Mundell Lowe - Five Classic Albums (Guitar Moods / Tv Action Jazz! / Porgy & Bess / a Grand Night for Swinging / Satan in High Heels) (Digitally Remastered) (2019)

Perhaps unsurprisingly for a jazz guitar player, our next musical hero, Mundell Lowe spent much of his career playing in large bands, accompanying solo artists and doing session and TV work. Amazingly he did also find time to produce many fine albums under his own name. His musical career started at age 16 when he found himself performing at the famed Grand Ole Opry. From there he went on to play in the bands and orchestras of Jon Savitt, Benny Goodman and Ray McKinley. His TV session work was complimented by his weekend work on the jazz circuit where he played with the likes of The Dorsey Brothers, Bill Evans, Billie Holiday, Charles Mingus as well as both “Bird” and “Pres”! He also was a key accompanist to the great jazz singer Carmen McCrae (AMSC1125). Our albums feature Mundell in a number of settings including a film soundtrack, a show tribute, a TV themes set, a more typical Lowe-ish mellow guitar album and unusually a more swinging outing appropriately titled “A Grand Night For Swinging”. This last album is one of the treasures of the set being a very rare, hard to find album (check out the prices on CD!). A few key names found among these grooves are Art Farmer, Gene Quill, Don Elliott, Donald Byrd, Clark Terry, Ed Shaughnessy, Ed Thigpen, Osie Johnson, Eddie Costa, Bew Webster, Billy Taylor and Doc Severinson.