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Lowell Davidson

Lowell Davidson was an experimental music pianist, composer, church organist at the Fire Baptized Holiness Church of God, aluminum contrabassist, and percussionist.

Graduated from Boston Latin School and in 1958 received a full scholarship to attend Harvard, intending to be a doctor of bio-chemistry. (This was the time of Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert experimentations with psychedelics.) In his seventh year as an undergraduate—he had been taking too much time from his studies to play in New York with Ornette Coleman, and other masters of avant-garde jazz—the scholarship was withdrawn. Without tuition money he was forced to leave Harvard. He began various Faustian experimentations with to gain paranormal abilities in both bio-chemical medical research and in music.

His tall athletic body, and brilliant mind could take only so much. As Icarus in Greek mythology he flew too close to the sun god Helios; the wax holding his wings melted, and he fell to his death.

Many of the recognized leaders of avant-garde jazz said that his work was outstanding: Ornette Coleman often mentioned that Lowell Davidson was his favorite pianist. Bill Dixon, instrumental figure in the birth of free jazz and not particularly known for heaping praise on others, called him, “A very advanced pianist." Famed jazz drummer Paul Motion, before his death, remembered as one major highlight of his long career a concert that that he played with Davidson around 1972.

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245
Album Review

Lowell Davidson: Trio

Read "Trio" reviewed by Lyn Horton


The seamless blending of musicians is often rare, especially in the instance of improvisation, because inherent in the situation is the heightened responsiveness of the musicians to each other.  In the re-released 1965 recording entitled Trio, from the late pianist Lowell Davidson with bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Milford Graves, the interaction among musicians is cultivated and beautifully expressed.

The language which the trio speaks has the same syntax.  The phrasing is isolated and abstract.  Just ...

250
Album Review

Lowell Davidson: Lowell Davidson Trio

Read "Lowell Davidson Trio" reviewed by Jerry D'Souza


Pianist Lowell Davidson was a man of many parts. A biochemist, he found his muse in music and a strong one it was. He not only played the piano, he also played drums with the New York Art Quintet. He was into avant-garde and free jazz forays that he raised to a new level through his manipulation of notes. The last is evidenced in the marvelous imagery that rises on this, his only record. Lowell had Gary Peacock on bass ...

340
Album Review

Lowell Davidson: Lowell Davidson Trio

Read "Lowell Davidson Trio" reviewed by Raul d'Gama Rose


Lowell Davidson was one of those quintessential artists. A pianist possessed of great virtuosity, he was also a Harvard-educated biochemist and his musical art--both compositions and performance--and emerged from a confluence of the two. Davidson inhabited a rarified space. He understood and played with such harmonic sophistication that he may be compared in this respect only to Thelonious Monk, Herbie Nichols and Don Pullen. As a scientist-musician he believed that musical tones, if properly employed, could influence the evolution of ...

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