Lester Bowie was born on October 11, 1941, and died on November 8, 1999. He was an American jazz trumpet player and composer. He was a member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians and co-founded the Art Ensemble of Chicago.

Biography

Lester Bowie was born in Bartonsville, a historic village in Frederick County, Maryland, United States. He grew up in St. Louis, Missouri. He was part of a musical family. His father, W. Lester Bowie Sr., was a trained trumpeter who taught music in St. Louis high school bands for thirty years and was Lester's first music teacher. His brothers, Joseph Bowie (a trombonist) and Byron Bowie (a saxophonist), also became professional musicians. At age five, he began learning the trumpet from his father. He performed with blues musicians like Little Milton and Albert King, and rhythm and blues artists such as Solomon Burke, Joe Tex, and Rufus Thomas. In 1965, he became the musical director and husband of Fontella Bass. Together, they had four children: Ju'Lene Bowie Coney, Bahnamous Lee Bowie (a keyboardist and record producer who appeared on two Art Ensemble of Chicago recordings, Ancient to the Future (1987) and Coming Home Jamaica (1998)), Neuka Bowie Mitchell, and Larry Stevenson. He helped start the Black Artists Group (BAG) in St. Louis.

In 1966, he moved to Chicago, where he worked as a studio musician and met Muhal Richard Abrams and Roscoe Mitchell, joining the AACM. In 1968, he co-founded the Art Ensemble of Chicago with Roscoe Mitchell, Joseph Jarman, and Malachi Favors. In 1969, Bowie and the ensemble moved to Paris, France, where they performed and recorded for two years. During this time, his wife Fontella Bass sang on the film soundtrack Les Stances à Sophie (Pathé Marconi / EMI France, 1970), recorded at Pathé Marconi studio in Boulogne, France on August 22, 1970, and documented by the Library of Congress Jazz on the Screen database. He remained with the Art Ensemble for his entire career and was also part of Jack DeJohnette's New Directions quartet. He lived and worked in Jamaica and Nigeria, performing and recording with Fela Kuti. His stage appearance, wearing a white lab coat and with a goatee shaped into two points, was a key part of the Art Ensemble's performances.

In 1984, he formed Lester Bowie's Brass Fantasy, a group of nine brass musicians where he explored jazz's connections to other music styles. With this group, he recorded songs previously performed by Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, and Marilyn Manson, along with other music. His New York Organ Ensemble included James Carter and Amina Claudine Myers. In the mid-1980s, he was part of the jazz group The Leaders, which included saxophonist Chico Freeman, saxophonist Arthur Blythe, drummer Famoudou Don Moye, pianist Kirk Lightsey, and bassist Cecil McBee. In 1991, he recorded the opening theme for the final season of the television show The Cosby Show.

Although he was part of the experimental jazz movement, Bowie used techniques from all periods of jazz trumpet playing, including humorous sounds like smears, blats, growls, and half-valve effects. His love for reggae and ska music is shown in his composition "Ska Reggae Hi-Bop," which he performed with the Skatalites on their 1994 album Hi-Bop Ska and with James Carter on Conversin' with the Elders. He also appeared on the 1994 Red Hot Organization album Stolen Moments: Red Hot + Cool, created to support efforts against the AIDS epidemic in the African-American community. The album was named "Album of the Year" by Time magazine.

In 1993, he played on the David Bowie album Black Tie White Noise, including the song "Looking for Lester," which was named after him. (Lester and David Bowie were not related.)

Bowie had an adventurous and humorous style of music and criticized Wynton Marsalis for his traditional approach to jazz. He died of liver cancer in 1999 at his home in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, New York, which he shared with his second wife, Deborah, for 20 years. The next year, he was inducted into the Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame. In 2001, the Art Ensemble of Chicago recorded Tribute to Lester. In 2020, a mural of Bowie was painted by Rafael Blanco in his hometown of Frederick, Maryland.

Discography

• Mudfoot (Black Hawk), 1986
• Out Here Like This (Black Saint), 1986
• Unforeseen Blessings (Black Saint), 1988
• Slipping and Sliding (Sound Hills), 1994

• Black Tie White Noise (Savage, 1993)

• Conversin' with the Elders (Atlantic, 1995)

• New Directions (ECM, 1978)
• New Directions in Europe (ECM, 1979)
• Zebra (MCA, 1989)

With Brigitte Fontaine

• Comme à la Radio (Saravah, 1971)

• Funky Skull (Limelight, 1969)

• Stalemate (Afrodisia, 1977)
• No Agreement (Afrodisia, 1977)
• Sorrow Tears and Blood (Kalakuta Records, 1977)
• Fear not for man (Afrodisia, 1977)

• Fresh (Freedom, 1975)

• Free Jazz No. 1 (Concert Hall, 1969)
• Other Afternoons (BYG, 1970)

• Sound (Delmark, 1966)

• Live at the Lower Manhattan Ocean Club (India Navigation, 1978)

• Sunshine (BYG, 1969)
• Homage to Africa (BYG, 1969)

With Charles Bobo Shaw

• Under the Sun (Freedom, 1973)
• Streets of St. Louis (Moers Music, 1974)

• Yasmina, a Black Woman (BYG, 1969)
• Blasé (BYG, 1969)
• Pitchin Can (America, 1970)
• Coral Rock (America, 1970)

• Seasons (BYG, 1971)

With Wadada Leo Smith

• Divine Love (ECM, 1979)

• Funky Donkey Vol. 1 & 2 (Atavistic) (Luther Thomas & the Human Arts Ensemble)
• Under the Sun (Universal Justice), 1974 (Human Arts Ensemble)
• Funky Donkey 1977 (Circle) (Luther Thomas Creative Ensemble)
• Free to Dance (Black Saint), 1978 (Marcello Melis)
• 6 x 1 = 10 Duos for a New Decade (Circle), 1980 (John Fischer)
• The Razor's Edge/Strangling Me With Your Love (Hannibal, 12"), 1982 (Defunkt)
• The Ritual (Sound Aspects), 1985 (Kahil El'Zabar)
• Meet Danny Wilson (Virgin), 1987 (Danny Wilson)
• Sacred Love (Sound Aspects), 1988 (Kahil El'Zabar)
• Avoid The Funk (Hannibal), 1988 (Defunkt)
• Environ Days (Konnex), 1991 (John Fischer)
• Cum Funky (Enemy), 1994 (Defunkt)
• Hi-Bop Ska, 1994 (Skatalites)
• Stolen Moments: Red Hot + Cool (Impulse!), 1994 (Various Artists) – appears on one track with Digable Planets
• Bluesiana Hurricane (Shanachie), 1995 with Rufus Thomas, Bill Doggett, Chuck Rainey, Bobby Watson, Will Calhoun, and Sue Foley
• Buddy Bolden's Rag (Delmark), 1995 (Malachi Thompson & Africa Brass)
• Not Two (Biodro Records), 1995 (Miłość and Lester Bowie)
• No Ways Tired (Nonesuch), 1995 (Fontella Bass)
• Mac's Smokin' Section (McKenzie), 1996 (Mac Gollehon)
• Hello Friend: To Ennis with Love (Verve), 1997 (Bill Cosby)
• My Secret Life (Calliope), 1998 (Sonia Dada)
• Amore Pirata (Il Manifesto), 1998 (Lorenzo Gasperoni Mamud Band feat. Lester Bowie)
• Smokin' Live (McKenzie), 1999 (Mac Gollehon)
• G:MT – Greenwich Mean Time (Island Records), 1999 (Guy Sigsworth)
• Talkin' About Life And Death (Biodro Records), 1999 (Miłość and Lester Bowie)
• Test Pattern (Razor & Tie), 2004 (Sonia Dada)
• Hiroshima (Art Yard), 2007 (The Sun Ra All Stars Band)
• The Ancestors Are Amongst Us (Katalyst, recorded live at Jazzfestival Saafelden August 28, 1987 and released 2010) – with Kahil El'Zabar and the Ritual Trio

Additional sources

• Carles, Philippe; Clergeat, André; Comolli, Jean-Louis (1994). Dictionnaire du Jazz. Published by R. Laffont in Paris. ISBN 978-2221115923.
• Carr, Ian; Fairweather, Digby; Priestley, Brian (1987). Jazz: The Essential Companion. Published by Prentice Hall Press in London. ISBN 978-0135092743.
• Cook, Richard; Morton, Brian (2002). The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD (6th edition). Published by Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0140515213.