Allen Lowe, Mike Shanley, Blues and the Empirical Truth
(Music and Arts) http://www.musicandarts.com/
Ah, music critics. Ask them a yes or no question about an album and you’ll get an oratory. Ask for a compilation and you might get… a nine-disc anthology.
That’s just what Allen Lowe compiled in the recent past. The descriptively-titled American Pop: An Audio History – From Minstrel to Mojo: On Record 1893-1946 contained nine discs. Then he outdid himself with That Devilin’ Tune: A Jazz History 1895-1950, which contained a whopping 36 pieces of plastic. And you probably don’t believe that much music was even recorded during that period. In addition to compiling the music, Lowe also wrote extensive texts to go along with each of these productions. Some might call it crazy, but it makes Lowe a man after my own heart.
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Blues and the Empirical Truth — Allen Lowe
9/11/11 — Scott Albin
Blues and the Empirical Truth– Allen Lowe [Music & Arts CD-1251]
Allen Lowe’s Blues and the Empirical Truth is one of the most ambitious and fulfilling projects to come out of the jazz world in recent years, a dazzling array of 52 blues and blues-based tracks covering three CDs and about 223 minutes in total. All composed and arranged by Lowe, it took at least seven recording sessions–from 2009 to early 2011–to complete. The end result is compulsive and mesmerizing.
Blues and the Empirical Truth can be seen as a logical milestone in the eclectic, wide-ranging career of Lowe, whose prior recordings included music inspired by the likes of Louis Armstrong and Astor Piazzolla, among others. Lowe’s 1994 release, Dark Was the Night–Cold Was the Ground was a direct precursor that like this new one featured trombonist extraordinaire Roswell Rudd. In addition, Lowe is the compiler and annotator of comprehensive anthologies such as the 9-CD American Pop: An Audio History–From Minstrel to Mojo: On Record 1893-1946; the 36-CD That Devilin’ Tune: A Jazz History 1895-1950; and the ongoing Really the Blues? A Blues History 1893-1959, which will eventually span yet another 36 CDs!
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