After more than half a century, Allison's unique voice still sings.Byline: Fred Crafts The Register-Guard Just back from a long road trip, singer-songwriter Mose Allison Mose John Allison, Jr. (born November 11 1927) is an American jazz pianist and singer. He was born in Tallahatchie County, in the heart of the Mississippi Delta. He played piano in grammar school and trumpet in high school. is casually cooking up some eggs for breakfast while just as casually discussing his long career. Allison plays about 120 concerts a year and travels to England twice a year for long engagements. Not bad for a man who is 75 years old and never had a hit record. "Traveling is getting to be a real pain, but the actual gig I always enjoy," Allison says by phone from his home on New York's Long Island. "So far, so good." Allison has been a traveling man for 53 years now. He began the musician's life in Lake Charles Lake Charles, city (1990 pop. 70,580), seat of Calcasieu parish, SW La.; inc. 1867. It is located on Lake Charles at the mouth of the Calcasieu River in a rice, timber, oil, and natural gas region. , La., in 1950. Right from the start, he exhibited a unique approach that was an amalgam of country blues Country blues (also folk blues, rural blues, backwoods blues, or downhome blues) refers to all the acoustic, guitar-driven forms of the blues. After blues' birth in the southern United States, it quickly spread throughout the country (and elsewhere), , gospel and jazz, sung in a laid-back, Southern drawl drawl v. drawled, drawl·ing, drawls v.intr. To speak with lengthened or drawn-out vowels. v.tr. and accompanied by bluesy piano grooves. The "Mose Allison style," he says, just came naturally. "I don't remember learning it from anybody. It's just a combination of my background, my natural sound and whatever technique I have. "My piano style developed from playing 50 years of no technique." Allison laughs at the thought of his piano prowess. Largely self-taught, he claims he does a lot of things wrong and doesn't sight-read much at all. "I never took the trouble to learn all these runs up and down the piano that the real trained pianist does. My approach has been through intuition mostly.' Although Allison started taking piano lessons when he was 5, he quit "as soon as I found out I could pick out things by ear." He says he wrote his first song when I was 12 or 13 and made his first public appearance was he was in the seventh grade. A combination of everything Allison grew up in a rich musical environment in Tippo, Miss., where he "heard everything that's a part of American music pretty much by the time I was a teen-ager. "I got acquainted with classical stuff through lessons. There was a lot of country music around there, and there was a lot of country blues. `I heard Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller Noun 1. Fats Waller - United States jazz musician (1904-1943) Thomas Wright Waller, Waller , people like that, from a cousin of mine who had some jazz records Jazz Records is a United States jazz record company specialising in the issue of previously unreleased recordings from the family archive of jazz pianist Lennie Tristano. See also
By the time he arrived in New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. in 1956, he had his distinct vocal and piano styles together. "I was trying to incorporate the country blues stuff I heard growing up with jazz," he says. In the heady New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of jazz scene, Allison worked with Al Cohn Al Cohn was an American jazz saxophonist and arranger/composer. Life and career Cohn was initially known in the 1940s for playing in Woody Herman's Second Herd as one of the Four Brothers, along with Zoot Sims, Stan Getz, and Serge Chaloff. , Zoot Sims John Haley "Zoot" Sims (October 29, 1925 - March 23, 1985) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and soprano saxophonist. He was born in Inglewood, California. Growing up in a vaudeville family, Sims learned to play both drums and clarinet at an early age. and Gerry Mulligan Gerald Joseph "Gerry" Mulligan (April 6 1927 – January 20 1996) was an American jazz saxophonist, composer and arranger. Though Mulligan was primarily known as one of the leading baritone saxophonists in jazz history, noted for playing the big instrument with a light until he "started getting enough publicity for my own records where I could work with a trio." His first album was "Back Country Suite," recorded in 1957. Although his recordings brought Allison attention, he says they didn't provide much income. He bristles when the topic of the music business comes up during conversation. "I try to ignore the music business," he says, grumbling. "The music business and I don't have much in common. I don't want to get started on that." But he goes on: "What I do has never been considered very significant as far as the music business goes." In fact, Allison baldly states that "none of my records have ever paid for themselves, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. the record compa- nies." Despite attention given to his single "Seventh Son"/"I Love the Life I Live," he insists, "I've never had a hit. I've never had a media push of any kind. "I'm still working partly because other musicians have done my stuff and given me plugs and all that. The only time I get some money from the music business is when somebody like Van Morrison or Bonnie Raitt Bonnie Lynn Raitt (born November 8, 1949) is a nine-time Grammy award-winning American blues singer-songwriter and guitarist who was born in Burbank, California, the daughter of Broadway musical star John Raitt. or Elvis Costello or Pete Townshend does my stuff. `I make money on the song, but my particular records never sold." "Seventh Son," then, doesn't count for much with Allison. "That's not my song," he says about the tune penned by Willie Dixon. The state of the music business dealt with, Allison turns to the joys of performing. "The main thing is playing the gig and what you can get going on the gig," he says. `That's why I got into it, and why I'm still in it.' A serious songwriter Although Allison has recorded tunes by Duke Ellington, John Loudermilk, Richard Jones and others, it's his own songs that draw the fans. Allison takes songwriting very seriously, but he seems to go about it quite casually. "I get these phrases or the central idea of the song in my mind.' he says. `It just sits there for a while, then something will boost it along and it will turn into a musical phrase. Then when I get the musical phrase settled, that shows me the form the song is going to take. `It just develops. I don't even go to the piano with it until I've pretty much got it straight in my head. I don't have a program. I don't sit down to write out what I'm trying to express. I just express it. `I have a certain temperament. And that temperament is sort of a combination of Mississippi Delta, jazz musician and English major." Does he have a favorite song? "Every one I write, I hope, is going to be it," he says with a laugh. "The ones I consider work best, I like to do the most. `That's what you'll be hearing in Eugene. The stuff that's lasted." Fred Crafts can be reached at 338-2575 or fcrafts@guardnet.com. CONCERT PREVIEW Mose Allison Trio What: Blues singer-pianist Mose Allison performs originals and covers from his 53-year career When: 7:30 p.m. June 6 Where: John G. Shedd John Graves Shedd (July 20, 1850 - October 22, 1926) was the second president and chairman of the board of Marshall Field & Company. Born on a New Hampshire farm, Shedd arrived in Chicago, Illinois in 1871 and began working as a stock clerk for Marshall Field. Institute for the Arts, 285 E. Broadway How much: $12.50 to $28.50 through at the Oregon Festival of American Music Oregon Festival of American Music is an eclectic, thematically-based two-week summer music festival that has been held annually in Eugene, Oregon since 1992. Produced by The John G. box office, 687-6526 CAPTION(S): Mose Allison quit taking piano lessons when he learned he could play things by ear. And he's still at it. |
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