Special To The Mississippi Link
CLEVELAND – Composer, poet, pianist and vocalist Mose Allison will appear in concert at 7:30 p.m. in the Bologna Performing Arts Center on the Delta State campus in Cleveland on Wednesday, Feb. 15.
The concert, titled “DSU Welcomes Mose Allison Home,” is free to the public and admission will be on a first-come-first-served basis. Doors will open at 7 p.m.
Born in Tallahatchie County, Allison discovered at the age of five that he could play the piano by ear and began “picking out” blues and boogie tunes he heard on the local jukebox. In high school he listened to the music of Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller, Duke Ellington, Louis Jordan, and his prime inspiration, Nat King Cole of the King Cole Trio.
Allison played trumpet in the marching and dance bands and started writing his own songs.
After a year at the University of Mississippi, he went to the Army in 1946, playing in the Army Band in Colorado Springs and performing with accomplished musicians from around the country in small groups at NCO and Officer’s clubs. Returning to Ole Miss he joined the dance band as arranger, piano and trumpet player, but shortly left to form his own trio, playing piano and singing in a style influenced by Nat Cole, Louis Jordan and Erroll Garner. After a year on the road, Mose married, returned to college at Louisiana State University and graduated in 1952 with a BA in English and Philosophy.
He worked in nightclubs throughout the Southeast and West, blending the raw blues of his childhood with modern pianistic influences of John Lewis, Thelonius Monk and Al Haig. His vocal style was influenced by blues singers Percy Mayfield and Charles Brown.
Arriving in New York in 1956, Allison received encouragement, work and a record date from Al Cohn. In 1957 he secured his own first recording contract with Prestige Records, recording Back Country Suite, a collection of pieces evoking the Mississippi Delta, released to unanimous critical acclaim. Mose went on to play and record with jazz greats Stan Getz, Al Cohn, Zoot Sims and Gerry Mulligan as well as with his own Mose Allison Trio.
Allison has long lived in New York City and has been a major influence on musicians over the last 50 years and has been touring for at least that long.
His songs have been recorded by, among others, Van Morrison, the Who, Diana Krall, Bonnie Raitt, John Mayall (with Eric Clapton) and Elvis Costello. His singular style, a unique blending of jazz and blues, and his profound lyrical wit mark him as a true American original.
After his performance at DSU, Allison will be honored in Jackson, where the Mississippi Arts Commission will present him with a Governor’s Lifetime Achievement Award on Thursday, Feb. 16, at 1 p.m. in Wells Memorial United Methodist Church.
On Feb. 17, Allison will attend the unveiling of a marker on the Mississippi Blues Trail in his honor. The unveiling will take place at 1:30 p.m. at the old Allison Mercantile Store in Tippo near the post office.
Both the Governor’s Awards and the Mississippi Blues Trail unveiling are also free and open to the public. Immediately following the unveiling ceremony all are invited to the CARE building in Charleston for a reception and short program presented by CARE.
Malcolm White, who will present the Governor’s Lifetime Achievement Award, said: “When I became the Director of the Mississippi Arts Commission in 2005, there were two individuals who had been nominated by the Commission to receive the Governor’s Award, but who had never come to the ceremony to accept. One was Mose Allison and the other Cassandra Wilson. I promised myself that during the time I was at the Arts Commission, I would see that these two world-renowned musicians and Mississippi artists would came home and were properly honored.”
White added that Wilson returned to Mississippi in 2009 and Allison in 2012.
“I have presented, admired and followed the illustrious and syncopated career of Tippo’s Mose Allison since I was first heard his music coming from my stereo in high school,” White continued. “He is a friend, an innovative force in American music, and an original cat.”
Be the first to comment