Guitar Moods By Mundell Lowe

I got interested in Mundell Lowe through a very roundabout way, via the famed PBS show "Introducing Roy Buchanan". The show itself is widely known as "The World's Greatest Unknown Guitarist", which irked Buchanan somewhat, however, the show presented Buchanan not only as a blues/country rocker, but as someone who could play with incredible taste and subtlety, witness the incredible circle picking demonstration with the small Fender Champ amp at his parent's home. During the documentary, Buchanan cites Mundell Lowe as one of his main influences, and does an incredible jam with him on "Misty". It piqued my interest for many years, and I've finally gotten around to digging into Lowe's catalog.

Guitar Moods was originally recorded in 1956 for Riverside and was remastered this year by Fantasy. The remastered CD's sonics are warm and intimate, with a small soundstage, very similar to the Wes Montgomery reissues. No surprise there, as the original recording was done by Rudy Van Gelder and one of the original producers was Orrin Keepnews, both prominent fixtures in recording the Riverside jazzers. The CD sounded excellent both on high-end and mid-fi systems.

The performances are excellent as well. This music isn't pyrotechnic, it's standards played with deference and taste. Mr. Lowe's playing on the album is transcendent, definitive chord-melody playing. It's a different feel than say, Joe Pass, which requires more (for want of a better term) involvement on the part of the listener. This is music that works on all levels of listening, in the same way that say, Charlie Byrd works for me. It's melodic, relaxing and never boring. It's a great late night CD, going into the rotation with Wes and Charlie.

As a guitar player I'm always interested in the tools used by the greats, and Mr. Lowe is no exception. On his web site, Mr. Lowe is pictured with several Gibsons an Ibanez, and what appears to be an Epiphone Emperor, however on the cover of the CD he's holding what looks like it could be a D'Angelico New Yorker (the angle makes it hard to tell, it's a non-cutaway version and the headstock looks like it could be one of John's masterpieces, but the neck inlays look like dots, hard to tell. There's something awfully magical about those big archtops, and for some reason they just seem to be the right thing for this great music.

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