NOTED GUITARIST MUNDELL LOWE AT CalJAS HOUSE CONCERT

Jan 30, 2015CalJAS Events, News

Biography of Mundell Lowe

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 Getz, 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.

MARCH 8

SEE COMING EVENTS

 

CalJAS GOES TO ORANGE COUNTY WITH MUNDELL LOWE, RON ESCHETE, AND LUTHER HUGHES

Jan 24, 2015News

                                          MUNDELL LOWE                         RON ESCHETE                 LUTHER HUGHES 

 

On March 8,  The California Jazz Arts Society House Concert Series presents Mundell Lowe, Ron Eschete, and Luther Hughes in a very intimate concert setting.  Selected vocals will be performed by Becky Hughes, and Dale Boatman. The concert will be presented at the home of LUTHER and BECKY HUGHES in Westmintser.

See COMING EVENTS for details.

WELCOME BACK-2015 HOUSE CONCERT SERIES TO BEGIN

Jan 5, 2015News

Dale Boatman

Dale Boatman

January 5, 2015

 
HELP US CELEBRATE OUR 11th SEASON AS A NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION
BECOME A MEMBER TODAY!
 
Hello CalJAS Members and friends.
WELCOME BACK TO THE CALIFORNIA JAZZ ARTS SOCIETY 2015
 
Well rested and raring to go, your CalJAS team begins its 11th season of presenting, promoting, and preserving jazz, the Great American Songbook and other art forms, as well as offering lesson scholarships to talented young musicians.

 
Once again, we will be encouraging you to renew your membership for 2015, and to help spread the word in order to recruit new members and contributors. One of our major goals this season is to identify and welcome the business community to our CalJAS family as Platinum Sponsors, Benefactors, or underwriters for our programs and scholarships, and to stay ahead of increased expenditures.
We hope you can please help us in that endeavor.
 
SINCE MOST PROGRAMS ARE FREE OR HEAVILY DISCOUNTED TO OUR MEMBERS, PROCEEDS FROM THE EVENTS CANNOT ENTIRELY FUND OUR EFFORTS.  IT IS OUR MEMBER DONATIONS THAT DETERMINE THE TYPE AND FREQUENCY OF OUR CONCERTS AND SCHOLARSHIPS.
 
Please remember that all donations to CalJAS are tax-deductible as permitted by the California Corporations Code.
The California Jazz Arts Society is
a 501(c)(3) Nonprofit Public Benefit Corporation 
 
 
MEMBERSHIP CATEGORIES
 
$1000      Benefactor
   500      Platinum Sponsor
   250      Gold Sponsor
   100      Sponsor
     50      Patron
     25      Friend
     10      Student 
 
PLEASE CONTINUE YOUR SUPPORT AND TELL YOUR FRIENDS AND EMPLOYERS
We begin our 2015 House Concert Series with the wonderful Sherry Williams.  Accompanying Sherry will be CalJAS Artists
Llew Matthews on piano, and Luther Hughes on bass.
You don’t want to miss this one!!!!  
SEE COMING EVENTS FOR DETAILS
See you soon!