Steve Lowdell on stage at Basildon Keyboard Club
Steve Lowdell
July 1st 2006
Steve Lowdell is very much known for his love of jazz, however, is equally at home playing any other style of music on any sort of keyboard or organ. The jazz quintet he once founded successfully performed at the prestigious Ronnie Scott club in London, to mention just one venue. He has also had a long association with Yamaha and has even had his own program on Icelandic Television!
Today Steve Lowdell is a freelance musician playing on the concert circuit, at festivals and hosts his own musical weekends.
Steve opened his concert with Lonesome Road, continuing with April in Paris, showing off the drawbar sounds, trumpets and other brass instruments on the Orla. The One Note Samba was set to a rumba (!) with some nice guitar sounds before changing to a slow bossa with trumpet and violin sounds for the Girl From Ipenema, all set nicely to a pink/cerise background by Keith. This Guy's In Love With You and Don't Get Around Much Any More were next.
More guitar sounds for Ring Dim Harmonics, made famous by the Dis Disley Trio. Piano & strings and a royal blue background were the setting for You Are Always On My Mind. Bye Bye Love was a 1957 hit for the Everly Brothers, still a popular song to this day.
Slowing the tempo down a bit we had a lovely rendition of A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square, before livening up the tempo with Dancing Cheek To Cheek. To close the first half, Steve revived memories of the pianist Like Young from the late Sixties with Alexander's Rag Time Band.
It had been a very hot day, so the refreshments were especially welcome followed by the raffle.
The second half opened with a special arrangement by Steve: Jealous Heart, set to a Country & Western Style against an appropriate green background by Keith. Terry 'Gee' (Garrod) then made an appearance on stage singing Autumn Leaves and Fools Rush In, very nicely accompanied by Steve.
A very lively Latin medley with lots of flashing lights followed, inclusive of the Tico Tico & El Cumbanchero. Staying with the Latin flavour, it was back to the late 1930's with Brazil, a joint effort by the composer Aro Barroso and lyricist S.K. Russell. Thirty years on and Willie Nelson's Crazy became a worldwide hit. Next a tune which we don't hear too often these days The One I Love Belongs To Somebody Else which Steve followed with Dannyboy (The Pipes, The Pipes Are Calling) or otherwise known as Londonderry Air, beautifully played as a ballad using the organ voices on the Orla and equally nicely set to a blue and green background by Keith. Type in Dannyboy on your computer and you will find a wealth of information for this Irish composition on the internet.
Today's modern instruments feature many hundreds of voices, church organ sounds amongst them which Steve used for Haendel's Arrival Of The Queen Of Sheba, which requires some nifty fingerwork. Fats Waller (1904-1943) was a highly prolific musician, composer and pianist in his short life with Steve concluding his concert by playing us My Very Good Friend The Milkman.
However, the audience were not going to let him go without the traditional Basildon encore. Steve obliged with Sweet Georgia Brown. Thank you for a nice concert Steve, played in your very own inimitable style.
Why not come along to a Basildon Keyboard Club Concert, you will be made very welcome, have a great evenings entertainment, a complimentary cup of tea or coffee with biscuits and of course experience the delights of live music played on top of the range electronic organs & keyboards by the best players.