Academic paper on Mundell Lowe

[AndyV]

Mundell does get talked about all that much but he was a fine player and arranger.

(PDF) AN ANALYSIS OF MUNDELL LOWE'S ACCOMPANIMENT TECHNIQUES ON THE SARAH VAUGHAN ALBUM "AFTER HOURS" | Marcos Rosa - Academia.edu

[nyc chaz]

Thanks so much for the link.Just giving it a quick scan,it looks to be quite interesting.

[Jimmy blue note]

Thanks for sharing this. It's quite an informed paper. I can't wait to dig into it and learn something I didn't know! Mundell Lowe was a very important and overlooked guitarist of that era. Cool!

[jameslovestal]

I was lucky enough to see Lowe, multiple times, at Donte's in West Hollywood Calif. back in the 80s, and later on at various places in So Cal up until his passing in 2017. One time at Donte's when I was in my early 20s, he asked for request. I called out Far from Vanilla. He laughed and said "really?!".

I told him yea, and he agreed to play it on the last set since it was a far from vanilla song. He had a fairly small Pollytone amp, but what a sound he could make.

[SierraTango]

I was lucky enough to see Lowe, multiple times, at Donte's in West Hollywood Calif. back in the 80s, and later on at various places in So Cal up until his passing in 2017. One time at Donte's when I was in my early 20s, he asked for request. I called out Far from Vanilla. He laughed and said
"really?!".

I told him yea, and he agreed to play it on the last set since it was a far from vanilla song. He had a fairly small Pollytone amp, but what a sound he could make.

Not to be picky, however Donte's was located on Lankershim Bl. in North Hollywood until it was torn down in about 1988.

[wintermoon]

I was lucky enough to see Lowe, multiple times, at Donte's in West Hollywood Calif. back in the 80s, and later on at various places in So Cal up until his passing in 2017. One time at Donte's when I was in my early 20s, he asked for request. I called out Far from Vanilla. He laughed and said "really?!".

I told him yea, and he agreed to play it on the last set since it was a far from vanilla song. He had a fairly small Pollytone amp, but what a sound he could make.

unless he played it solo I'm surprised he laid that on whatever sidemen were on the gig.

[jameslovestal]

Not to be picky, however Donte's was located on Lankershim Bl. in North Hollywood until it was torn down in about 1988.

Thanks for the correction. Yea, I'm getting old! At first I just had Hollywood, because I couldn't remember, but yea, it was North Hollywood, and good old Lankershim. I've been to Donte's at least 50 times seeing Joe Pass and Herb Ellis (which was recorded and a record was released), Tal Farlow (with Red Norvo), Lowe, Howard Roberts, Gabor Szabo (once with Roberts which was very interesting), Grant Geissman (where Grant asked me if his girlfriend could sit at our table, which was funny because I took a rocker friend with me and I told him how much more inmate jazz shows where then rock concerts and, the leader of the band has his gal, sit with us!), and countless others.

Donte and the near by Baked Potato. Those where the days.

[jameslovestal]

unless he played it solo I'm surprised he laid that on whatever sidemen were on the gig.

He did play it solo and only for a few minutes since the bass player didn't know this original song. There were only about 6 of us left for this last show. Lowe even joked that we all must be jazz guitar nerds (we were!). What was also funny was that a few of us had dates. These gals were all asleep! Yea, going with me to Donte's wasn't an ideal date night for a gal.

[SierraTango]

Those were some golden days. As I have posted before I was a staff mixer at Group IV recording studios were Joe Pass did a lot of recording. I saw Joe at Dante's. I did meet Mundell later in the 90's through Jim Mapson, he built a guitar for him. I commissioned a build as well from Jim, a 7 string. During the wait period I decided to go back to 6 strings, and the guitar I ordered went To John Abercrombie.
I may have been one of the guitar nerds in the audience with you!

[nyc chaz]

Had time last night to go and read the paper more and it is really well done and informative.Wish i had something like that when i was 18.I hadn't listened to that album in years and had forgotten what a gem it was along with the other one Sarah Vaughan did with Barney Kessel later on.

[sgcim]

Those were some golden days. As I have posted before I was a staff mixer at Group IV recording studios were Joe Pass did a lot of recording. I saw Joe at Dante's. I did meet Mundell later in the 90's through Jim Mapson, he built a guitar for him. I commissioned a build as well from Jim, a 7 string. During the wait period I decided to go back to 6 strings, and the guitar I ordered went To John Abercrombie.
I may have been one of the guitar nerds in the audience with you!

You'd think that making a guitar for a great guitarist like Mundell Lowe would be an honor for a luthier.
Roger Borys told me he was so proud that he got an order from Mundy, that he phoned Jimmy D"Aquisto to tell him about it. Instead of being happy for Roger, Jimmy told him not to do it.
He told Roger that Mundy was like a mad scientist when it came to guitars. Jimmy had made one for him, and he took it down to his basement and started doing all types of crazy things to it- drilling holes in it, taking out blocks, etc... By the time Mundy got through with it, it was like Frankenstein's monster!
Roger made the guitar for him anyway, and sure enough, Mundy did the same thing. By the time he was through with it, Roger could barely recognize it!
I wonder if he did the same thing with the guitar Mapson made for him.

[sgcim]

Mundell does get talked about all that much but he was a fine player and arranger.

(PDF) AN ANALYSIS OF MUNDELL LOWE'S ACCOMPANIMENT TECHNIQUES ON THE SARAH VAUGHAN ALBUM "AFTER HOURS" | Marcos Rosa - Academia.edu

I was making a record with a sax/clarinet/flute player a long time ago, and he wanted to record one of Mundell's tunes he wrote for a movie that I fell in love with, and did a transcription of for small jazz group instrumentation. It was originally written for an orchestra.
The winds player was an old friend of Mundell's from his studio days, so he had to call him up to get a release for it. I happened to be in his house when he called Mundell up. When he told Mundell which tune it was, Mundell said , "That POS? What the hell do you want to do that tune for?

I was completely freaked out. I thought it was a great song, but I was too shy to get on the phone, and Joe, the winds player told him he loved it, and Mundell signed the release form and we recorded it.
I told my guitar teacher about it, and he said Mundell had the reputation for hiring 'ghost writers' for some of his movie work, so maybe it had something to do with that. Who knows?
I heard it once on the Phil Schapp show on WKCR.

[SierraTango]

You'd think that making a guitar for a great guitarist like Mundell Lowe would be an honor for a luthier.
Roger Borys told me he was so proud that he got an order from Mundy, that he phoned Jimmy D"Aquisto to tell him about it. Instead of being happy for Roger, Jimmy told him not to do it.
He told Roger that Mundy was like a mad scientist when it came to guitars. Jimmy had made one for him, and he took it down to his basement and started doing all types of crazy things to it- drilling holes in it, taking out blocks, etc... By the time Mundy got through with it, it was like Frankenstein's monster!
Roger made the guitar for him anyway, and sure enough, Mundy did the same thing. By the time he was through with it, Roger could barely recognize it!
I wonder if he did the same thing with the guitar Mapson made for him.

I don't wish to derail this thread, however I posted this back in 2017:

"Jim Mapson built some outstanding archtops! I visited his shop in Santa Ana in the late 90's-it was in the back of his bread and butter business, Mapson Engineering, in a faceless industrial park. Jim was/is a very precise guy and his shop was state of the art. I placed a order/deposit on a 17' 7 string with a estimated delivery time of 18 months. At the time I was living on the East Coast and whenever I was in SoCal I would visit. I got to play Mundell's Guitar as well as it was in the shop for tweeking. Also got to hear him and Ron Eschete, who Jim built a 7 string for, play at Steamers in Fullerton."

It's entirely possible that Mundell did some mods to his Mapson. I remember chatting with Jim regarding Mundell's desire for a soundpost to control feedback. Apparently the two of them went back and forth several times trying to find the perfect soundpost setup, and I recall Jim wrote a very detailed article regarding the process. Mundell would have found the perfect person in Jim; he was a engineer at heart and ran all kinds of tests on the guitar he built for him to find out if the soundpost was interfering with the tone of the instrument. Of course it did! but they reached a compromise where both were happy from my understanding. It was during one of these "tweeking" visits that I was able to play it both acoustically and plugged in. It sounded much better plugged in as I recall.

[jmgalich]

Looks like Mundell was playing his Borys on Barry Manilow’s 2AM Paradise Cafe album.

Video is from Mundy’s son’s YouTube channel.

John Galich

[Rickco]

I noticed his D angelico "Mundy" was for sale on reverb for $75K and looks like it sold, I wonder if he drilled holes and modified that one!?

[jmgalich]

Thankfully, no, after looking at the listing:

D'Angelico New Yorker "MUNDY" 1958 sunburst finish with case | Reverb

John Galich

[wintermoon]

looks like the guard was left on way too long and the guitar was leaned up against a heater or something that melted the finish at the top of the headstock and back of neck.