Allan Praskin

Allan Conrad Praskin
Allan Praskin, 2010
Background information
Born	(1948-12-17) December 17, 1948 (age 68) Los Angeles, United States
Genres	Jazz
Occupation(s)	Musician
Instruments	alto saxophone
Associated acts	George Morrow, Clifford Brown, Bobby Hutcherson, J. R. Monterose, Harold Land, Sunny Murray, Beaver Harris, Sam Rivers, Gunter Hampel, Barbara Dennerlein, Özay Fecht, Fritz Pauer, Branislav Lala Kovačev, Warne Marsh, Hans Koller, Wolfgang Köhler, Larry Porter

Allan Conrad Praskin (December 17, 1948 in Los Angeles) is an American jazz musician (alto saxophone player, composer and bandleader). He is living in Europe for more than 30 years.

Praskin had clarinette lessons, when he was very young. But very soon, he acquainted with jazz through the collection of his father's records, which induced him finally to change his main instrument to alto saxophone. He had his first practical experience of improvised music, when he was a teenager in his home city, Los Angeles, where the jazz scene was very lively in that time. In that time, he was acquainted with the modern jazz under George Morrow's aegis (the bass player in the Clifford Brown/Max Roach quintet). During his lessons under Morrow, he got to know the other prominent musician, who lived in California like Bobby Hutcherson, J. R. Monterose and Harold Land, whom he worked also with.

At the end of 60s in the important phase of the Vietnam war, Praskin was conscripted into the army, but he was sent to Korea and not to Indochina. During his short stay in Tokyo in 1967, his first LP record, Encounter, was published.

As a result, in this time, he came in contact with the flourishing free jazz scene of New York City. He makes a name for himself very soon among the avant-gardes in the metro-pole through jam sessions and recordings with leading musicians like Sunny Murray, Beaver Harris and Sam Rivers.