Mose Allison lets music talk at Blues Alley

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Mose Allison lets music talk at Blues Alley
September 17, 2010
By: Marie Gullard
The Examiner

At 82 and still going strong, jazz pianist Mose Allison proffers no explanation for himself and the music he plays — usually to sold-out crowds.
Tonight at Blues Alley will be no different. There will be very little speaking during the sets he performs with District musicians, bassist Tommy Cecil and drummer Tony Marttucci. Allison will simply concentrate on the music while his audience — one of thousands in a career that has spanned 60 years — cheers him on.

Modest and unassuming, Allison never boasts about that career, which began blossoming at the age of 5 when, as a young kid growing up on the Mississippi Delta, he discovered he could play the piano by ear and soon started “picking out” blues and boogie tunes he heard played around his little town of Tippo. In high school, he played trumpet in the marching and dance bands. Soon, he was writing his own songs, a blend of rustic blues and jazz.
Allison served in the U.S. Army Band in the 1940s, married and completed a degree in English and philosophy from Louisiana State University. Mose formed his own trio in the mid-1950s, went to New York and recorded “Back Country Suite,” a collection of blues songs paying tribute to his beloved Mississippi Delta. Allison continued playing and recording with jazz luminaries such as Stan Getz and Gerry Mulligan.
“I’ve written about 150 songs and recorded 50 albums, more or less,” he says, but only when asked. “They’ve been covered by a lot of people.”
In fact, his vast repertoire of music has been covered by artists including John Mayall, the Who, Eric Clapton, Elvis Costello and Bonnie Raitt. Van Morrison recorded a tribute album to Mose called “Tell Me Something, the Songs of Mose Allison.”
During a recent London engagement, Time Out, a major entertainment weekly, praised Mose’s piano style as “notable for its strange mixture of classical-influenced sophistication and blues-based intimacy,” adding “there’s still none like him with a lyric.”
Performing the usual sets he does on tour, Allison says he will “play different tempos and time signatures,” along with tunes by artists Willie Dixon and Duke Ellington.
Performance appears effortless for a seasoned writer and piano man whose original songbook includes “Highway 49,” “Ain’t You a Mess,” “Autumn Song” and “Mojo Woman.”
“I don’t compete with anybody, I just do my thing,” he said.