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Frank Lowe: powerful, undersung free jazz tenor saxophonist

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Memphis, TN, June 24 1943 - New York, NY, Sept. 19 2003



Woefully undersung until recently, Frank Lowe was a ferociously energetic tenor saxophonist who drew inspiration from the first and second waves of free jazz in the 1960s. Principally remembered for his work with drummer Rashied Ali and a couple of the dozen-plus albums issued under his name, Lowe had subsisted in the shadows of John Coltrane and Albert Ayler for much of his career. In the past few years he had seen a strong return to the limelight, abruptly ended when he lost his long battle with lung cancer.

At the age of twelve Lowe took up the saxophone. He studied under Packy Axton, an owner of soul label Stax Records who hired Lowe to work for him. After dropping out of the University of Kansas, Lowe went to San Francisco and immersed himself in the Bay Area

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