Jazz / blues pianist and songwriter Mose Allison was born on this day in 1927 in Tippo, MS. Allison was born outside Tippo, Mississippi on his grandfathers farm, which was known as The Island because Tippo Bayou encircles it.[1] He took piano lessons from age five,[2] picked cotton, played piano in grammar school and trumpet in high school,[3] and wrote his first song at age thirteen.[4][5] He went to college at the University of Mississippi for a while, then enlisted in the U.S. Army for two years.[6] Shortly after mustering out, he enrolled at Louisiana State University, from which he was graduated in 1952 with a BA in English with a minor in Philosophy.[7] In 1956 he moved to New York City and launched his jazz career performing with artists such as Stan Getz, Gerry Mulligan, Al Cohn, Zoot Sims, and Phil Woods.[3] His debut album, Back Country Suite, was issued on the Prestige label in 1957. He formed his own trio in 1958. It was not until 1963 that his record label allowed him to release an album entirely of vocals. Entitled Mose Allison Sings, it was a collection of songs that paid tribute to artists of the Mojo Triangle: Sonny Boy Williamson (Eyesight to the Blind), Jimmy Rogers (Thats All Right) and Willie Dixon (The Seventh Son). However, it was an original composition in the album that brought him the most attention – Parchman Farm. For more than two decades, Parchman Farm was his most requested song. He dropped it from his playlist in the 1980s because some critics felt it was politically incorrect. Allison explained to Nine-O-One Network Magazine: I dont do the cotton sack songs much anymore. You go to the Mississippi Delta and there are no cotton sacks. Its all machines and chemicals.[8] Prestige Records tried to market Allison as a pop star, but Columbia Records and later Atlantic Records tried to market him as a blues artist. Because he sang blues, Jet magazine thought that he was black and wanted to interview him.[9] Allison was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame in 2006. Allisons March 2010 album, The Way of the World, marked his return to the recording studio after a 12-year absence.[10] In 2012, Allison was honored with a blues marker on the Mississippi Blues Trail in his hometown of Tippo.[11] On January 14, 2013, Allison was honored as a Jazz Master by the National Endowment for the Arts at a ceremony at Lincoln Center in New York. The NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship is the nations highest honor in jazz.[12] Allison has written some 150 songs.[2] His own performances have been described as delivered in a casual conversational way with a melodic southern accented tone that has a pitch and range ideally suited to his idiosyncratic phrasing, laconic approach and ironic sense of humour.[13] Influence Allisons music has influenced many blues and rock artists, including Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones, Tom Waits, The Yardbirds, John Mayall, J. J. Cale, The Who (who made Young Man Blues a staple of their live performances), and Georgie Fame, who described him, at a concert at the Rose Theatre Kingston on 24 May 2013, as more important than Bob Dylan. Blue Cheer also recorded a version of his song Parchman Farm on their debut album, as well as the band Cactus, featuring Carmine Appice and Tim Bogert in the very early seventies. The Yardbirds and The Misunderstood both recorded versions of his song Im Not Talking. His song Look Here was covered by The Clash on their album Sandinista!. Leon Russell covered Allisons song Smashed! on his album Stop All That Jazz. Van Morrison released an album of his songs entitled Tell Me Something: The Songs of Mose Allison, and Elvis Costello recorded Everybodys Cryin Mercy on his album Kojak Variety and Your Mind Is On Vacation on King of America (Bonus Tracks). Dani Klein of Belgian music act Vaya Con Dios recorded Mind on Vacation on the album Roots and Wings. Frank Black of the Pixies claims that the song Allison from the album Bossanova is about Mose Allison.[14] He also states this at the beginning of the video for the song. His song Monsters of the Id was recorded by Stan Ridgway on his 2004 album Snakebite: Blacktop Ballads And Fugitive Songs. The film The Whole Nine Yards begins with Allisons song I Dont Worry About a Thing during the opening credits. Americana singer-songwriter Greg Brown wrote and performed the song Mose Allison Played Here on his 1997 album, Slant 6 Mind. Personal life Mose married his wife Audre in 1949.[15] They live on Long Island, where they raised four children, including daughter Amy, a musician.[16] His wife has said that, when she first met him, I could tell that he was someone who generated his own joy.[17] She has also said that Mose has always paid attention to what is happening in the world, and has always read voraciously both past and present histories.[5] Political and cultural views Allison is reported to have strong views about the domination of money over everything, the growing lack of empathy on the part of the powers-that-be for the population, wars and more wars, and an underlying hypocrisy in society[5] and the arrogance of colonisers of the Americas.[15]
Posted on: Tue, 11 Nov 2014 14:26:47 +0000
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