Allen Lowe

Allen Lowe
Background information
Born	(1954-04-05) April 5, 1954 Massapequa Park, New York
Genres	Jazz
Occupation(s)	composer, musician, music historian, author
Instruments	Alto Saxophone, Guitar, C melody saxophone
Years active	1964-1996, 2001-present
Labels	Constant Sorrow
Website	http://www.allenlowe.com/

Allen Lowe is a composer, musician, music historian, sound restoration specialist, and author. He plays alto saxophone, c-melody saxophone, and guitar, and has recorded with some of the major figures in Jazz, including Julius Hemphill, Marc Ribot, Roswell Rudd, Don Byron, Doc Cheatham, and David Murray among others. He has also produced a series of historical projects on American Popular Song, Jazz, and the Blues.

Early life and education

Allen grew up in Massapequa Park, New York in the late 1950s and early 1960s. He started playing saxophone in jazz groups at age 15 and 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. Coming of age at the end of the 1960s he also saw groups like Super Session (Mike Bloomfield, Al Kooper), the Grateful Dead (at their first Central Park concert in 1967), the Mothers of Invention (at Columbia University, 1968). Not to mention Louis Armstrong at Freedomland, circa 1964. 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.

Allen 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 Allen completed a master's degree in Library Sciences (1982) from St. John's University.

Career

After graducation, Lowe and his wife moved to New Haven, where Lowe returned to his saxophone and became active in the local jazz scene with musicians like the bassist Jeff Fuller and drummer Ray Kaczynski. Originally an unreconstructed bebopper, he gradually became more and more interested in what was then known as “new music,” and began composing, performing and recording more actively in the new idiom. Allen recorded his first LP, For Poor B.B.' in 1985 and quickly recorded a series of albums in collaboration with musicians like Julius Hemphill, Don Byron, David Murray, Doc Cheatham, Roswell Rudd, Loren Schoenberg, Jimmy Knepper, Randy Sandke. Allen recorded Mental Strain at Dawn live at the Knitting Factory^[2] with his Jack Purvis Memorial Orchestra and later recorded sessions for Enja and Music and Arts’.

In 1990 Lowe began working for the Mayor of New Haven, and became Director of Jazz New Haven, the yearly summer free outdoor festival held on the New Haven Green. He ran the festival for three years, booking musicians like Tony Williams, Max Roach, Jaki Byard, Tito Puente, Freddie Hubbard, Joe Lovano, Randy Brecker, Ray Barretto, and James Moody.

In 1996 he moved to South Portland Maine, and what followed was a period of involuntary musical retirement. Allen switched gears and began composing again, and also taught himself the technique of sound restoration. During this time Lowe wrote four books – American Pop from Minstrel to Mojo (a survey of American music from 1896-1946, published by Cadence^[3] and issued with a 9 CD set); That Devilin’ Tune: A Jazz History 1900-1950 (published by Music and Arts^[4] and issued with a 36 CD set); God Didn’t Like It: Electric Hillbillies, Singing Preachers, and the Beginning of Rock and Roll, 1950-1970 (Constant Sorrow Press 2013); The Lost Generation: Jazz of the 1950s (unpublished); and Really the Blues? A Blues History, 1893-1959 (Constant Sorrow Press 2013, and accompanying 36 CD set). Lowe did all mastering and sound restoration for the CD's that accompanied his publications. Low also began doing freelance sound work for Rhino, Shout, Rykodisc, Sony, Michael Feinstein, Terry Gross, Venus Records, and others.

In the meantime, Lowe was also doing yearly lectures on various musical topics, and moderating panels at the Rutgers Institute of Jazz Studies^[5] and the annual EMP Pop Conference in Seattle, Washington. He also lectured for the United States Information Agency in Europe on American music history. His books were used in courses at both Harvard and Yale (Devlin Tune), and entries appeared on him in the New Grove Dictionary of Jazz and The Penguin Guide to Jazz on Compact Disc. There is also an entire chapter on him in the book Bebop and Nothingness, by Francis Davis.

Finally, around 2001, Lowe began playing and recording again, on both 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. A mix of jazz, punk rock, and American roots music, it received little national notice, but high praise from the likes of Anthony Braxton who said “Allen Lowe is a great writer. It’s hillbilly music but it’s trans-national. Allen Lowe is one of the few musicians doing anything new today. He is the tradition. I’m a big fan of Allen Lowe and I think as a musician and a scholar he is very important and I think he is deeply misunderstood because he doesn’t hate himself.” Jews in Hell also led to Lowe’s inclusion in a book called Jazz Jews in which it was advised that Lowe “extracts the most soulful sounds out of a synthesizer since Steve Wonder, composes ambient-evocative instrumentals, and songs with vernacular lyrics that stick in the mind like those of Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, Mose Allison or Lou Reed.”

Allen recently released a series of old and new American recordings of work that were composed and directed by himself. He is currently working with Acadia Recording Company to mix a session live recording from NYC in 2015.

Discography

Allen's music can be downloaded from

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.^[6]

A look at the blues and its close relations from 1900-1960; covers nearly all blue styles of the American vernacular, from gospel quartets to show music, minstrelsy, country and hillbilly music, and jazz.

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).

A comprehensive history of jazz from 1900-1950 that moves away from the clichés of most jazz works, looks at both the famous and the obscure, and presents the most detailed look available on the pre-history of jazz as well as its relationship to both country music and the blues. It also has perceptive discussions of minstrelsy and the post-Sudhalter issue of white and black influences on the development of jazz and improvised music.

American Pop From Minstrel to Mojo: On Record, 1890-1956

Published by Cadence Jazz Books, 1997. 9 CD set issued^[7] concurrently by West Hill Radio Archive (Canada) and West Hill Radio Archive (Germany). Allen curated, restored, mastered, and wrote liner notes for the tracks.

An early and pioneering look at the big picture of American popular music from the period of early pop and jazz to Elvis. Unorthodox in its characterization both minstrelsy and the interaction of white and black musicians, it deals with a plethora of styles from gospel to blues to rock and roll, jazz, white and black pop, and country/hillbilly music.

The Lost Generation: Jazz of the 1950s

Unpublished manuscript; work in progess, 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.

An examination of the early days of rock and roll, it’s pre-history and development thought the period of the 1960s; with a close look at the early development of country music. Unlike most rock writers Allen Lowe settles on a picture of the music as essentially a white expression, a “white meditation on black forms.’

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.

Education

• St. John’s University, Queens, N.Y., Masters Degree, Library and Information Science
• Yale University School of Drama, MFA playwriting program (uncompleted)
• State University of New York, B.A., External Degree Program

Grants & lectures

• Maine Artist Fellowship Grant awarded by the Maine Arts Commission.^[8] 2012 Maine performing and media arts fellow.^[9] These $13,000 grants are meant only to “reward artistic excellence, advance the careers of Maine artists and promote public awareness regarding the eminence of the creative sector in Maine.”
• Good Ideas Grant. Maine Arts Commission. Grant, 2007. For compact disc project.
• Morroe Berger-Benny Carter Research Fund. Grant, 2005. To complete current book project
• Morroe Berger-Benny Carter Research Fund. Grant, 2001. To complete research for preparation of book, That Devilin’ Tune: A History of Jazz, 1900-1950. Awarded by Rutgers Institute of Jazz Studies.^[10]
• United States Information Service. April 1995. Lecture Tour of Germany. To discuss research on book in progress, American Pop From Minstrel to Mojo: On Record, 1893-1956. Lecture on origins of American popular song, issues of race and music, the varieties of American song, key historical figures.
• Connecticut Humanities Council. American Pop From Minstrel to Mojo: On Record 1893-1956. Grant, 1995. To prepare 9 compact disc set of recordings to illustrate book project; to do all remastering of recordings, sound restoration, and preparation for compact disc manufacture; and to write booklet of annotation to accompany compact disc boxed set.
• Morroe Berger-Benny Carter Research Fund. Grant, 1994. To complete research for preparation of book, American Pop From Minstrel to Mojo: On Record, 1893-1956. Awarded by Rutgers Institute of Jazz Studies.
• Teason Fund. Grant,1993. Awarded grant to compose music for children's concert.
• National Association of Independent Record Distributors, 1993. Honorable Mention, Best Jazz Recording. For: Mental Strain at Dawn:A Modern Portrait of Louis Armstrong.
• Connecticut Commission on the Arts/Connecticut Humanities Council. Grant, 1993. Jazz as Living History: A Public Program. Grant for week-long series of events on the presentation of jazz and American music, including concerts, workshops and educational discussions on minstrelsy, the jazz tradition, and educational approaches to music presentation. Participants: Dan Morgenstern, Roswell Rudd, Robert O'Meally, John Szwed, Francis Davis, Loren Schoenberg, Robert Stepto.^[11]
• Connecticut Humanities Council. Grant, 1991. Writing a Curriculum on Jazz History and American Music. Grant to write a model curriculum on jazz and jazz history; expanded to include full range of American music.
• Connecticut Humanities Council. Grant, 1989. Transition in Change: New Music and the Jazz Tradition. Grant for three-day seminar on issues of New Music and changes in jazz and improvised music; live performances and educational discussions on the Avant Garde and its origins, the relationship of contemporary jazz to early American music, regional innovations, and the experiences of working musicians. Participants: Don Byron, Paul Bley, Julius Hemphill, Tim Berne, John Szwed, Jane Ira Bloom, Mark Dresser.
• Connecticut Humanities Council, Grant, 1988. Black and White Musicians in Jazz. Grant to research a script for a documentary on issues of race and jazz performance. Participants: Willie Jones, Al Hall, Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny Rollins, Johnny Carisi, Paul Bley, Bill Triglia, Davey Schildkraut, Dick Katz, Bob Mover, Jamil Nasser, Loren Schoenberg, Albert Murray.

References

External links

• Official Website
• The Outsider: Allen Lowe Against the Jazz Tradition.