MUNDELL LOWE
GUITARIST
BORN IN LAUREL, Mississippi, Mundell left home at the age of thirteen. After working in Nashville, he found his way to Bourbon Street in New Orleans and the beginning of his jazz career. While serving in World War Il, he met the influential John Hammond, who introduced him to Ray McKinley. Mundell worked with McKinley’s band for a year and a half, developing his distinctive instrumental style, and then moved on to work in New York at Café Society and stints at the Village Vanguard and The Embers, among others. Mundell worked with Billie Holiday, Lester Young, Charlie Parker, Helen Humes and Charles Mingus, to name but a few. These gigs overlapped with an early morning TV show at NBC with Cy Coleman, “A Date in Manhattan,” and later “The Kate Smith Hour” with Stan Gee, Doc Severinsen, and Kai Winding.
FROM THE EARLY FIFTIES to the mid-Sixties, he was an active performer, working with George Duvivier on bass and Ed Shaughnessy on drums in Dave Garroway’s “Today Show” studio band. He also played with the extraordinary pianist Hank Jones when they both worked in the NBC and CBS orchestras of the early Fifties. After seventeen years at NBC as a guitarist and arranger, Lowe was transferred to the News and Special Events Department to work as a composer.
MUNDELL MOVED TO LOS ANGELES, California, Christmas 1965—actually, he left to visit some friends, and never went back to New York! He met Jackie Cooper, then-head of Screen Gems, and began the West Coast phase of his career composing music for some of their television and film properties. Lowe augmented his TV and film work with making his own LPs as well as two successful projects with noted singers Sarah Vaughan (‘After Hours”) and Carmen McRae (‘Bittersweet”).
EVEN THOUGH HE HAD made special appearances with Peggy Lee and the White House, toured Japan with Benny Carter several times, and was a regular performer at the Monterey Jazz Festival, Mundell found he was spending more time writing than playing, which he found frustrating. He made up his mind to turn that around and, during the 1980s, he stepped out of the studio world of film and television and returned to performing, the first love of his long and rich musical career.
MUNDELL'S CURRENT SCHEDULE is no less active. In the last few years he has traveled the globe as a concert performer, worked the States with his own quintet, and has made several trips to New York to work with Ron Carter, Al Foster, Bill Mays, and Ray Drummond. He tours with the André Previn Trio (composed of Previn, Ray Brown, and Lowe), as well as the Great Guitars with Charlie Byrd, Herb Ellis, and Tal Farlow. Mundell also has been busy in recording studios lately, having recorded two albums for Telarc with the André Previn Trio, one for Phillips with Kiri Te Kanawa, and two albums for Fresh Sounds with Teté Montoliu.
Listen to Mundell Lowe perform
Things Ain't What They Used to Be
Biography of
Mundell Lowe
By Lance Pittman (SHS)
Mundell Lowe is
an accomplished jazz guitarist and composer. In fact, he is
considered one of the best jazz guitarists in the world. Born in Laurel,
Mississippi, in April of 1922, he has worked with many bands ever
since the time he was very young. Having worked with many great jazz
musicians and vocalists and composed for both television and movies, Lowe
has become a well-known artist. According to The Guinness
Encyclopedia of Popular Music, his cool guitar style has become a key
influence on the frontier of jazz (2571).
Mundell Lowe began playing guitar at the age of six
under the instruction of this father who was a Baptist minister. At the
age of thirteen, Lowe left home and found his way to New Orleans, Louisiana,
where he played in various clubs on Bourbon Street. He was soon tracked
down by his father and taken home again. Soon after his attempted
career in New Orleans, he headed for Nashville to play in the PeeWee King band,
but he was once again his father found him and took him home.
Lowe graduated in
1940, and began playing with the Jan Savitt band (Guinness 2571). Drafted for
military service, Lowe met John Hammond Jr. who helped him to establish his
musical career after the war by introducing him to Ray McKinley of the Glenn
Miller band (Guinness 2571). Lowe played with McKinley for a year and a
half after the war. Later he moved to New York where he performed in
places such as the New York Cafe' Society, Village Vanguard, and The Embers
(Brewer). Lowe also held recording sessions with some fine jazz musicians
including Lester Young, Buck Clayton, Charlie Parker, and Billie Holiday
(Guinness 2571).
From the early
fifties until the mid-sixties, Lowe worked as a musical arranger at NBC for
television shows such as "A Date In Manhattan" and the "Today
Show." Mundell was also active in both the NBC and CBS
orchestras where he met and played with pianist Hank Jones (W.C. Handy Music
Festival 1997). Despite his busy schedule, Lowe also found time to record
with Georgie Auld, Ruby Braff, Ben Webster, Carmen McRay, and Harold Ashby
(Guinness 2571).
After working for
seventeen years at NBC Lowe was transferred to the News and Special
Events Department as a composer. In December of 1965, Lowe was visiting
some of his friends in Los Angeles when he met Jackie Cooper, who was the
head of Screen Gems. He offered Lowe a job composing music for television
and film who accepted and never returned to New York. During this period,
he had a chance to work with vocalists Sarah Vaughan and Carmen McRae (W.C.
Handy Music Festival 1997).
In the years preceding the eighties, Lowe made special appearances with Peggy Lee at the White House, toured Japan with Benny Carter, and played at the Monterey Jazz Festival. Despite all of these events, Lowe became frustrated because he found that he was spending more time writing music than performing. As a result, during the eighties Lowe began to perform in concert and on television once again (Brewer). From 1981, through 1986, he served as director of the Monterey Jazz Festival hoping to devote even more time on performing live (Bio: Mundell Lowe). Also, in the early eighties Lowe joined a band named Transit West who made their first major debut at the festival in 1983. In this band, Lowe played along side Sam Most, Monty Budwig, and Nick Ceroli (Guinness 2571). Lowe has since worked with his own quintet, the Andre' Previn Jazz Trio, Kiri Te Kanawa, Tete Montoliu, and The Jazz Alliance (Bio: Mundell Lowe).
http://www.shs.starkville.k12.ms.us/mswm/MSWritersAndMusicians/musicians/MundellLowe/Lowe.html
MUNDELL LOWE RECORDINGS
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Majestic |
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Brunswick |
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Columbia |
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RCA
Victor |
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Riverside |
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Riverside |
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CBS
Coronet |
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Riverside |
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Riverside |
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Riverside |
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RCA
Camden |
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RCA
Camden |
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RCA
Victor |
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RKO
Records |
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Roulette |
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Dobre
Records |
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Dobre
Records |
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Pausa |
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Westside |
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Everest |
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Famous
Door |
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Vanguard |
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Bethlehem |
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Charlie
Parker Records |
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RCA
Victor |
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Atlantic |
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Bell |
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Charlie
Parker Records |
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Concord
Records |
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Time
Records |
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The
Jazz Alliance |
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Telarc
Jazz |
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Fresh
Sound Records |
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Telarc
Jazz |
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Azica |
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Nagel
Heyer Records |
http://www.classicjazzguitar.com/albums/artists_albums.jsp?artist=19
Prepared by Bob Dalrymple, PO Box 122, Dapto, NSW Australia 2350
eMail: bob@relativelyyours.com