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Biography
James Mundell Lowe (April 21, 1922 – December 2, 2017) was an American jazz guitarist whose career began when he was thirteen years old. He spent many years working in radio, television, and film, and many years as a session musician. He played with Benny Goodman, Jimmy Dorsey, Tommy Dorsey, Red Norvo, Sauter-Finegan Orchestra, Billie Holiday, Lester Young, Charlie Parker, Charles Mingus, Bill Evans, Benny Carter, Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald, Johnny Hodges, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Lee Konitz, Peggy Lee, Fats Navarro, Shirley Scott, Dinah Washington, and Ben Webster, a.o.. He produced film and TV scores in the 1970s, such as the Billy Jack soundtrack and music for Hawaii Five-O, Starsky and Hutch, and worked with André Previn's Trio in the 1990s.
The son of a Baptist minister, Lowell was raised on a farm in Laurel, Mississippi. He started playing guitar when he was eight years old, with his father and sister acting as his first teachers. When he was thirteen, he ran away from home to play with bands. Occasionally his father would find him, bring him back home, and warn him about the dangers of whiskey. At sixteen, Lowe worked in Nashville on the Grand Ole Opry radio program. He was a member of the Jan Savitt orchestra until serving in the military during World War II.
