Growing up in the Kensington Market area of Toronto in the 1930s & 40s, Archie Alleyne taught himself the drums.  By the early 1950s, he was the house drummer at the Town Tavern, a legendary Toronto jazz club.  At the Town Tavern,  he played with legends like Billie Holiday, Lester Young, Stan Getz, Coleman Hawkins and Ben Webster.  He would go on to tour the world with pianist Oliver Jones, make numerous records as a sideman (notably with Junior Mance) and release several critically acclaimed albums as a leader.  He became Toronto's elder statesman of jazz, named as an officer of the Order Of Canada in 2012.