Jazz Articles about Frank Lowe
Frank Lowe: Out Loud
by John Sharpe
In the spring of 1974, the storied ESP label had just released the leadership debut of thirty-year old reedman Frank Lowe, and now he was considering his next move. Val Wilmer in her groundbreaking As Serious As Your Life (Quartet Books, 1977) observes about Lowe: “Everywhere you go in New York you'll run into him, working here, sitting in there, rehearsing uptown, downtown, all around." At this period Lowe was one of the most exciting saxophone players on the scene, ...
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by Hrayr Attarian
The year separating Thanksgivings of 2013 and 2014 has abounded in historic reissues and discoveries. There are several from idiosyncratic bandleader Sun Ra in addition to ones from saxophonists John Coltrane, Clifford Jordan and Charles Lloyd. And of course there are such gems as the third volume of trumpeter Miles Davis' Fillmore bootlegs and clarinetist/saxophonist Jimmy Giuffre's New York Concerts on Elemental Music. Among such wealth it would be easy to overlook the limited edition, vinyl only release ...
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by Mark Corroto
Musical archeology has become somewhat of a trend these days. It might be explained, in part by the rebirth of vinyl and the excavation of long out-of-print titles, but also there are scores of devoted collectors who've discovered unpublished recordings of significant artists. For the serially neglected avant-garde of jazz, some of these finds have been significant. Albert Ayler's Holy Ghost: Rare And Unissued Recordings (1962-70) (Revenant, 2004) box set and the more recent Centering: Unreleased Early Recordings 1976-1987 (No ...
read moreFrank Lowe: The Loweski
by John Sharpe
Producer Michael Anderson has unearthed yet more music from the ESP-disk vaults to complement tenor saxophonist Frank Lowe's Black Beings (ESP-disk, 1974), the session which announced the Memphis-born reedman's arrival as leader on the NYC jazz scene. Recorded at the same date, reputed to be from Ornette Coleman's Prince Street loft, The Loweski adds another 37-minutes of quintessential fire music to his legacy. Lowe was a very different proposition then to his mature persona, coming out of late period John ...
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by Jerry D'Souza
The age of the LP was often one of compromise for jazz musicians. Given the restrictions on playing time, recordings had to be edited to fit. This meant a loss of ideas and of development with the truncated versions being shadows of the whole. The emergence of the CD has seen the revival of music with the whole performance included. Sometimes the edits were better, but many times the complete picture brings in a deeper dimension and impact. The latter ...
read moreFrank Lowe: Lowe-down and Blue
by Jeff Stockton
When Frank Lowe plays his tenor saxophone, you get the sense that just as much effort is being spent on holding back as there would be in pouring it all out. That doesn't mean the total effort is less, merely that Lowe's restraint allows the listener some space to enter the tunes. On Lowe-down & Blue, the Frank Lowe Quartet delivers straight-ahead jazz, usually tasteful and spare, occasionally free, but always honest and swinging. “Who Does She ...
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by Derek Taylor
Certain musicians wear their humanity on their sleeves. It bleeds out in their music, whether the facility and prowess is there or not. Frank Lowe falls easily into this camp. The years have not been kind to him, and from a purely technical standpoint his chops have noticeably eroded under the stress. But in creative music, naked technique is only the tip of the iceberg. Pathos and passion are far more relevant and sustaining, and in these areas Lowe still ...
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