Guitarist Lowe Finds a High Profile After Years of Anonymity : DIEGO COUNTY

Two of the world’s top jazz guitarists call San Diego home. One is Barney Kessel, who hasn’t played San Diego since moving here last year. The other is Mundell Lowe, who has made himself more available to local jazz fans. And tonight he opens five dates at Elario’s, his first shows at the La Jolla jazz club since moving to San Diego from Los Angeles last September.

Because he spent several years in the anonymous role of studio guitarist and composer of music for films and television, Lowe is not as well known as Kessel and other peers. But he is a master of the single-string melodic line, a tasteful improviser in a tradition that dates back to early jazz guitar great Charlie Christian.

This year, Lowe’s jazz career appears bound for new glory with the release of not one but three albums--his first recordings in five years. Due later this month is a collection of tunes by Harold Arlen and Duke Ellington, recorded by Lowe with composer, conductor and pianist Andre Previn and bassist Ray Brown. In September, a duo album with Spanish pianist Tete Montoliu will be released, followed in November by another that will feature Lowe and his wife, Betty Bennett, a jazz singer who came up in the big bands of Benny Goodman, Woody Herman, Charlie Ventura and Stan Kenton.

Lowe is more visible than ever.

Last week he was in New York, where he played several club dates with guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli, followed by two nights on his own in Washington. Pizzarelli’s chord-based, harmonic approach made a perfect foil for Lowe’s fluid, melodic lines, Lowe said.

This week, he will be in the studios at KPBS-TV with current band mates Bob Cooper (sax), Monty Budwig (bass) and Roy McCurdy (drums) to tape a “Club Date” jazz program.

Lowe believes he is at the height of his jazz powers.

After years of studio, television and film work from the 1950s through the early ‘80s, Lowe’s interest in jazz was reborn three or four years ago.

“I just had enough of writing film music, so I started studying again. I did a lot of very heavy studying of composition and orchestration, and that led me back to where I am now,” Lowe said, adding that he has been practicing like a maniac to put his playing into its best shape ever.

Although his image is conservative--a coat and tie give him a fastidious appearance on stage--deep down he sees himself as unconventional.

“I’m kind of a renegade,” he said. “I never really went down the path that most people expect you to take. I’m a curious type of musician. If something intrigues me, I might go pursue if for a while, then come back to the main path.”

That main path has always been jazz, but side roads took Lowe through enough great experiences to pack a colorful autobiography someday.

In 1959, he played on Marilyn Monroe’s recording of songs from the movie “Some Like It Hot.”

“All those movie stars think they can sing, but I don’t think they really can. I don’t think she was a singer,” Lowe said.

Also during the 1950s, Lowe worked several sessions with Frank Sinatra, whom he called a “perfectionist” and “a helluva musician.”

Five years ago, singer Barry Manilow asked Lowe to play on the album “2:00 a.m., Paradise Cafe.” Music fans who consider Manilow something of a lightweight might be interested to hear the opinion of a serious jazz man.

“He’s an excellent musician. He’s a well-schooled cat; he knows what he’s doing. He wrote all of the material in two weeks, and there were some darn good songs.”

Lowe said he tries to learn something from all of his musical experiences. From Manilow, for example, he picked up some new engineering tricks. While some mainstream jazz players insist on recording live, with no overdubs, Lowe is a perfectionist who doesn’t mind honing a rough spot or two by editing and dubbing.

Besides studio work with Sinatra, Manilow, Monroe, Carmen McRae, Nelson Riddle, Quincy Jones and others, Lowe has done music for several movies. One of his favorite scores was Woody Allen’s “Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex but Were Afraid to Ask.”

Although the music for many comedies comes off sounding silly because it tries too hard to make you laugh, Allen uses a different approach.

“Woody has an attitude that you play the music seriously, and it reacts with the comedy, and they both work. If you try to be funny (with the music), it dilutes the comedy.”

Despite Lowe’s obvious composing skills, he writes little original jazz.

“I do some originals, but when I play for people, I like to play songs they have heard or know, so they can tap their foot along. I don’t agree with musicians who go on and play an hour or an hour and a half of all original pieces. When I’m in the audience, I feel put out, I don’t know what they’re doing, if I’m hearing something for the first time. There’s no frame of reference. I like to create a frame of reference for those who hear me so they have a good time.”

Lowe, 68, has performed for most of his life. He grew up in Laurel, Miss., in “a family of guitar and fiddle players.” During his teens, he lived in New Orleans and worked Bourbon Street with a variety of jazz bands. He met legendary blues and jazz producer John Hammond in the mid-1940s, and Hammond helped Lowe get his first job in New York City, with drummer Ray McKinley’s big band.

During the late 1940s in New York, Lowe picked up his unusual tuning from guitarist Johnny Smith. Lowe’s top E string is tuned lower, to D, which gives his playing a fuller bass sound. Lowe learned about this “D tuning” by listening to classical guitarist Andre Segovia.

At Elario’s, Lowe’s piano-less quartet will leave lots of latitude for his guitar.

“It gives me more room for rhythms and melodies,” he said. “I don’t have to worry about a piano guy disagreeing with me harmonically.”