Lee Lozowick – No simple bluesman
Performers so far have been
largely jazz oriented so the announcement in the listings of a ‘blues’ band on
the KAH roof on Sunday might have caught many of the audience unaware. Add to this that Lee Lozowick considers
himself a "Western Baul," related to the itinerant tantric Baul
musicians from Bengal, India and is Founder and Spiritual Teacher of the Hohm
Community in Prescott Arizona and you know this won't be simple blues of the 12
bar variety.
Thumbing through the CD’s
on sale at the show I’m struck by the fact that Lee’s live album is recorded not in
Chicago, or even Cologne, but in India.
I have Vague recollections that he was in a band called ‘Sri’ whom I’d seen
doing a show at the Airport in Cologne of all places a few years ago so I ask why
the connection with India?. Lee replies
in his quiet manner that it’s somewhere he feels attached to. I guess he thought it easier than trying to
explain the religious community in two minutes between sets. Had he told me he’s a devotee of Sri Yogi
Ramsuratkumar I would have needed a
notebook and spell checker. Like the
very many other visitors I was there to enjoy good music on a sunny morning so
lets not talk religion – lets talk blues.
Lee Lozowick – tells it like he feels it
The band is large: three
backing singers, a keyboard, drummer, violin, guitar, harmonica even. The band is also very good and handle a mixed
bag of music with ease. Covers from people
as diverse as Billy Joel, Tom Waits and Ray Charles but surprisingly it’s the
self-penned songs that make the most impression and at times there is some preaching between the
lines, as in “Piece of Ass” with it’s stance on the emptiness of possession:
“Just looking is better to
me…love doesn’t always need to possess the object of it’s affection” sounds
like something the Dalai Lama might have said if he had his own rock band.
Charismatic frontman Lee in action
Lozowick certainly has a
charismatic presence and his deep, growly, slightly garbled lyrical delivery
seems designed to make people listen more closely. Reminiscent of Bob Dylan?
There is also something of the doomed expression of a good Leonard Cohen
song in there too (not surprisingly Cohen songs are in Lozowick’s reportoire
though not played today). On the minus side, There seems to be a large number of non-musical looking young people walking round holding up CD's for sale and I wonder if the audience gets a vibe of something here that is not all about the music? But then again, as the great poet Dylan (Bob) would suggest: "Maybe I'm too sensitive, or else I'm getting soft"
some of the band doing their thing
Overall it has to be said that the music was a
change from ‘all that jazz’ (sorry Sean and co!) although there were quite a few squirming
expressions amongst the grey haired members of the audience during the guitar
solos. I liked it enough to get a copy
of the solo project CD anyway and asked Lee to sign my copy. He immediately opened it up and signed by the
lyrics of the song “Diamonds”. One
particular song had decided me on buying the CD – no prizes for guessing which
one.
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