Allen Lowe's 9-CD compilation, That Devilin' Tune, Vol. 1 - Fr

[Tom Storer]

The February 2007 issue of the French monthly "Jazz Hot" has a review of a 9-CD history-of-jazz box set, compiled by Organissimo poster Allen Lowe, that is only the first of four volumes. Reviewer Jean Szlamowicz rated it "indispensable." What follows is my own rough translation of the review:

Allen Lowe

That Devilin' Tune

Vol. 1, 1895-1927

9-CD box set

10:58:11

WHRA 6003 (www.musicandarts.com)

Rating: Indispensable

Allen Lowe is a guitarist and saxophonist, often seen with David Murray, Julius Hemphill or Don Byron. He's also a researcher and author (1998, American Pop: From Minstrel to Mojo). Here he offers the first volume of his history of jazz (1895-1950). Each of the four box sets includes nine CDs and a 100-page booklet. He retraces the roots of jazz, its links with other types of specifically American music (minstrels, ragtime, coon songs, military music, etc.) but perhaps goes a bit far when he says that the importance of the blues is less musical than ideological. The nine CDs let us travel in time, with well-picked examples of: John Philip Sousa, Vess Ossman, Sir Herbert Clarke, Sophie Tucker, Al Jolson, Jimmy Europe, Eubie Blake, Ethel Waters, Isham Jones, Noble Sissle, W.C. Handy, Jelly Roll Morton, etc. In the final analysis, these well-known names are perhaps less interesting than those one wouldn't have gone looking for, notably in the pre-Original Dixieland Jazz Band period, i.e. before 1917 (Voss's 1st Regiment Band, Orquestra Typica, etc.). One could always object that certain dimensions are more or less passed over, but what is most interesting is the way the collection demonstrates the phenomenon of a global confluence of heterogeneous sources from the American reality that led to what we call jazz. A fundamental source.

By Jean Szlamowicz, in Jazz Hot magazine, Feb. 2007.

Lowe wrote a book by the same name, apparently released in 2001 or 2002, that gets a good review here.

I haven't read the book or heard the box, but I plan to do both!

Edited February 5, 2007 by Tom Storer

[AllenLowe]

thanks for posting!

[BruceH]

Is this still in print?

[AllenLowe]

the cds are available, and they contain the whole text of the book - by coincidence I happen to have several thousand copies of them in my basement -

[mikeweil]

Allen, has the German Fono Forum review copy reached you?