Sammy Lowe

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Samuel "Sammy" Lowe (born May 14, 1918 in Birmingham (Alabama) ; † February 7, 1993 ibid) was an American trumpeter, arranger , orchestra director and music producer in the fields of jazz , rhythm and blues and pop music .

Live and act

Lowe attended Alabama State College, had lessons with the band leader John T. "Fess" Whatley and worked from the mid-1930s as a trumpeter and arranger for Erskine Hawkins , with whose orchestra the first recordings were made in 1936 for Vocalion Records . He worked for over twenty years at Hawkins, for whom he wrote "Bear Mash Blues", during this time also with Don Redman , Sammy Davis, Jr. , Cab Calloway , Sy Oliver , Lucky Millinder and Willie Bryant , as well as with Marla Smith , Bobby Smith , Julian Dash, and Dud Bascomb .

From the 1950s to 1970s, Lowe worked more with rock 'n' roll , rhythm and blues and soul musicians, most notably with Teacho Wiltshire as arranger / producer at Roulette Records ; In 1951 he recorded the instrumental number "Wimoweh" with his orchestra; With the song, The Tokens had a number 1 hit in the United States in 1961 under the new title " The Lion Sleeps Tonight ". Around 1960 he accompanied vocalists such as Rose Hardaway (It's Time for Rose) and Mary Ann Fisher with his orchestra ; he also played with Panama Francis , King Curtis , Sam "The Man" Taylor and Willis Jackson ( Soul Grabber , 1967) during this period .

In the 1960s, he worked as arranger and orchestral director for Sam Cooke , Benny Goodman , Roy Hamilton ("You Can Have Her"), Screamin 'Jay Hawkins , Anna King & Bobby Byrd , Little Peggy March , Nina Simone , Marge Dodson and Pat Thomas , also for the vocal groups Mickey & Sylvia ("Love Is the Only Thing"), The Platters ("My Prayer", 1962) and The Isley Brothers . He worked with James Brown for several years on his recording sessions for King Records ; Lowe was particularly involved in the arrangement and orchestration of the successful titles " Prisoner of Love " (1963) and " It's a Man's Man's Man's World " from 1966.

After Tom Lord , he participated in 109 recording sessions between 1936 and 1969. Under his own name he released a number of pop instrumental numbers such as "Baby Baby Baby" ( Mercury S1884X), "Easy My Love" (Candlelight 1014) and "Speak Up" (Newport 7001) in the late 50s and 60s. as well as the albums Hitsville USA and Cleopatra Rock ( RCA Victor ). In the 1970s he taught at a high school where he lived in Teaneck, New Jersey. After the death of his wife, he returned to his hometown of Birmingham, where he died in 1993. His son Sammy Lowe Jr. is a soul singer, songwriter and keyboardist. Lowe was inducted into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame in 1978 .

Martin Munro compared Lowes and Pee Wee Ellis ' work as arrangers and orchestral directors for James Brown with that of Charles Mingus and Duke Ellington , in which they transformed Brown's ideas into flexible but highly structured arrangements .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jet May 25, 1972, p. 62
  2. ↑ Laura Caldell Anderson (Birmingham Civil Rights Institute): Civil Rights in Birmingham , 2013, p. 20
  3. ↑ All Music Guide to Jazz: The Definitive Guide to Jazz Music edited by Vladimir Bogdanov, Chris Woodstra, Stephen Thomas Erlewine. P. 568.
  4. ^ John Clemente: Girl Groups: Fabulous Females Who Rocked The World 2013, p. 211.
  5. ↑ In Sammy Lowe's studio orchestra, a. a. Snooky Young . Joe Wilder , Taft Jordan , Johnny Hodges , Hank Jones , Everett Barksdale , Lloyd Trotman . See Leslie J. Pfenninger, Bob Porter: The Clef / Verve Labels: The MGM Era , Greenwood Press, 1986
  6. ^ Reggae Heritage: Jamaica's Music History, Culture & Politic by Lou Gooden
  7. ↑ Tom Lord The Jazz Discography (online, accessed February 26, 2014)
  8. ↑ Sammy Lowe Jr at Discogs (English)
  9. ^ Martin Munro Different Drummers: Rhythm and Race in the Americas . 2010.
personal data
SURNAME Lowe, Sammy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lowe, Samuel (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz and R&B musician, arranger and orchestra leader
DATE OF BIRTH May 14, 1918
PLACE OF BIRTH Birmingham, Alabama
DATE OF DEATH February 7, 1993
Place of death Birmingham, Alabama