Cheek To Cheek - Music

James Mundell Lowe April 21 1922 – December 2 2017 Was An American Jazz Guitarist Whose Career Began When He Was Thirteen Years Old. He Spent Many Years Working In Radio Television And Film And Many Years As A Session Musician. He Played With Benny Goodman Jimmy Dorsey Tommy Dorsey Red Norvo Sauter-Finegan Orchestra Billie Holiday Lester Young Charlie Parker Charles Mingus Bill Evans Benny Carter Miles Davis Ella Fitzgerald Johnny Hodges Rahsaan Roland Kirk Lee Konitz Peggy Lee Fats Navarro Shirley Scott Dinah Washington And Ben Webster A.O.. He Produced Film And TV Scores In The 1970s Such As The Billy Jack Soundtrack And Music For Hawaii Five-O Starsky And Hutch And Worked With André Previn's Trio In The 1990s. The Son Of A Baptist Minister Lowell Was Raised On A Farm In Laurel Mississippi. He Started Playing Guitar When He Was Eight Years Old With His Father And Sister Acting As His First Teachers. When He Was Thirteen He Ran Away From Home To Play With Bands. Occasionally His Father Would Find Him Bring Him Back Home And Warn Him About The Dangers Of Whiskey. At Sixteen Lowe Worked In Nashville On The Grand Ole Opry Radio Program. He Was A Member Of The Jan Savitt Orchestra Until Serving In The Military During World War II. At Basic Training He Became Friends With John Hammond The Jazz Talent Scout Who Organized Weekend Jam Sessions. He Performed In An Army Dance Band While In Guadalcanal. After His Discharge He Called Hammond Looking For Work And Hammond Sent Him To Ray McKinley. He Spent Two Years With McKinley's Big Band In New York City. He Joined The Benny Goodman Orchestra Then Worked Intermittently For The Next Few Years At Café Society And Other Clubs In New York. In 1950 He Was Hired By NBC As A Staff Musician. His First Work At NBC Was With Cy Coleman. He And Ed Shaughnessy Were Members Of The Today Show Band For Thirteen Years. Lowe Acted In An Episode Of The Armstrong Circle Theatre Television Show That Included Walter Matthau And Live Music By Doc Severinsen. On The Weekends He Played Jazz Sometimes Getting Permission From NBC To Leave For Six-Month Periods. In The Jazz World He Played With Jimmy Dorsey And Tommy Dorsey Red Norvo Sauter-Finegan Orchestra Billie Holiday Lester Young Charlie Parker Charles Mingus And Bill Evans. He Composed And Arranged For NBC Before Moving To California In 1965. He Wrote Music For The TV Shows Hawaii Five-O Starsky & Hutch And The The Wild Wild West And The Movies Billy Jack And Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex But Were Afraid To Ask. He Recorded With Carmen McRae And Sarah Vaughan. During The 1980s He Worked With André Previn Tete Montoliu And The Great Guitars. For Four Years He Was Music Director Of The Monterey Jazz Festival. Lowe Also Worked With Benny Carter Miles Davis Ella Fitzgerald Johnny Hodges Rahsaan Roland Kirk Lee Konitz Peggy Lee Fats Navarro Shirley Scott Dinah Washington And Ben Webster. He Was Responsible For Introducing The Pianist Bill Evans To Record Producer Orrin Keepnews Resulting In Evans's First Recordings As A Leader. He Was 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 He Taught At The Dick Grove Music Workshop Later The Grove School Of Music In Studio City California. He Taught Twelve-Tone Composition Film Scoring And Giutar At The Guitar Institute Of Technology In Hollywood. In 1998 He Was Inducted Into The Mississippi Music Hall Of Fame. In 1999 Millsaps College In Jackson Mississippi Gave Him An Honorary Doctorate Of Arts. On July 17 2009 He Returned Home To Laurel Mississippi. In Recognition Of A Lifetime Of Musical Achievement He Was Given A Key To The City And Honored By Mayor Melvin Mack Who Proclaimed July 18 2009 Mundell Lowe Day. Lowe Was Married To Singer Betty Bennett. He Played On Her Album The Song Is You 1990 With Bob Cooper George Cables Monty Budwig And Roy McCurdy. He Died On December 2 2017. Discography As Leader
1953 The Mundell Lowe Quintet RCA Victor 1955 The Mundell Lowe Quartet Riverside 1956 Guitar Moods Riverside 1956 New Music Of Alec Wilder Riverside 1957 A Grand Night For Swinging Riverside 1958 Porgy & Bess RCA Camden 1959 TV Action Jazz! RCA Camden 1960 Themes From Mr. Lucky The Untouchables And Other TV Action Jazz RCA Camden 1974 California Guitar Famous Door With Roger Kellaway And Jimmy Rowles
1977 Souvenirs Jazz Alliance 1977–92 1978 The Incomparable Dobre 1989 Sweet 'n' Lovely Fresh Sound With Tete Montoliu
1996 The Return Of The Great Guitars Concord With Charlie Byrd And Herb Ellis
2000 Mundell's Moods Nagel-Heyer Film Soundtracks
1962 Satan In High Heels
1967 A Time For Killing
1971 Billy Jack
1972 Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex But Were Afraid To Ask 1977 Tarantulas The Deadly Cargo TV Scores
The Wild Wild West
Love On A Rooftop
Hawaii Five-O
Starsky And Hutch
Attack On Terror The FBI Vs. The Ku Klux Klan
B.A.D. Cats As Sideman With Tony Bennett My Heart Sings Columbia 1961 Who Can I Turn To Columbia 1964 With Gene Bianco Harp Skip & Jump RCA Camden 1958 With Ruth Brown Miss Rhythm Atlantic 1959 Late Date With Ruth Brown Atlantic 1959 With Benny Carter Further Definitions Impulse! 1961–66 Live And Well In Japan OJC 1977 With Rosemary Clooney "On The First Warm Day" Columbia 1952 With Al Cohn Son Of Drum Suite RCA Victor 1960 With Sammy Davis Jr. Mood To Be Wooed Decca 1957 With Blossom Dearie Once Upon A Summertime Verve 1959 With Don Elliott And Rusty Dedrick Counterpoint For Six Valves Riverside 1955–56 With Jimmy Forrest Soul Street New Jazz 1962 With Ella Fitzgerald Rhythm Is My Business Verve 1962 With Johnny Hodges Blue Rabbit Verve 1964 With Wild Bill Davis
Con-Soul & Sax RCA Victor 1965 With Wild Bill Davis With Billie Holiday "Weep No More" / "Girls Were Made To Take Care Of Boys" Decca 1948 "My Man" / "Porgy" Decca 1948 "Ain't Nobody's Business If I Do" / "Baby Get Lost" Decca 1949 With J. J. Johnson Broadway Express RCA Victor 1965 With Quincy Jones Quincy Jones Explores The Music Of Henry Mancini Mercury 1964 With Barry Manilow 2 00 AM Paradise Cafe Arista 1984 With Herbie Mann Herbie Mann Plays The Roar Of The Greasepaint – The Smell Of The Crowd Atlantic 1965 Our Mann Flute Atlantic 1966 With Carmen McRae Carmen McRae Bethlehem 1954 A Foggy Day Stardust 1955 By Special Request Decca 1955 Blue Moon Decca 1956 Birds Of A Feather Decca 1959 Carmen McRae Sings Lover Man And Other Billie Holiday Classics Harmony 1961 Bittersweet Focus 1964 With Joe Mooney The Greatness Of Joe Mooney Columbia 1963 With Charlie Parker The Legendary Rockland Palace Concert Volume 1 Jazz Classics 1952 With André Previn Uptown Telarc 1990 Old Friends Telarc 1992 Kiri Sidetracks The Jazz Album Polygram 1992 With Kiri Te Kanawa With Johnnie Ray "Cry" Okeh 1951 With Lalo Schifrin New Fantasy Verve 1964 With Shirley Scott For Members Only Impulse! 1963 With Sarah Vaughan Sarah Vaughan In Hi-Fi Columbia 1949–50 After Hours Roulette 1961 With George Duvivier With Ben Webster The Soul Of Ben Webster Verve 1957–58 With Lloyd Wells This One's For Charlie Azica 2000 read less