Archie Alleyne was a Canadian drummer who performed with Billie Holiday, Lester Young, Stan Getz, Coleman Hawkins, and Ben Webster. Alleyne, born on 7 January 1933 in Toronto, Ontario, influenced the Toronto jazz scene. While growing up in Toronto’s Kensington Market neighborhood, he learned to play the drums at a young age. In the 1950s, he began his career on the drums at the Town Tavern, a local jazz bar. He also performed in local studios and toured North America with jazz bands led by Ron Collier, Don Thompson, and others.

During a musical break following a vehicle accident, he dabbled in the food industry, becoming a partner in Toronto’s soul food restaurant, The Underground Railroad. The restaurant is still regarded as a trailblazer for the Toronto restaurant scene, as it was black-owned and served soul cuisine, which was unusual in Toronto then.

In the 1980s, he returned to music, forming a quartet with vibraphonist Frank Wright. During this period, Alleyne became dissatisfied with Canada’s lack of financing for jazz music, which stifled its growth. He petitioned the Canadian Council for the Arts, which excluded the genre from recording funding. He rallied several prominent Canadians to join him in ending this discriminatory practice. Alleyne issued a second call to action in response to the scarcity of black artists at the Toronto Jazz Festival. While maintaining a lucrative playing career, he continued to work to advance jazz and black artists.

In 2012, he was appointed to the Order of Canada. He also founded the Archie Alleyne Scholarship Fund to grant scholarships to music students. He then co-wrote Colour Me Jazz: The Archie Alleyne Story with Sheldon Taylor. This autobiography chronicles his family background and a cultural look at Toronto’s music history via a racial lens.