Lou Blackburn

Lou Blackburn ( born November 12, 1922 in Rankin (Pennsylvania), † June 7, 1990 in Berlin) was an American trombonist of modern jazz.

Life and work

Blackburn learned his instrument in high school and studied music at Roosevelt University later. Military service, he made predominantly from in Army bands and then played with Charlie Ventura and Lionel Hampton. He then moved to New York and worked at Cat Anderson. In 1961 he moved to Los Angeles to work in the studios, but also took with Gerald Wilson and under his own name with Freddie Hill and Horace Tapscott on ( The Complete Imperial Sessions, Blue Note Records). With Charles Mingus, he joined in 1964 at the Monterey Jazz Festival ( Mingus At Monterey ), where he could also be heard in the band led by Buddy Collette Festival by Thelonious Monk. In 1970 he moved to Germany, where he worked in Cologne with Kurt Edelhagen before he became the musical director for the track " Catch My Soul", which was performed at the Theater of the West in Berlin. A longer stay in Africa inspired him to found the group " Mombasa ", with which he successfully toured through Europe since 1973 and introduced a program with African- oriented ethno-jazz. He also played in the krautrock band Agitation Free.

Lexigraphic entries

• Wolf Kampmann (Editor) Reclams jazz lexicon. Stuttgart 2003; ISBN 3-15-010528-5