- Mose Allison
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Mose Allison 
Background information Birth name Mose John Allison, Jr. Born November 11, 1927
Tippo, Tallahatchie County, Mississippi, United StatesGenres Jazz, jazz blues, blues Instruments Piano, vocals, trumpet Years active 1956–present Website moseallison.com Mose John Allison, Jr. (born November 11, 1927, Tippo, Tallahatchie County, Mississippi, United States) is an American jazz blues pianist and singer.
Contents
Biography
Allison played piano in grammar school and trumpet in high school. He went to college at the University of Mississippi for a while, then enlisted in the U.S. Army for two years. Fresh out of the Army, he enrolled at Louisiana State University, from which he was graduated in 1952 with a BA in English with a minor in Philosophy.[1] It was at that point that 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. 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. Titled "Mose Allison Sings, it was an inspired collection of songs that paid tribute to artists of the Mojo Triangle: Sonny Boy Williamson ("Eyesight to the Blind"), Jimmie Rodgers ("That's 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. Explained Allison to Nine-O-One Network Magazine: "I don't do the cotton sack songs much anymore. You go to the Mississippi Delta and there are no cotton sacks. It's all machines and chemicals.".[2]
His 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 used it to open their original Live at Leeds album), and Georgie Fame.[citation needed] Blue Cheer also recorded a version of his song "Parchman Farm" on their debut album. The Yardbirds and The Misunderstood both recorded versions of his song "I'm Not Talking".
His song "Look Here" was covered by The Clash on their album Sandinista!. Leon Russell covered Allison's 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 "Everybody's Cryin' Mercy" on his album Kojak Variety and "Your Mind Is On Vacation" on King of America (Bonus Tracks). Frank Black of the Pixies claims that the song "Allison" off the album Bossanova is about Mose Allison.[3] 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 Mose Allison's song "I Don't 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. Alternative rock band Pixies wrote the song "Allison" as a tribute to Mose Allison. Eve 6 did a cover of "Allison" for Where Is My Mind? A Tribute to the Pixies.
Allison was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame in 2006.
Allison has stated over the past few years that he would not be recording any new albums, but as of March 1, 2010, his website declared that his "new album, 'The Way of the World,' arrives March 23, 2010, marking his return to the recording studio after a 12-year absence."
Discography
- 1957 : Back Country Suite (Prestige 7091)
- 1957 : Local Color (Prestige 7121)
- 1958 : Young Man Mose (Prestige 7137)
- 1958 : Creek Bank (Prestige 7152)
- 1958 : Ramblin' with Mose (Prestige 7215)
- 1959 : Autumn Song (Prestige 7189)
- 1959 : A Modern Jazz Premiere (Columbia)
- 1959 : Transfiguration of Hiram Brown (Columbia/Legacy)
- 1960 : I Love the Life I Live (Columbia/Legacy)
- 1961 : V-8 Ford Blues (Epic/Legacy)
- 1961 : Take to the Hills (Epic)
- 1962 : That's Jazz (Atlantic)
- 1962 : I Don't Worry About a Thing (Atlantic), (Rhino)
- 1962 : Swingin' Machine (Atlantic)
- 1963 : Mose Allison Sings (Prestige 7279)
- 1964 : The Songs of Mose Allison (Atlantic)
- 1964 : The Word from Mose Allison (Atlantic)
- 1965 : Wild Man on the Loose (Atlantic)
- 1965 : Mose Alive! (Atlantic)
- 1965 : Down Home Piano (Prestige 7423)
- 1965 : Mose Allison Plays for Lovers (Prestige 7446)
- 1968 : I've Been Doin' Some Thinkin' (Atlantic)
- 1969 : Hello There, Universe (Atlantic)
- 1971 : Western Man (Atlantic)
- 1972 : Mose in Your Ear [live] (Atlantic)
- 1972(?) : Retrospective (Columbia)
- 1975 : Creek Bank (1958 recordings from 2 different sessions) (Prestige Records)
- 1976 : Your Mind is on Vacation (Koch)
- 1978 : Pure Mose [live] (32 Jazz)
- 1979 : Ol' Devil Mose [compilation] (Prestige 24089)
- 1982 : Middle Class White Boy (Discovery)
- 1982 : Lessons in Living [live] (Elektra)
- 1987 : Ever Since the World Ended (Blue Note)
- 1988 : The Best of Mose Allison (Atlantic)
- 1989 : My Backyard (Blue Note)
- 1993 : The Earth Wants You [live] (Blue Note)
- 1994 : Allison Wonderland Anthology (Rhino Records)
- 1996 : Tell Me Something: The Songs of Mose Allison (Verve Records)
- 1997 : Gimcracks and Gewgaws (Blue Note)
- 2001 : The Mose Chronicles: Live in London, vol. 1 (Blue Note)
- 2002 : The Mose chronicles: live in London, vol. 2 (Blue Note)
- 2010 : The Way of the World (ANTI-)
References
- ^ Dickerson, James L. (2005). Mojo Triangle:Birthplace of Country, Blues, Jazz and Rock 'n' Roll (Schirmer Trade Books), pp. 110-112
- ^ 901 Interview (May 1987), Nine-O-One Network Magazine, p.6
- ^ AlecEiffel.net Pixies Titles/Names. Retrieved on 2008-04-01. Archived 28 June 2007 at WebCite
External links
Categories:- 1927 births
- American blues singers
- American jazz pianists
- American jazz singers
- Jazz-blues pianists
- Atlantic Records artists
- Living people
- Louisiana State University alumni
- Musicians from Mississippi
- University of Mississippi alumni
- Prestige Records artists
- People from Tallahatchie County, Mississippi
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