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Allen Lowe

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Allen Lowe
Background information
Born (1954-04-05) April 5, 1954 (age 70)
Massapequa Park, New York, U.S.
GenresJazz
OccupationMusician
InstrumentSaxophone
Years active1964–present
LabelsConstant Sorrow
Websiteallenlowe.com

Allen Lowe is a composer, musician, music historian, and sound restoration specialist. He plays alto saxophone, C-melody saxophone, and guitar and has recorded with Julius Hemphill, Marc Ribot, Roswell Rudd, Don Byron, Doc Cheatham, and David Murray. He has also produced a series of historical projects on American popular song, jazz, and the blues.

Early life and education

Lowe grew up in Massapequa Park, New York in the late 1950s and early 1960s. He started playing saxophone in jazz groups at age 15. He had some of his first jazz experiences, as a teenager, at the legendary Lower East Side "Slugs Saloon,"[1] seeing Ornette Coleman's band and Charles Mingus, among others. When his young band (with guitarist Joel Perry) was booked for a festival in Bedford Stuyvesant circa 1968, they turned out to be one of the opening acts for the comeback appearance of Eubie Blake.

Lowe dropped out of the Yale School of Drama after one year of studying to be a playwright. He met and married his wife, and they moved to Brooklyn where Lowe completed a master's degree in Library Sciences (1982) from St. John's University.

Career

After graduation, Lowe and his wife moved to New Haven, where he returned to his saxophone and became active in the local jazz scene with bassist Jeff Fuller and drummer Ray Kaczynski. Lowe became more interested in avant-garde music and began composing, performing, and recording. He recorded his first album, For Poor B. B., in 1985 and then recorded a series of albums with Julius Hemphill, Don Byron, David Murray, Doc Cheatham, Roswell Rudd, Loren Schoenberg, Jimmy Knepper, and Randy Sandke. He recorded Mental Strain at Dawn live at the Knitting Factory[2] with his Jack Purvis Memorial Orchestra and recorded sessions for Enja Records and Music & Arts. In 1990 Lowe began working for the mayor of New Haven and became director of Jazz New Haven, an annual, free festival. He ran the festival for three years, hiring musicians such as Tony Williams, Max Roach, Jaki Byard, Tito Puente, Freddie Hubbard, Joe Lovano, Randy Brecker, Ray Barretto, and James Moody.

In 1996 Lowe moved to South Portland, Maine. He began composing again and taught himself audio restoration. He wrote American Pop from Minstrel to Mojo (a survey of American music from 1896 to 1946)[3] That Devilin' Tune: A Jazz History 1900-1950[4] God Didn't Like It: Electric Hillbillies, Singing Preachers, and the Beginning of Rock and Roll, 1950-1970; and Really the Blues? A Blues History, 1893–1959. The books were accompanied by CD sets that were mastered by Lowe. He began doing freelance audio work for Rhino Records, Shout Records, Rykodisc, Sony, and Venus Records and for Michael Feinstein and Terry Gross.

Lowe lectured on musical topics and moderated panels at the Rutgers Institute of Jazz Studies[5] and the annual EMP Pop Conference in Seattle, Washington. He lectured for the United States Information Agency in Europe on American music history. His book Devilin' Tune was used in courses at Harvard and Yale, and entries appeared about him in the New Grove Dictionary of Jazz and The Penguin Guide to Jazz on Compact Disc. There is a chapter about him in the book Bebop and Nothingness by Francis Davis.

Around 2001, Lowe began playing and recording on guitar and alto saxophone. In 2007 he recorded Jews in Hell: Radical Jewish Acculturation with Matthew Shipp, Lewis Porter, Randy Sandke, Marc Ribot, Scott Robinson, and Erin Mckeown.[6] Jews in Hell led to Lowe's inclusion in the book Jazz Jews.[6]

Lowe was voted 2021 Jazz Times Readers' Poll Artist of the Year.[7]

Discography

Album Released Label Sidemen
Ballad for Albert (In the Diaspora of the Diaspora) 2015 Constant Sorrow With Matthew Shipp, Kevin Ray, Jake Millett
We Will Gather When We Gather (In the Diaspora of the Diaspora) 2015 Constant Sorrow With Hamiet Bluiett, Lou Grassi, Matt Lavelle, Kevin Ray, Jake Millett, Ras Moshe Burnett, Ava Mendoza
Man with Guitar: Where's Robert Johnson? (In the Diaspora of the Diaspora) 2015 Constant Sorrow With Gary Bartz, DJ Logic, Brian Simontacchi, Christopher Meeder, Jake Millett, Lewis Porter, Jeff Fuller
Where a Cigarette is Smoked by Ten Men (In the Diaspora of the Diaspora) 2015 Constant Sorrow With Zoe Christiansen, Kris Day, Miki Matsuki
I Alone: The Everlasting Beauty of Monotony (Matthew Shipp Plays the Music of Allen Lowe) 2015 Constant Sorrow With Michael Gregory Jackson, Eliot Cardinaux, Chris Klaxton, Kevin Ray, Peter McLaughlin, Ryan Blotnick
Mulatto Radio: Field 1-4, or: A Jew at Large in the Minstrel Diaspora[8] 2014 Constant Sorrow With Matthew Shipp, Kalaparusha, Ken Peplowski, Randy Sandke, Noah Preminger, Ras Moshe, Ursula Oppens, Lou Grassi, Rob Wallace, Ray Suhy, Kevin Ray, Rick Moody, Lewis Porter, Jon-Erik Kellso, Gerhard Graml
Blues and the Empirical Truth (or: Every Other Day I Have The Blues) 2011 Music & Arts With Roswell Rudd, Matthew Shipp.
Jews in Hell: Radical Jewish Acculturation 2007 Spaceout With Matthew Shipp, Erin McKeown, Lewis Porter, Marc Ribot, Randy Sandke
Woyzeck's Death[9] 1995 Enja With Roswell Rudd, Randy Sandke
Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground: The American Song Project[10] 1994 Music & Arts With Roswell Rudd
Mental Strain at Dawn: A Modern Portrait of Louis Armstrong 1992 Stash With David Murray, Doc Cheatham, Loren Schoenberg
New Tango '92 1992 Fairhaven With Julius Hemphill, Doc Cheatham
At the Moment of Impact 1991 Fairhaven With Julius Hemphill, Don Byron, Jeff Fuller, Ray Kaczynski
For Poor B.B. 1988 Fairhaven With Bob Neloms

Publications

  • Really The Blues? A Blues History, 1893-1959 - published by Constant Sorrow Press, 2013. 36-CD set concurrently published by West Hill Radio Archive, 2010.[11]
  • That Devilin’ Tune: A Jazz History, 1900-1950 - published by Music and Arts Publications of America, 2001. 36-CD set issued concurrently, spring 2006 by West Hill Radio Archive (Canada) and West Hill Radio Archive (Germany).
  • American Pop From Minstrel to Mojo: On Record, 1890-1956 - published by Cadence Jazz Books, 1997. 9-CD set issued[12] concurrently by West Hill Radio Archive (Canada) and West Hill Radio Archive (Germany). Lowe curated, restored, mastered, and wrote liner notes for the tracks.
  • The Lost Generation: Jazz of the 1950s - unpublished manuscript; work in progress, book and 9-CD set study of jazz of the 1950s.
  • God Didn’t Like It: Electric Hillbillies, Singing Priests, and the Origins of Rock and Roll, 1950-1970 - published by Constant Sorrow Press, 2013.
  • Rhapsodies in Black: Music of the Harlem Renaissance - 4-CD set on the music of the Harlem renaissance. Issued by Rhino Records. Set was nominated for 2002 Grammy Award (Gerald Early) for Liner Notes.

References

  1. ^ "'It Was a Joint': Jazz Musicians Remember Slugs' in the Far East". Bedford + Bowery. Retrieved 2015-11-05.
  2. ^ "Jazz Reviews: Mental Strain at Dawn: A Modern Portrait of Louis ArmstrongVarious Artists - By Mike Shanley — Jazz Articles". jazztimes.com. Archived from the original on 2015-12-08. Retrieved 2015-11-05.
  3. ^ "American Pop from Minstrel to Mojo: On Record 1893-1956 by Allen Lowe". www.cadencejazzbooks.com. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2015-11-05.
  4. ^ "That Devlin' Tune: Volume 1 (of 4) 1895–1927". www.musicandarts.com. Retrieved 2015-11-05.
  5. ^ "Jazz Research Round Table". newarkwww.rutgers.edu. Retrieved 2015-11-05.
  6. ^ a b "Press". Allen Lowe. Retrieved 30 March 2020.
  7. ^ "2021 JazzTimes Readers' Poll Results". Jazz Times. January 27, 2022. Retrieved January 31, 2022.
  8. ^ "Mulatto Radio: Field 1-4, or: A Jew at Large in the Minstrel Diaspora". Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2015-11-05.
  9. ^ Woyzeck's Death
  10. ^ Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground: The American Song Project
  11. ^ "Presto Classical - Buy classical CDs, opera CDs, & DVDs online". www.prestoclassical.co.uk. Retrieved 2015-11-05.
  12. ^ "American Pop: An Audio History - Various Artists | Songs, Reviews, Credits | AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved 2015-11-06.
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