Charlie Allen was an American jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 trumpeter.

Allen grew up in Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

, and began playing in the early 1920s just out of high school

High school

High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....

. He was a member of the bands of Hugh Swift (1925), Dave Peyton

Dave Peyton

Dave Peyton was an Americansongwriter, pianist, and arranger.Peyton first began as a pianist in the trio of Wilbur Sweatman, where he played from 1908 to 1912. Following this Peyton led his own ensembles in various theaters in Chicago...

 (1927), Doc Cook

Doc Cook

Charles L. Cooke was an American jazz bandleader and arranger, who performed and recorded under the stage name Doc Cook...

 (1927), Clifford King (1928), and Johnny Long

Johnny Long (musician)

Johnny Long was an American violinist and bandleader, known as "The Man Who's Long on Music". He was raised on a farm in Newell, North Carolina, currently a subdivision of Charlotte. He started practicing with the violin at the age of six, but injured two fingers on his left hand when he was...

. Allen worked with Earl Hines

Earl Hines

Earl Kenneth Hines, universally known as Earl "Fatha" Hines, was an American jazz pianist. Hines was one of the most influential figures in the development of modern jazz piano and, according to one source, is "one of a small number of pianists whose playing shaped the history of jazz".-Early...

 from 1931 to 1934, then did a short stint in Duke Ellington

Duke Ellington

Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...

's orchestra in 1935, though he never recorded any solos with Ellington. He played with Fletcher Butler in 1936 and then returned to play with Hines again in 1937.

Allen played in various groups in Chicago in the 1940s and 1950s. Later in his life he became a music educator, worked in the Chicago Musicians' Union, and designed custom trumpet mouthpieces (used by Cat Anderson, among others).