Henry Lowther
b. 11 July 1941, Leicester, England. As a child Lowther learned trumpet from his father and took private violin lessons before going on to study with Manoug Parakian at London's Royal Academy of Music. From the mid-60s on he worked with Mike Westbrook, the New Jazz Orchestra, Keef Hartley, John Mayall, Manfred Mann, Michael Garrick, Norma Winstone (in EDGE OF TIME), John Dankworth, Art Themen, Alan Jackson (in the superb KINKADE), Barbara Thompson ( JUBIABA), John Stevens, Kenny Wheeler, Mike Gibbs, Tony Coe, John Surman, Gordon Beck, Gil Evans, John Taylor, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the London Brass Virtuosi as well as his own groups, Quarternity and Group Sounds Five. That list is in itself a testimony to his versatility and craftsmanship. As well as playing trumpet, fluegelhorn, cornet and violin he has composed for jazz and orchestral groups. Influenced by sources as varied as Indian music, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Joe ‘King’ Oliver, Weather Report and the Average White Band, Lowther is still playing with as much freshness and directness as ever, touring in the early '90s with Kenny Wheeler and Barry Guy's London Jazz Composers Orchestra.