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Alphonse Mouzon

Chairman/CEO of Tenacious Records, composer, arranger, producer, multi-instrumentalist and actor ALPHONSE MOUZON has been composing and producing beautiful music that has captivated and enthralled audiences throughout the world for over two decades.

ALPHONSE MOUZON (who is an African American mixed with French and Blackfoot Indian) was born on November 21st in Charleston, South Carolina. He attended Bonds-Wilson High School where he received his early musical training from 9th grade through the 12th grade. While in high school, ALPHONSE took some drum lessons from Charles (T.J.)Garner and played drums in the various bands of saxophonist Lonnie Hamilton with organist Jesse Williams and guitarist Joe Wilson. Following graduation from high school, he moved to New York to study music and drama at New York City College and medicine at Manhattan Medical School. MOUZON took drum lessons from jazz pianist Billy Taylor's drummer Bobby Thomas. While attending college, Alphonse played in the pit band of the Broadway show "PROMISES, PROMISES" after being recommended by Bobby Thomas. MOUZON also worked as a medical technologist at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital after graduating from Manhattan Medical School. However his medical career was short lived.

By 1969 his reputation as a player had spread to such an extent that a medical career was no longer attractive. By the early seventies, he had embarked upon a musical journey that would take him to almost every corner of the world and would establish his reputation as one the most creative musician of the era. In 1975 MOUZON studied acting at The Lee Strausberg Institute for Actors in Hollywood, California. In 1997 he studied acting with Susan Ricketts and in 1998 MOUZON studied advance voice-overs with Don Pitts at California State University of Northridge.

ALPHONSE MOUZON musical associations read like a veritable Who's Who of Modern Jazz and Pop Music. His talents cover a broad range of musical disciplines and philosophies. He was the rhythmic foundation for the far reaching musical explorations of pianist McCoy Tyner. He was a charter member/co-founding member along with the late great Austrian keyboardist Joe Zawinul, Czechoslovakian bassist Miroslav Vitous, Brazilian percussionist Airto Moreira, and legendary saxophonist Wayne Shorter, of the group Weather Report. Along with guitarist Larry Coryell, MOUZON was co-founder of The Eleventh House, the seminal fusion band of the seventies. The Larry Coryell's Eleventh House reunited after 25 years in July 1998 and toured all over the world featuring Alphonse Mouzon. In 2013 The Eleventh House had another reunion and played several concerts. In 2015, they plan to have another reunion.

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Extended Analysis

A Supreme Love

Read "A Supreme Love" reviewed by Duncan Heining


Alan Skidmore is one of the finest saxophonists to come out of the United Kingdom, Europe or indeed anywhere. In fact, it was hearing Skidmore's tenor solo on “Have You Heard?" from John Mayall's Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton (Decca, 1966) that encouraged a young Michael Brecker to take up the instrument. Skidmore had also served his apprenticeship with blues singer Alexis Kornerin the sixties and by the end of the decade was equally well-versed in the blues and in the ...

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Radio & Podcasts

Alphonse Mouzon, Bill Evans (Sax), Alain Caron and Joseph Patrick Moore

Read "Alphonse Mouzon, Bill Evans (Sax), Alain Caron and Joseph Patrick Moore" reviewed by Len Davis


The late Alphonse Mouzon opens with an epic piece featuring Freddie Hubbard and Herbie Hancock, Bill Evans with some soulful jazz funk, and bassist's Alain Caron, Joseph Patrick Moore and Tony Grey. Playlist Alphonse Mouzon “By All Means" from By All Means (MPS) 00:00 Bill Evans-Saxophone “Gimme Some" from Soul Insider (ESC) 07:57 Andy Narell “Natty Stick" from Slow Motion (Hip Pocket) 15:52 Alain Caron “Slam The Clown" from Rhythm'n Jazz (Norac) 23:54 Joseph Patrick Moore “Nevada Sun" ...

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Liner Notes

Larry Coryell: Improvisations: Best of the Vanguard Years

Read "Larry Coryell: Improvisations: Best of the Vanguard Years" reviewed by Josef Woodard


There have been many smoother operators in the world of jazz guitar than Larry Coryell, the brainy rough rider who was a natural-born fusioneer, in the best sense. There have been cleaner technicians on the instrument, with a more lucid sense of identity and careers that have followed a logical, rolling landscape. But not many have quite attained Coryell's strange, madly eclectic state of grace: into music he came, he saw and heard things not yet articulated, he conquered on ...

Radio & Podcasts

Classic '70s Fusion

Read "Classic '70s Fusion" reviewed by Len Davis


This week we visit the '70's for some classic fusion from Alphonse Mouzon, Michal Urbaniak as well as a couple of fairly obscure gems from Europe. Playlist Alphonse Mouzon “Nightmare" from In Search Of A Dream (MPS) 00:00 Michal Urbaniak “Deep Mountain" from Fusion (Columbia) 14:01 Isotope “Deep End" from Deep End (Gull) 22:13 Caldera “Exaltation" from Caldera (Capitol) 30:07 Iceberg “Bali De Les Fulles" from Sentiment (Picap) 37:11 Sphero “Black Hill Samba" from Sphero (Cobra) 49:08 Ken ...

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Album Review

Alphonse Mouzon: In Search Of A Dream

Read "In Search Of A Dream" reviewed by Chris May


2018 is the 50th anniversary of the founding of the distinguished German jazz label MPS. To mark the occasion, the label's catalogue of over 400 albums has been released on download, and a vinyl and CD remastering and reissue programme has begun. Alphonse Mouzon's In Search Of A Dream is among the first of these discs. Originally released in 1978, it was the fourth--and finest--jazz-rock set the drummer recorded for the label. During the 1970s, his ...

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Album Review

Alphonse Mouzon: Virtue

Read "Virtue" reviewed by John Kelman


Digging deep into the MPS catalog for its first reissues of 2009, Promising Music revives drummer Alphonse Mouzon's Virtue, an eclectic 1977 fusion date that may have coasted towards nascent smooth jazz territory but highlights the significant difference between what that term meant then and now.

With a chorus singing “Master Funk" over the funky opening track of the same name, and Mouzon's get-down clavinet playing (he adds a wealth of keyboards in addition to those ...

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Interview

Alphonse Mouzon: From Charleston Heights to Bel Air

Read "Alphonse Mouzon:  From Charleston Heights to Bel Air" reviewed by Mikayla Gilbreath


A fleeting glance at the cover of Alphonse Mouzon's CD Jazz in Bel-Air (Tenacious, 2008) gives one the impression that Mouzon was born into wealth, “with a silver spoon in his mouth." Listening to Mouzon's compositions and performance on the CD does nothing to dispel that impression. He delivers a live performance so polished and enjoyable that it would seem almost out-of-place in anything less than a top-notch venue. The use of earlier Mouzon compositions on television shows such as ...

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Advocacy

Alphonse Mouzon Needs Your Help

Alphonse Mouzon Needs Your Help

Source: All About Jazz

By Chuck Koton These are not words I ever thought I would have to write. Legendary drummer Alphonse Mouzon was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer in September. He had to immediately undergo surgery which has bought him some time. But his kidneys are too weak for radiation therapy and he is planning to go to Mexico for an alternative treatment program. Given the cost of this course of therapy, he has set up a Go Fund Me page ...

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Interview

One Track Mind: Alphonse Mouzon on Weather Report, McCoy Tyner, Solo Songs

One Track Mind: Alphonse Mouzon on Weather Report, McCoy Tyner, Solo Songs

Source: Something Else!

By Nick Deriso On this special edition of the Something Else! Reviews' One Track Mind, we hand the reins over to legendary fusion drummer Alphonse Mouzon. A life around jazz, and fellow jazz greats, has left Mouzon with his share of stories. So did the lengthy sessions for his impressive new recording Angel Face, which was 10 years in the making. Find out how he used to stash towels and refreshments behind his drum kit during marathon songs (several of ...

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Interview

Something Else! Interview: Jazz Drumming Legend Alphonse Mouzon

Something Else! Interview: Jazz Drumming Legend Alphonse Mouzon

Source: Something Else!

By Nick Deriso A seminal force in the berth of fusion, the versatile Alphonse Mouzon has played drums alongside of dizzying array of jazz greats. Even today, it's no different. He worked with Gil Evans on his 1969 release Blues in Orbit, then Roy Ayers at the turn of the decade. Later, Mouzon collaborated with Jaco Pastorius, Donald Byrd and Arild Andersen, then had lengthy stints with McCoy Tyner, Larry Coryell and Herbie Hancock into the 1980s. He was later ...

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Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Alphonse Mouzon

Jazz Musician of the Day: Alphonse Mouzon

Source: Michael Ricci


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Website

Mikayla's Totally Jazzed Profiles Drummer/Composer Alphonse Mouzon at AAJ

Mikayla's Totally Jazzed Profiles Drummer/Composer Alphonse Mouzon at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz

A fleeting glance at the cover of Alphonse Mouzon's CD Jazz in Bel-Air (Tenacious, 2008) gives one the impression that Mouzon was born into wealth, “with a silver spoon in his mouth." Listening to Mouzon's compositions and performance on the CD does nothing to dispel that impression. He delivers a live performance so polished and enjoyable that it would seem almost out-of-place in anything less than a top-notch venue. The use of earlier Mouzon compositions on television shows such as ...

Michael Waldrop
multi-instrumentalist

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

A Supreme Love

Confront Recordings
2023

buy

ANGEL FACE

Tenacious Records
2011

buy

THE MAIN ATTRACTION

Tenacious Records
2010

buy

Virtue

Promising Music/MPS
2009

buy

JAZZ IN BEL-AIR

Tenacious Records
2008

buy

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