The name comes from Greek. Allotrios means strange or peculiar; in Bavarian it became der Unfug. The term goes directly back to a Munich jazz club. Its landlord, Hermann Kügler, wanted a house band, so Gerhard Vohwinkel founded the Allotria Stompers in 1969, which later became the Allotria Jazz Band. It first played as the house band at the Allotria in the Maxvorstadt and later, until the mid-1980s, weekly at the Schwabinger Podium.
Recording contracts followed early, first with Ariola, later with Bellaphon. In 1972 the band made a guest appearance in the crime series „Der Kommissar“, and a gold record followed in 1989. For many years Charly Antolini, one of the best-known German jazz drummers, sat behind the drum kit. Since 1981, the band has toured North America, more than thirty times through the USA and Canada.
A special feature of the front line shapes the band’s sound. Four horn players stand up front, including two trumpets. This harks back to King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band with its two cornets and, in the band’s own arrangements, extends to the small swing ensembles around Benny Goodman. The four-part horn writing allows voicings that a conventional three-man front line cannot produce and sounds like a pocket-sized big band.
Today Rainer Sander leads the septet and plays clarinet and alto saxophone. Colin T. Dawson on trumpet and vocals and Andrey Lobanov on second trumpet form the trumpet pair, while Markus Krämer plays trombone. The rhythm section consists of Thilo Wagner on piano, Peter Cischeck on double bass and Gregor Beck on drums.
The Allotria has performed with guests such as Wild Bill Davison, Peanuts Hucko, Trummy Young, Ralph Sutton and Warren Vaché, musicians from the circles around Armstrong, Goodman and Condon. Part of Munich’s tradition are the New Year concerts the band gave at the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz and later at the Künstlerhaus am Lenbachplatz.
The band’s trademark is still called "The Fine Notes Of Classic Jazz" today. If you want to know what that means, listen for the moments when the two trumpets are led in parallel. Then, for a few bars, Munich sounds like Chicago in 1923.