Mundell Lowe
Encyclopedia
Mundell Lowe is an American
jazz
guitar
ist.
Lowe was born in Laurel
, Mississippi
on 21 March 1922. In the 1930s he played country music
and Dixieland jazz
. He later played with big bands and orchestras, and on television in New York City
. In the 1960s, Lowe composed
music for films and television in New York City
and Los Angeles
. He has performed and/or recorded with Billie Holiday
, Lester Young
, Charlie Parker
, Helen Humes
, Roy Buchanan
, Charles Mingus
, Stan Getz
, Doc Severinsen
, Kai Winding
, Sarah Vaughan
, Carmen McRae
, Benny Carter
, Herb Ellis
, Tal Farlow
, Barry Manilow
, André Previn
, Ray Brown
, Kiri Te Kanawa
, Tete Montoliu
, Harry Belafonte
and others. Lowe is a regular featured performer at the annual W. C. Handy Music Festival
and a member of the W. C. Handy Jazz All-Stars
.
During the late 1970s and early 1980s Mr. Lowe was also a well-respected teacher at Dick Grove Music Workshop, later the Grove School of Music, in Studio City, California, one of the top professional level music schools in the world. He taught guitar as well as film scoring.
In 1998, he was inducted into the Mississippi Music Hall of Fame, and in 1999, Millsaps College in Jackson, conferred an honorary Doctorate of Arts on Mr. Lowe in recognition of his lifetime of outstanding musical accomplishments.
On July 17, 2009, Mundell Lowe returned home to Laurel, the city he ran away from in 1938. In recognition of a lifetime of musical achievement he was given a key to the city and honored by the Mayor, Melvin Mack, who proclaimed July 18, 2009, Mundell Lowe Day in Laurel. Mundell Lowe, Lloyd Wells, and Jim Ferguson presented a matinee show and an evening show at The Laurel Little Theatre to large enthusiastic audiences. Mississippi artists, Bill Clark (who produced the show), The Cee Jay's, Bob Saxton, and Staci Stringer also honored him through musical presentations.
With Benny Carter
With Charlie Parker
With Shirley Scott
With Sarah Vaughan
With Ben Webster
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
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...
guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
ist.
Lowe was born in Laurel
Laurel, Mississippi
Laurel is a city located in Jones County in Mississippi, a state of the United States of America. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 18,393 although a significant population increase has been reported following Hurricane Katrina. Located in southeast Mississippi, southeast of...
, Mississippi
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
on 21 March 1922. In the 1930s he played country music
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
and Dixieland jazz
Dixieland Jazz
Dixieland Jazz was a Canadian music television series which aired on CBC Television in 1954.-Premise:The series host was Trump Davidson, a cornet player. He also hosted a radio music series on CBC's Trans-Canada Network.-Scheduling:...
. He later played with big bands and orchestras, and on television in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. In the 1960s, Lowe composed
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
music for films and television in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
. He has performed and/or recorded with Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday was an American jazz singer and songwriter. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and musical partner Lester Young, Holiday had a seminal influence on jazz and pop singing...
, Lester Young
Lester Young
Lester Willis Young , nicknamed "Prez", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and clarinetist. He also played trumpet, violin, and drums....
, Charlie Parker
Charlie Parker
Charles Parker, Jr. , famously called Bird or Yardbird, was an American jazz saxophonist and composer....
, Helen Humes
Helen Humes
Helen Humes was an American jazz and blues singer.Humes was successively a teenaged blues singer, band vocalist with Count Basie, saucy R&B diva and a mature interpreter of the classy popular song.-Career:...
, Roy Buchanan
Roy Buchanan
Roy Buchanan was an American guitarist and blues musician. A pioneer of the Telecaster sound, Buchanan was a sideman and solo artist, with two gold albums early in his career, and two later solo albums that made it on to the Billboard chart. Despite never having achieved stardom, he is still...
, Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus Jr. was an American jazz musician, composer, bandleader, and civil rights activist.Mingus's compositions retained the hot and soulful feel of hard bop and drew heavily from black gospel music while sometimes drawing on elements of Third stream, free jazz, and classical music...
, Stan Getz
Stan Getz
Stanley Getz was an American jazz saxophone player. Getz was known as "The Sound" because of his warm, lyrical tone, his prime influence being the wispy, mellow timbre of his idol, Lester Young. Coming to prominence in the late 1940s with Woody Herman's big band, Getz is described by critic Scott...
, Doc Severinsen
Doc Severinsen
Carl Hilding "Doc" Severinsen is an American pop and jazz trumpeter. He is best known for leading the NBC Orchestra on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.-Early life:...
, Kai Winding
Kai Winding
Kai Chresten Winding was a popular Danish-born American trombonist and jazz composer. He is well known for a successful collaboration with fellow trombonist J. J. Johnson.-Biography:...
, Sarah Vaughan
Sarah Vaughan
Sarah Lois Vaughan was an American jazz singer, described by Scott Yanow as having "one of the most wondrous voices of the 20th century."...
, Carmen McRae
Carmen McRae
Carmen Mercedes McRae was an American jazz singer, composer, pianist, and actress. Considered one of the most influential jazz vocalists of the 20th century, it was her behind-the-beat phrasing and her ironic interpretations of song lyrics that made her memorable...
, Benny Carter
Benny Carter
Bennett Lester Carter was an American jazz alto saxophonist, clarinetist, trumpeter, composer, arranger, and bandleader. He was a major figure in jazz from the 1930s to the 1990s, and was recognized as such by other jazz musicians who called him King...
, Herb Ellis
Herb Ellis
Mitchell Herbert "Herb" Ellis was an American jazz guitarist. Perhaps best known for his 1950s membership in the trio of pianist Oscar Peterson, Ellis was also a staple of west-coast studio recording sessions, and was described by critic Scott Yanow as "an excellent bop-based guitarist with a...
, Tal Farlow
Tal Farlow
Talmage Holt Farlow was an American jazz guitarist. Nicknamed the "Octopus", Farlow's extremely large hands spread over the fretboard as if they were tentacles. He is considered one of the all-time great jazz guitarists. Michael G...
, Barry Manilow
Barry Manilow
Barry Manilow is an American singer-songwriter, musician, arranger, producer, conductor, and performer, best known for such recordings as "Could It Be Magic", "Mandy", "Can't Smile Without You", and "Copacabana ."...
, André Previn
André Previn
André George Previn, KBE is an American pianist, conductor, and composer. He is considered one of the most versatile musicians in the world, and is the winner of four Academy Awards for his film work and ten Grammy Awards for his recordings. -Early Life:Previn was born in...
, Ray Brown
Ray Brown (musician)
Raymond Matthews Brown was an American jazz double bassist.-Biography:Ray Brown was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and had piano lessons from the age of eight. After noticing how many pianists attended his high school, he thought of taking up the trombone, but was unable to afford one...
, Kiri Te Kanawa
Kiri Te Kanawa
Dame Kiri Jeanette Te Kanawa, ONZ, DBE, AC is a New Zealand / Māori soprano who has had a highly successful international opera career since 1968. Acclaimed as one of the most beloved sopranos in both the United States and Britain she possesses a warm full lyric soprano voice, singing a wide array...
, Tete Montoliu
Tete Montoliu
Tete Montoliu was a jazz pianist from Catalonia, Spain. His real name was Vicenç Montoliu i Massana.- Biography :He was born blind, in the Eixample district of Barcelona, and died in the same city....
, Harry Belafonte
Harry Belafonte
Harold George "Harry" Belafonte, Jr. is an American singer, songwriter, actor and social activist. He was dubbed the "King of Calypso" for popularizing the Caribbean musical style with an international audience in the 1950s...
and others. Lowe is a regular featured performer at the annual W. C. Handy Music Festival
W. C. Handy Music Festival
The W. C. Handy Music Festival is held annually in Florence, Alabama, sponsored by the Music Preservation Society, Inc., in honor of Florence native W. C...
and a member of the W. C. Handy Jazz All-Stars
W. C. Handy Jazz All-Stars
The W. C. Handy Jazz All-Stars is a group of jazz musicians who play annually at the W. C. Handy Music Festival in Florence, Alabama. During the last week of July each year, these musicians travel from all over the United States to gather in Florence and perform in various combinations...
.
During the late 1970s and early 1980s Mr. Lowe was also a well-respected teacher at Dick Grove Music Workshop, later the Grove School of Music, in Studio City, California, one of the top professional level music schools in the world. He taught guitar as well as film scoring.
In 1998, he was inducted into the Mississippi Music Hall of Fame, and in 1999, Millsaps College in Jackson, conferred an honorary Doctorate of Arts on Mr. Lowe in recognition of his lifetime of outstanding musical accomplishments.
On July 17, 2009, Mundell Lowe returned home to Laurel, the city he ran away from in 1938. In recognition of a lifetime of musical achievement he was given a key to the city and honored by the Mayor, Melvin Mack, who proclaimed July 18, 2009, Mundell Lowe Day in Laurel. Mundell Lowe, Lloyd Wells, and Jim Ferguson presented a matinee show and an evening show at The Laurel Little Theatre to large enthusiastic audiences. Mississippi artists, Bill Clark (who produced the show), The Cee Jay's, Bob Saxton, and Staci Stringer also honored him through musical presentations.
As leader
- 1955: The Mundell Lowe Quartet (Riverside/OJC)
- 1957: A Grand Night For Swinging (Riverside/OJC)
- 1957: Blues For Tomorrow (Sampler with Lowe, Eat Coast All Stars, Sonny Rollins, Bobby Jaspar, OJC)
- 1959: Mundell Lowe & His All Stars: TV Action Jazz (Fresh Sound Rec.) with Donald Byrd, Jimmy Cleveland, Herbie Mann, Tony Scott, Eddie Costa
- 1977: Souvenirs (Jazz Alliance, 1977–92)
- 1978: The Incomparable (Dobre Records)
- 1989: Sweet ‘n’ Lovely (Fresh Sound Records) with Tete MontoliuTete MontoliuTete Montoliu was a jazz pianist from Catalonia, Spain. His real name was Vicenç Montoliu i Massana.- Biography :He was born blind, in the Eixample district of Barcelona, and died in the same city....
- 2000: Mundell’s Moods (Nagel-Heyer)
As co-leader
- 1996: The Return of the Great Guitars (with Charlie ByrdCharlie ByrdCharlie Lee Byrd was a famous and versatile American guitarist born in Suffolk, Virginia. His earliest and strongest musical influence was Django Reinhardt, the famous gypsy guitarist. Byrd became the American guitarist who best understood and played Brazilian music, especially the Bossa Nova genre...
and Herb EllisHerb EllisMitchell Herbert "Herb" Ellis was an American jazz guitarist. Perhaps best known for his 1950s membership in the trio of pianist Oscar Peterson, Ellis was also a staple of west-coast studio recording sessions, and was described by critic Scott Yanow as "an excellent bop-based guitarist with a...
) - (Concord)
As sideman
With André PrevinAndré Previn
André George Previn, KBE is an American pianist, conductor, and composer. He is considered one of the most versatile musicians in the world, and is the winner of four Academy Awards for his film work and ten Grammy Awards for his recordings. -Early Life:Previn was born in...
- UptownUptown (album)-Track listing:# "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" # "A Sleepin' Bee" # "Come Rain or Come Shine" # "Stormy Weather" # "Over The Rainbow" # "Let's Fall in Love" # "Day Dream / Prelude to a Kiss"...
(1990) - Old FriendsOld Friends (Previn album)-Track listing:# "But Not For Me" - 7:40# "Stars Fell on Alabama" - 5:46# "Stompin' at the Savoy" - 6:30# "Medley: Darn That Dream / Here's That Rainy Day / Polka Dots and Moonbeams" - 9:09 # "One O'Clock Jump" - 6:24# "Topsy" - 4:56...
(1992) - Kiri Sidetracks: The Jazz AlbumKiri Sidetracks: The Jazz AlbumKiri Sidetracks: The Jazz Album is a 1992 jazz album by André Previn trio and soprano Kiri Te Kanawa.-Track listing:# "A Sleepin' Bee" - 3:55# "Honeysuckle Rose" - 5:06# "Cute" - 3:02# "It Could Happen to You" - 2:44# "Like Someone in Love" - 4:40...
(1992)
With Benny Carter
Benny Carter
Bennett Lester Carter was an American jazz alto saxophonist, clarinetist, trumpeter, composer, arranger, and bandleader. He was a major figure in jazz from the 1930s to the 1990s, and was recognized as such by other jazz musicians who called him King...
- Further DefinitionsFurther DefinitionsFurther Definitions is a jazz album by Benny Carter and his orchestra, rereleased on CD in 1997 coupled with his follow-up album, the 1966 Additions to Further Definitions...
(Impulse!, 1961–66) - Live And Well in Japan (OJC, 1977)
With Charlie Parker
Charlie Parker
Charles Parker, Jr. , famously called Bird or Yardbird, was an American jazz saxophonist and composer....
- The Legendary Rockland Palace Concert, Volume 1 (Jazz Classics, 1952)
With Shirley Scott
Shirley Scott
Shirley Scott was an American hard bop and soul-jazz organist. She was most known for working with her husband, Stanley Turrentine, and with Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis...
- For Members OnlyFor Members OnlyFor Members Only is an album by American jazz organist Shirley Scott recorded in 1963 for the Impulse! label.-Reception:The Allmusic review awarded the album 4½ stars.-Track listing:# "Southern Comfort" — 5:40...
(Impulse!, 1963)
With Sarah Vaughan
Sarah Vaughan
Sarah Lois Vaughan was an American jazz singer, described by Scott Yanow as having "one of the most wondrous voices of the 20th century."...
- After HoursAfter Hours (Sarah Vaughan album)After Hours is a 1961 studio album by American jazz singer Sarah Vaughan.This was Vaughan's first album with just guitar and double bass accompaniment, it was followed by 1963's Sarah + 2 in a similar vein.- Reception :...
(Roulette, 1961) with George DuvivierGeorge DuvivierGeorge Duvivier was an American jazz double-bass player.Duvivier was born in New York City and took up the cello and also the violin while in high school before settling on the bass. He also learned composition and scoring before going out on the road with Lucky Millinder and then with the Cab...
With Ben Webster
Ben Webster
Benjamin Francis Webster , a.k.a. "The Brute" or "Frog," was an influential American jazz tenor saxophonist. Webster, born in Kansas City, Missouri, was considered one of the three most important "swing tenors" along with Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young...
- The Soul Of Ben Webster (Verve, 1957–58)