Lowe, John

Multi-reed musician whose earliest recording appears to be Cal Tjader Plays the Contemporary Music of Mexico and Brazil, recorded in 1962. In 1964, he recorded From Hello Dolly to Goodbye Charlie with Bobby Darin and played saxophone on Here and Now with Bob Florence, with whom he would collaborate several times.

He was then an erstwhile member of Ray Conniff’s orchestra on 1965’s Friendly Persuasion: In the same year, he appeared on a mouthful of a pair of albums, New Horizons: Stan Kenton Conducts The Los Angeles Neophonic Orchestra – The Electric Premiere Performance: January 4, 1965 and New Horizons: Stan Kenton Conducts The Los Angeles Neophonic Orchestra/Joel Kaye Directs The New York Neophonic Orchestra and The Neophonic Jazz Orchestra.

In the early to mid-‘60s, he also played baritone saxophone and clarinet for Ann-Margret on tracks that would eventually appear on her album, 1961-1966. In 1966, he reunited with Bobby Darin on his LP, In a Broadway Bag, and was in the sax section of Bud Shank & The Sax Section. He recorded at least four albums in 1967: Clare Fischer’s Duality; Carmen McRae’s Portrait of Carmen; The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees; and, most famously, Lalo Schifrin’s score of Mission: Impossible.

In 1968, he recorded More Mission: Impossible, played bass sax on Clare Fischer’s Thesaurus, sax on Carmen McRae’s The Sound of Silence, and was in the woodwind section on Michael Nesmith’s The Wichita Train Whistle Sings and Nilsson’s Aerial Ballet. He played clarinet and saxophone on a pair of Clare Fischer albums, Memento and Waltz, and appeared with Milt Jackson and the Ray Brown Band on Memphis Jackson, all released in 1969.

In 1977, he performed on violinist Noel Pointer’s Phantazia. Then he rejoined Lalo Schifrin for the soundtrack of Nunzio and made a side trip to the Blue Virgin Isles with Ted Gardestad. In 1979, he collaborated once again with Bob Florence on Jewels, appeared on Frank Sinatra’s Trilogy, and performed on the soundtrack of the George Hamilton Dracula spoof, Love at First Bite.

More film work followed in 1982 on Tom Waits’ soundtrack of One from the Heart. In 1983, he did another Tom Waits album, Swordfishtrombones, and appeared on Michel Colombier’s Old Fool Back on Earth. He then helped out Jill Jones on her eponymous album in 1987.

The CD era is chock full of opportunities to hear John Lowe on a variety of reed instruments: A good case in point is Bob Florence’s 1992 CD, Soaring, on which he played baritone sax, bass clarinet, contrabass clarinet, and E-flat clarinet. He also multi-tasked on The Bob Florence Limited Edition in Concert: Funupmanship and Bob Florence’s State of the Art, both released on CD in 1993.

In 1994, he appeared on the anthology, Jazz ‘round Midnight: Bossa Nova. He also played saxophone on The Monkees’ Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd., re-released on CD in 1995. In 1996, he appeared on a pair of compilations, The New Groove: The Blue Note Remix Project, Vol. 1 and Shaken Not Stirred, on which he played alto flute, baritone sax, bass clarinet, bass flute, clarinet, and flute. He appropriately made the cut on The Monkees’ Anthology, unveiled on CD in 1998.

Other CDs on which he appears include The Christmas Album of David Foster, Pete Jolly Trio and Friends, The Big Latin Band of Henry Mancini, and The Mel Torme Collection.

Here is “Violet Blue” by Jill Jones which John performs on…

Sources:

Lowe, John

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