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Jews in Hell:

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AllenLowe Rising Star

AllenLowe

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All right kids, I haven't plugged my own CD,

JEWS IN HELL: RADICAL JEWISH ACCULTURATION

OR ALL THE THINGS YOU COULD BE BY NOW IF STANLEY CROUCH WAS YOUR UNCLE

OR DANCE OF THE CREATIVE ECONOMY: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYNG ABOUT

THE SPACE GALLERY AND LOVE THE MUSIC BUSINESS

in a while; some nice reviews have come in; it's a two cd set which I can sell for $12 shipped media mail in the US - we sold it out at Cadence/North COuntry, also at the Downtown Music Gallery in NYC. No gigs to speak of (welcome to Portland, Maine; that's why I'm so jealous of the Reptet) -

but here's some reviews that have come in, mixed with some comments on prior projects - I can take paypal, paypal address is alowe5@maine.rr.com -

the CD has: Matthew Shipp Marc Ribot Erin McKeown Randy Sandke Lewis Porter

"Angular, sly and funky, Jews in Hell is a bona fide wake up call from the avant garde." – Jonathan Lethem

"Allen Lowe has made a crucial contribution to American culture, and all those who want to see our musical history whole are in his debt." - Greil Marcus

"Allen Lowe is an American master. I was absolutely astonished by the new CD. The CD blew me away – the compositional transitions, the liner notes – 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." -Anthony Braxton

"(Allen Lowe)...is the antidote for the American malaise." - the All Music Guide

"From Massapequa to Maine, what a long, strange trip it’s been."-Tom Hull, Village Voice

"He doesn't seem to pay any attention to his guitar tone." -Portland Phoenix

"Allen Lowe's guitar playing is unprecedented." - Larry Kart

"No grievance is too petty." - Signal to Noise

"This is not a Space Event."

-Nat May, Artistic Director, the Space Gallery, Portland, Maine

"So much of today’s boldest and most piquant jazz is being made by a radical fringe of men and women in

their late thirties or early forties…Lowe suggests both Sonny Rollins at his most jocular and Jimmy Giuffre at his most rustic...his music reflects a fullness of experience missing from the etudes of those who have made jazz the sound of no surprise." - Village Voice

"the collection of tunes here offer plenty of delicious contradictions. These are songs in styles you’re very familiar with,

iconic American forms like ragtime, blues, country, and jazz, but they are like virtually nothing you’ve heard before.

Lowe has a knack for needling the listener, keeping you from settling in or becoming too comfortable with any one song. While he clearly appreciates a simple melody and the power of a good hook,

his love of improvisation makes it certain you’ll never really revisit your favorite piece of a tune unless you hit rewind, and he never lets you hear his true voice, either. All the vocals are affected like he’s singing in the reactor of a nuclear power plant. Elvis Costello, Marianne Faithfull, and Wilson Pickett sideman Marc Ribot gets two great pieces to work solo assaults on - Erin McKeown may have the finest voice and delivery in contemporary music, and Lowe’s “Blood on the Mountain” gives her couplets to chew on like, “When the sun goes down, I remember his death/Just the thought of his love helps me catch my next breath.” Matt Shipp’s two solo piano pieces are sublime -

There’s no doubt that Lowe is a phenomenal sax player... Lowe’s guitar playing depends on your taste. He revels in the blues, especially, indulging in vamps and struts often...his leads aren’t what you’d call crisp or smooth, but it all depends on what he’s trying to do. I don’t think he’s trying for B.B. King. Quoting Lowe, Jews represent 'a cult without a leader, freelance wise-asses without portfolio.' Who am I to argue?" -Portland Phoenix

"this record, Lowe’s first since 1994’s Woyzeck’s Death, might better be thought of as his own self-criticism and summation of experiences thus far, told through the lenses of free jazz, bluesy skronk, and punk abandon.

Lowe’s guitar style is itself extraordinarily fragmentary, a disjointed and dissonant, non-linear approach that seems to creep out of nowhere on the solos of 'Lonesome And Dead' and imbues the bent notes and wide intervallic

relationships of 'Tsuris In Mind.' It’s not the square-wheel rhythms of Robert Pete Williams or the perverse Company-weaned antics of Eugene Chadbourne, though Lowe’s musical landscape surely includes such precedents. His solo on the (sub-) title track may display a bit more logic, building from loose, raunchy blues to detuned Arto Lindsay-esque DNA madness, though the tension of escaping bar lines and rhythmic constraint is present from the beginning.

In a more jazz-based setting, there’s an entirely different side of Lowe’s music visible than punk-folk-blues would belie. The loose rhythms and broadlyshifting cadences of his alto suggest an Eric Dolphy/Anthony Braxton approach, though his tone approximates earlier Charlie Parker disciples. In trio with Randy Sandke's trumpet and Scott Robinson’s contrabass clarinet, there is a kinship with the AACM’s drummer-less swing and bright, swaggering melodies. Coupled with the broken rhythms, isolated phrasing and distant-thunder twang of Lowe’s guitar (“Other Bodies Other Souls”), a clear psychological picture of alienation emerges—but it isn’t without the affirmation of humor and wry, life-giving musicianship. Allen Lowe has, with Jews In Hell: Radical Jewish Acculturation, created a complex musical landscape through a summation of experiences and meditation on their integration. It’s self-criticism amid satire, applied both to the musician and the craft of music making, and a vision well worth sharing in." -Clifford Allen, All About Jazz

"...the same iconoclastic wit and intelligence that shape That Devilin’ Tune are evident in Lowe’s latest work as a musician, Jews in Hell: Radical Jewish Acculturation. Lowe is an accomplished saxophonist who has previously populated his CD with performers like Roswell Rudd and Doc Cheatham, and his interests in musical history manage to inform his sometimes abrasively contemporary work. In 2001 Lowe took up guitar, and it’s as a guitarist and singer of a rough-cut post-modern blues that he primarily appears here. It’s raw music, a kind of alienation-celebration of the acculturation suffered by baby-boom Jews growing up in America in the 1950s and 1960s...

...Lowe summons up real power on songs like “Goyishe World,” a rock-driven tune on the hoary subject of Christ-killing, and his themes and music possess more power than the petty grievances might suggest. It’s a compound world populated by Doc Boggs, Blind Willie Johnson, Doc Pomus, Lenny Bruce and Delmore Schwarz...

...extended alto solos overdubbed over minimal keyboard accompaniments are sweetly luminous interludes, though the liner booklet provides darkly comic film treatments for them to accompany (the most beautiful playing occurs on "Soundtrack Theme from the Film Jews in Hell”). The liner notes possess the same interest as the end-notes to “That Devilin’ Tune,” managing at one point to connect Bix Beiderbecke and Dadaist word games. Anyone preferring live mind to dead mind (I think the phrase is Ezra Pound’s) will welcome Lowe’s work. " -Stuart Broomer, Signal to Noise

"Allen Lowe is one of the most astute jazz musicians on the planet in that he understands something primary about music: that it is part of culture, the grit and grime of it as well as the elegance and charity it can supply… Lowe's band which includes the late trumpeter Doc Cheatham (who was in his late eighties at the time this was recorded) and the late vanguard composer and saxophonist Julius Hemphill, have recorded a suite that employs not necessarily tango thematics, but its drama and melodic sensibilities. Lowe's saxophone playing has been deeply affected by the bandoneon of Astor Piazzolla, in addition to his many and varied jazz influences. This is not an academic suite, folks, this is some stomping, fine music played by a big band which understands more than a little about groove and

rhythm. There is so much here, so many funky, gritty bumps, grinds, and shouts and so much

lyrical and intervallic invention and harmonic rabble rousing, that it's useless to talk about the individual compositions. It is important to say that this is a major work, one that will hopefully continue to be performed long after the emissaries of official culture have retired to their big houses with armed guards at the gates to protect them from real-life music like this. Gritty, real, and full of humor and even an occasional vulgar note or three, this is the antidote for the American malaise." -All Music Guide

"Lowe is a talent not to be missed....he mixes tradition and experimentation with daring wit." Cadence

"a work of unparalleled complexity and beauty...each composition is a sonic masterpiece via Lowe's brilliance and open-mindedness. His solo lines...are the secret of great playing. He's a total joy to hear." Saxophone Journal

"Lowe is an important arranger and bandleader." - The New York Post

"as an arranger/conceptualist Lowe is doing things that no one else is doing." - Jazz Times

"Lowe lacks the polish of Wynton Marsalis but has more soul." - Downbeat

Edited by AllenLowe
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7/4 Newbie

7/4

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well, I don't really have the DEEP SOUL of a lava lamp -

lol

Allen what a great collection of quips.

Here's a favorite:

"He doesn't seem to pay any attention to his guitar tone." - Portland Phoenix

They're all a hoot.
:lol:

Edited by 7/4
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tkeith Enthusiast

tkeith

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"This is not a Space Event."

-Nat May, Artistic Director, the Space Gallery, Portland, Maine

This might be the finest compliment available in Portland. I recall playing a killer set there one night for the bartender and the sound man (who was a bit of a putz). Someone taped it for us, but never got in touch with me. That sucked.

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Chalupa Newbie

Chalupa

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Since we don't have an "Allen Lowe Corner" I thought I'd post this here. While perusing the online archives of the Philadelphia Inquirer I found this little tidbit...

Philadelphia Inquirer, The (PA)-April 26, 1991

Author: Jack Lloyd, Inquirer Staff Writer

ACCORDION JAZZ? When was the last time you heard an accordion as part of a serious jazz group? The squeeze box, after all, is not generally considered compatible with the standard instruments of jazz.

Well, tenor saxophonist Allen Lowe is a serious jazz musician/composer. In his developmental stages he was touched by the greats of avant-garde and by bop approaches. And on his excellent, recently released CD, The Moment of Impact, accordion music is quite evident on two tango jazz pieces. The results are delightful, and that point can be made for most of the music on this release.

So when the Allen Lowe Quartet performs tomorrow night at the Painted Bride Art Center, there's no telling what to expect. Whatever, it's bound to be interesting. Appearing with Lowe will be noted trombonist Jimmy Knepper, who had been a close associate of the late Charles Mingus. The group will be rounded out by Jeff Fuller on bass and Ray Kaczynski on drums.

The Allen Lowe Quartet at the Painted Bride Art Center, 230 Vine St., tomorrow at 8 and 10 p.m. Tickets are $12. Phone: 925-9914.

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