Born in April 1977, Chris Lowe was brought up on jazz music of the 1920s & 30s as well as comedy bands such as
The Bonzo Dog Band and Spike Jones City Slickers.
After brief flirtations with the Cornet and Drums (the latter still an occasional occurence!) Chris took up the trombone at age 16.
Chris regularly plays, enjoys and has a sizable knowledge of early jazz, however, while at college mainstream and modern jazz started to take equal billing.
Some of the Bands Chris plays with or has played with include (in no particular order!); The Larry Bartley Octet, Harry Strutters Hot Rhythm Orchestra, Ronnie Scotts House Band, Hokum!, Trinity Big Band, Bobby Lamb Big Band, Willie Garnett's Big Band, Big Band Metheny, F-ire large Ensemble, Paul Jordanous Big Band, The Temperance Seven, Bill Posters Will be Band, London Vintage Jazz Orchestra, Alex Mendham Orchestra, Panama Cafe Orchestra and Silk Street Hot Seven/Dance Orchestra as well as his own groups and put together informal groups, including work for the BBC and Channel 4.
As with all good jazz musicians Chris has many influences, however, a few of these include; Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, Grachan Moncur III, Woody Shaw, Miff Mole, Bix Beiderbecke, Jack Teagarden, Lew Davis, Lawrence Brown, Benny Morton, Claude Jones, Carl Fontana, Frank Rosolino, Urbie Green, Fletcher Henderson, Don Redman, Gil Evans, Jack Hylton etc etc..... as well as an unhealthy fascination with classic British Tv Themes!
Taken from a review by Ian Mann of the 'Larry Bartley Octet' at Cheltenham Jazz Festival 2006...
"Chris Lowe a late replacement on trombone (and presumably nothing to do with the Pet Shop Boys) acquitted himself admirably. On "Closure" he played with astonishing clarity whilst on "Nebuchadnezzar" he played low down and dirty contrasting superbly with (Finn)Peters' flute".
