"Mose Allison is a unique figure in jazz;
always on the very edge of  wide public acceptance,
playing and developing the almost forgotten art of song and lyric."
- Musician Magaziner

Allison was born in the Mississippi Delta on his grandfather’s farm near the village of Tippo. At five he discovered 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 Cole of the King Cole Trio. He 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 l946, 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 heavily 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, Mose 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.

Mose continued working with his own trio, writing and singing his own songs. His songs are a fusion of rustic blues and jazz, embellished with profound and often humorous lyrics. As a pianist, while admiring jazz masters Bud Powell and Lenny Tristano, he also learned from composers such as Bartok, Ives, Hindemith and Ruggles. The fusing of these diverse elements into a cohesive performance continues today. A biography, One Man’s Blues: The Life and Music of Mose Allison, written by Patti Jones, was published in 1995 by Quartet Books Ltd. Of London.

Mose continues to write and perform all over the world. His songs have been covered by Van Morrison, John Mayall, The Who, The Clash, Eric Clapton, the Yardbirds, Elvis Costello and Bonnie Raitt to name a few. Van Morrison recorded a tribute album, Tell Me Something, The Songs of Mose Allison, on Verve Records, and rockers like Pete Townshend, Bonnie Raitt, Ray Davies and Bill Wyman of the Rolling Stones have frequently cited Mose Allison as a major influence. During a recent London engagement, Time Out, the major entertainment weekly, praised Mose:

Mose Allison’s popularity in the UK dates from the ‘60s, when his mixture of Delta-born blues feel and his gift for writing a song with a sting in the tail made him a prime source of inspiration for the UK’s new generation of blues/rock artists. Not just namechecked but lionized by the likes of Pete Townshend, Jack Bruce, Brian Auger and Georgie Fame, he became British rock’s most popular jazz musician. His piano style is notable for its strange mixture of classical-influenced sophistication and blues-based intimacy, and there’s still none like him with a lyric.

His most recent Grammy nomination was for one of his two newest recordings, Mose Chronicles, Live in London, Vol. I on Blue Note Records. Mose Chronicles , Vol II was just released last year. Also, British born Director Paul Barnays has produced a one hour documentary on Mose entitled, Mose Allison; Ever Since I Stole the Blues, for the BBC4 in the UK. Among recent releases are a dozen reissues on CD including Allison Wonderland and a double CD retrospective on Rhino, and High Jinks, a three CD package on Legacy. Blue Note has also re-released a collection of past recordings, Mose Allison, Jazz Profiles. His music has often been used in movies, and he can be seen performing in, The Score, starring Robert DeNiro and Marlon Brando.

Mose resides on Long Island with his wife Audre where they raised four children: Alissa an attorney, John a Telecommunication Specialist, Janine a psychiatrist, and Amy Allison, also a successful and respected singer songwriter in New York with her own group.

As one writer recently said: “Mose is now at the peak of his performing career. Although maybe this last statement is not quite true as he seems to continue to improve on perfection.”

www.moseallison.com

"If you were British playing the blues in the 1960s, you were influenced by Mose Allison." - Mick Taylor

"I don’t know any musicians who don’t love Mose Allison..., his appeal cuts across all musical boundaries. In the over twenty years I’ve been going to see him live, he’s blown me away every time." - Bonnie Raitt

"Mose is one of my heroes" - Robert Palmer

"The man’s voice was heaven. So cool, so decisively hip... Mose was my man. I felt him to be the epitome of restrained screaming power." - Pete Townshend

"When I discovered Mose Allison I felt I had discovered the missing link between jazz and blues" - Ray Davies

"I’ve always enjoyed working with Mose Allison." - Van Morrison

"When I first saw Mose Allison I was profoundly influenced. Here was a guy who was doing blues, yet still into the jazz inner circle which I thought was excruciatingly hip." - John Hammond

"I fell in love with Mose’s music the first time I heard it. It was just what I needed to hear: the warmth of the voice, the style, the individuality. He melted my heart with the sound of his voice." - Georgie Fame

"Mose was a hero to everyone in the band and a very strong influence on sixties rock and roll. Everyone who put a band together from 1963 on that was blues-influenced at all was touched by Mose Allison, no matter what country they were in." - Al Kooper

"Everybody I know in England was raised on Mose Allison." - John Mayall

"Mose Allison is a beautiful musician." - Willie Dixon

"Mose, you got a good thing goin on." - Sonny Boy Williamson

"Mose Allison is a unique figure in jazz; always on the very edge of wide public acceptance, playing and developing the almost forgotten art of song and lyric." - Musician

"During the early sixties his singing had a profound effect on an entire generation of English rock musicians... his piano style defies description, both because it cuts across the boundaries of jazz, Avant-garde, blues and swing." - New York Times

"With his unorthodox, urgent sound and personalized harmonic voicings, he may remind you of Thelonious Monk, but only in the sense that he is the eternal maverick, eschewing more rules than he observes." - Washington Post

"Allison has become a classic, a cool comic sage offering ironic advice for survival. His show was fun, a mix of biting wit and eccentric piano playing... a happy jumble of bebop, Delta blues, boogie-woogie, careening chromaticism and beethovian drama." - Rolling Stone

"Allison brings as much interpretive depth to the popular song as anyone singing today... there is familiarity to much of what he does, but the emotional chords he strikes are all his own." - Chicago Sun Times

"Allison’s entire performance was a poetic stream of conscious fire. He reminds us to stop, listen and look; that life is happening around us and all of this to a rocking, grooving, jazz-blues beat." - London Observer

"When Mose Allison from Mississippi via New York begins to play piano and sing songs such as "Wildman on the Loose," then, as the lyric says, "Lookout! Stand back!" His lyrics are memorable for their characteristic satiric wit, for their humor and his vocal delivery is an unmistakable delight."- Hong Kong News

"Allison’s style is presently highly individual and quite striking. His albums draw almost unanimous critical acclaim for their freshness and their unforced country blues feel." - Downbeat

"For over thirty years, this premier songwriter, singer and pianist has stared down the oncoming doom, peppering his idiosyncratic blend of jazz and blues with mordant wit and unflinching honesty." - Village Voice

"When I see Mose Allison, I see the fountain of authenticity. He is my greatest celebrity." - Buffalo News