Lester Bowie (
11 October
1941–
8 November
1999) was an American
jazz
trumpet player and
composer. He was a member of the
AACM,
and cofounded the
Art Ensemble
of Chicago.
Biography
Born in
Frederick,
Maryland
, Bowie grew up in St Louis, Missouri
. At the age of five he started studying the
trumpet with his father, a professional musician. He played with
blues musicians such as
Little Milton and
Albert King, and
rhythm and blues stars such as
Solomon Burke,
Joe Tex,
and
Rufus Thomas. In 1965 he became
Fontella Bass's musical director and
husband. He was a cofounder of BAG (
Black Artists' Group) in St
Louis.
In 1966 he
moved to Chicago
, where he
worked as a studio musician, and met Muhal Richard Abrams and Roscoe Mitchell and became a member of the
AACM. In 1968 he founded the
Art Ensemble of Chicago with
Mitchell,
Joseph Jarman, and
Malachi Favors. He remained a member of this
group for the rest of his life, and was also a member of
Jack DeJohnette's
New Directions quartet.
He lived
and worked in Jamaica
and Africa, and played and recorded with Fela Kuti. Bowie's onstage appearance, in a
white lab coat, with his goatee waxed into two points, was an
important part of the Art Ensemble's stage show.
In 1984 he formed
Lester Bowie's Brass Fantasy, a
brass nonet in
which Bowie demonstrated jazz's links to other forms of popular
music, a decidedly more populist approach than that of the Art
Ensemble. With this group he recorded songs made popular by
Whitney Houston,
Michael Jackson,
Marilyn Manson, and the
Spice Girls -- along with more "serious"
material. His
New York Organ Ensemble featured
James Carter and
Amina Claudine Myers.
Although seen as part of the
avant-garde, Bowie embraced techniques from the
whole history of jazz trumpet, filling his music with humorous
smears, blats, growls, half-valve effects, and so on. His affinity
to reggae and ska is exemplified by his composition "Ska Reggae
Hi-Bop", which he performed with the
Skatalites on their 1994 "Hi-Bop Ska" (and again
with
James Carter on
"Conversin' With The Elders")
Bowie took an adventurous and humorous approach to music, and
criticized
Wynton Marsalis for his
conservative approach to jazz tradition.
Bowie died of liver cancer in 1999. The following year he was
inducted into the
Down Beat Jazz
Hall of Fame. In 2001 the Art Ensemble of Chicago recorded
Tribute to Lester.
Discography
As leader
Lester Bowie's Brass Fantasy
Lester Bowie's New York Organ Ensemble
With the Art Ensemble of Chicago
with The Leaders
As sideman
Notes
- Voce, S. Obituary: Lester Bowie The Independent,
November 12, 1999
- Kelsey, Chris. allmusic
- Babcock, J Lester Bowie on Fela Kuti, Mean
Magazine October/November 1999
References
- Philippe Carles, André Clergeat, and Jean-Louis Comolli,
Dictionnaire du jazz, Paris, 1994
- Ian Carr, Digby Fairweather and Brian Priestley, Jazz: the
Essential Companion, London, 1987
- Richard Cook and Brian Morton, The Penguin Guide to Jazz on
CD, 6th Edition, 2002
External links
Wikis
Quiz
Map
Search
