Later in 1948, the Alan Logan Trio began appearing on television. 

The Trio became part of a program hosted by the longtime New York disc jockey Stan Shaw. The nighttime show, Record Rendezvous, aired on New York TV station WPIX.  

In November of 1948, Stan Shaw joined New York's WABD-TV, the flagship station of the DuMont Network; his Stan Shaw Show was a weekday musical program, and featured the Logan Trio.

In January of 1949, The Stan Shaw Show broadened its reach, beyond WABD; it became a DuMont Network show.

My mother (known at the time as Sue Benjamin) joined the program the same month.  She had come to the show at the suggestion of actress and singer Virginia Oswald; they had both been cast members of a Broadway musical revue, Small Wonder, which had closed that month. Ms. Oswald was appearing on Stan Shaw's TV show; she told my mother the show was looking for an additional singer.  My mother auditioned for the program--by making an appearance on it--and then joined the show's cast, which also included the widely-known big band singer Jack Leonard.  Mr. Leonard had gained great fame as a vocalist with Tommy Dorsey's orchestra; in 1937 he recorded one of the band's best-known records, "Marie."  When Mr. Leonard later left the orchestra, he was replaced by Frank Sinatra.

In March of 1949, Stan Shaw's program went off the air. The Logan Trio, and my mother, as vocalist, were then featured on a new DuMont program, the dinnertime show Teen Time Tunes. (Despite the title, the program was not specifically geared to teenagers; the songs performed were by the likes of George Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Rodgers & Hart, and Cole Porter.)

During one of my visits to Alan's house, perhaps a decade ago, I took a picture of a photograph hanging in one of the rooms. It was a photo of Alan, his Trio, and my mother, performing in 1949 on Teen Time Tunes.  A few weeks after the show began airing, my mother had turned twenty-one.  Alan was twenty-five. 

Sue Benjamin & Al Chernet, DuMont Network

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The photograph was only the second I'd seen of the show;  the other was the picture my mother had saved. The picture she had was only a partial view of the program: in it, she is seen singing near the Trio's guitarist, Al Chernet.

In Alan's picture, one sees all of the program's performers, as well as the entirety of the show's set. (Though it is hard, really, to call it a set; it was a small, confined space, in a large room at the DuMont Network's headquarters in Manhattan. There were additional such spaces, in the room, for other programs on the network's schedule.) 

DuMont Network photo, from collection of Alan Logan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The photograph shows Alan, at the piano; bassist Sandy Block, next to the piano; guitarist Al Chernet; and my mother.  One also sees a TV camera, and the cameraman operating it; there are two other technicians in the foreground; and a boom microphone is positioned above my mother, as she sings.  The two pictures--the one my mother had, and Alan's--appear to have been taken the same day; my mother is wearing the same outfit in each.

After Teen Time Tunes left the air in July of 1949, the Logan Trio appeared on another DuMont program, a viewer participation/game show, Spin the Picture.

Through the years, Alan recorded for various record labels--MGM, RCA, Coral, and others.  He performed at nightclubs, and at such venues as the popular New York restaurant "Sign of the Dove." He also had engagements at hotels (including the Cotillion Room of New York's Hotel Pierre, where he appeared frequently in the 1950s). 

Here, from an extended-play MGM record he released in 1955, is the record's title song, "Caribbean Caprice."

https://archive.org/details/78_caribbean-caprice_alan-logan-stevens_gbia0022397a/Caribbean+Caprice

Alan Logan record cover, MGM, 1955

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In 1971 he released a recording of the song "Yesterday I Heard the Rain," on RCA Records; the song's producer was Sandy Block, who had been the Logan Trio's bassist on Teen Time Tunes. "Yesterday I Heard the Rain" was played often on New York radio.

For many years, until 2007, his piano playing was featured at New York City's Harvard Club.  He also appeared regularly at private events.

Alan was an exceptionally talented musician.  He was also a very funny, kind, and always interesting man.  It was my very good fortune to have been one of his friends.