Alphonse Mouzon facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Alphonse Mouzon
Mouzon in 2009
Background information
Birth name	Alphonse Lee Mouzon
Born	(1948-11-21)November 21, 1948 Charleston, South Carolina, U.S.
Died	25 December 2016(2016-12-25) (aged 68) Granada Hills, Los Angeles, California
Genres	Jazz, jazz fusion, jazz-funk, disco
Occupation(s)	Musician, record label owner
Instruments	Drums, keyboards
Years active	1970–2016
Labels	Blue Note, Tenacious
Associated acts	Weather Report, Eleventh House, Miles Davis, McCoy Tyner

Alphonse Lee Mouzon (November 21, 1948 – December 25, 2016) was an American jazz fusion drummer and the owner of Tenacious Records, a label that primarily released Mouzon's recordings. He was a composer, arranger, producer, and actor. He gained popularity in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Biography

Early life

Mouzon, of African, French, and Blackfoot descent, was born on November 21, 1948, in Charleston, South Carolina. He received his first musical training at Bonds-Wilson High School, and moved to New York City upon graduation. He studied drama and music at the City College of New York, as well as medicine at Manhattan Medical School. He continued receiving drum lessons from Bobby Thomas, the drummer for jazz pianist Billy Taylor. He played percussion in the 1968 Broadway show Promises, Promises, and he then worked with pianist McCoy Tyner. He spent a year as a member of the jazz fusion band, Weather Report. After that Mouzon signed as a solo artist to the Blue Note label in 1972.

Career

Mouzon's visibility increased during his tenure with guitarist Larry Coryell's Eleventh House fusion band from 1973 to 1975. Albums from this period include Introducing the Eleventh House, Level One, Mind Transplant (a solo album), and in 1977, a reconciliation recording with Coryell entitled Back Together Again.

Mouzon recorded Mind Transplant in 1974 with guitarist Tommy Bolin, who had previously played on Billy Cobham's Spectrum.

He recorded four R&B albums: The Essence of Mystery (Blue Note, 1972), Funky Snakefoot (Blue Note, 1973), The Man Incognito (Blue Note, 1976) (including "Take Your Troubles Away"), and in the 1980s By All Means, which featured Herbie Hancock, Lee Ritenour, the Seawind Horns, and Freddie Hubbard.

Mouzon performed with many prominent jazz fusion musicians. In 1991, he performed with Miles Davis on the movie soundtrack album entitled Dingo. Mouzon composed the song The Blue Spot for the jazz club scene, and appeared as an actor and drummer in the Tom Hanks-directed film, That Thing You Do in 1996. Alphonse Mouzon played the role of Miles in the film The Highlife, which was exhibited at a film festival in Houston in 2003. He also can be seen with Michael Keaton and Katie Holmes in the film First Daughter, and as Ray in the movie The Dukes, along with Robert Davi, Chazz Palminteri and Peter Bogdanovich.

Mouzon played with Stevie Wonder, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Carlos Santana, Patrick Moraz, Betty Davis, and Chubby Checker. Robert Plant, lead singer of Led Zeppelin, during his acceptance speech for induction into the 1995 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, listed Alphonse Mouzon as one of the band's influences from American music.

In 1992, Mouzon formed Tenacious Records, and released his album The Survivor. Subsequent releases on Tenacious Records, including re-issues of earlier albums, included On Top of the World, Early Spring, By All Means, Love Fantasy, Back to Jazz, As You Wish, The Night is Still Young, The Sky is the Limit, Distant Lover, Morning Sun, and Absolute Greatest Love Songs and Ballads.

The 1981 album Morning Sun was his most successful album in Southeast Asia, particularly in the Philippines. Most songs in the album, notably the title track, were extensively played on various FM and AM radio stations during that time, and are still being used in advertisements, commercials, social events, and radio news programmes in that country.

Mouzon played on a recording with Albert Mangelsdorff (trombone), and Jaco Pastorius (bass), named Trilogue. Originally recorded in 1976, and re-released in 2005, this performance was from November 6, 1976, at the Berlin Jazz Days.

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Health problems and death

On September 7, 2016, Mouzon was diagnosed with neuroendocrine carcinoma, a rare form of cancer. His son, Jean-Pierre Mouzon, reported his father had died of cardiac arrest at his home in Granada Hills, Los Angeles, California, on December 25, 2016, at the age of 68.

Awards and honors

• Listed in the second edition of Marquis Who's Who in Entertainment and Who's Who in the World
• Voted the No. 2 best multi-instrumentalist in the 1995 Jazziz Magazine Annual Readers' Poll

Discography

As leader

• The Essence of Mystery (Blue Note, 1973)
• Funky Snakefoot (Blue Note, 1974)
• Mind Transplant (Blue Note, 1975)
• The Man Incognito (Blue Note, 1976)
• Live at Berlin Jazz Days with Trilogue (MPS, 1977)
• Virtue (MPS, 1977)
• In Search of a Dream (MPS, 1978)
• Baby Come Back (Metronome, 1979)
• Morning Sun (Pausa, 1981)
• By All Means (Pausa, 1981)
• Distant Lover (Highrise, 1982)
• The Sky Is the Limit (Pausa, 1985)
• The Eleventh House with Larry Coryell (Pausa, 1985)
• Back to Jazz (L+R, 1986)
• Love, Fantasy (Optimism, 1987)
• Early Spring (Optimism, 1988)
• As You Wish with Final Notice (Jazzline, 1989)
• Now with Infinity (Inak, 1991)
• Nevertheless with Just Friends (In+Out, 1992)
• The Survivor (Tenacious, 1992)
• On Top of the World (Tenacious, 1994)
• The Night Is Still Young (Tenacious, 1996)
• Fusion Jam with Tommy Bolin (1999)
• Live in Hollywood (Tenacious, 2001)
• Jazz in Bel-Air (Tenacious, 2008)
• Angel Face (Tenacious, 2011)

As sideman

With Larry Coryell

• Introducing Eleventh House with Larry Coryell (Vanguard, 1974)
• Level One (Arista, 1975)
• Planet End (Vanguard, 1975)
• Back Together Again (Atlantic, 1977)
• At Montreux (Vanguard, 1978)
• The Coryells (Chesky, 2000)
• January 1975 (Promising Music, 2014)
• Seven Secrets (Savoy, 2016)

With Herbie Hancock

• Directstep (CBS/Sony, 1979)
• Mr. Hands (Columbia, 1980)
• Monster (Columbia, 1980)
• Magic Windows (Columbia, 1981)

With McCoy Tyner

• Sahara (Milestone, 1972)
• Song for My Lady (Milestone, 1973)
• Song of the New World (Milestone, 1973)
• Enlightenment (1973)

With Jasper van 't Hof

• However (MPS, 1978)
• Live in Montreux (Pausa, 1980)
• Nevertheless (In+Out, 1992)

With others

• Al Di Meola, Land of the Midnight Sun (Columbia, 1976)
• Alphonso Johnson, Moonshadows (Epic, 1976)
• Arild Andersen, A Molde Concert (ECM, 1982)
• Azar Lawrence, Prayer for My Ancestors (Furthermore, 2008)
• Betty Davis, Crashin' from Passion (P-Vine, 1995)
• Bill Summers, Feel the Heat (Prestige, 1977)
• Bobbi Humphrey, Dig This! (Blue Note, 1972)
• Carl Anderson, Fantasy Hotel (GRP, 1992)
• Carlos Garnett, The New Love (Muse, 1978)
• Charles Sullivan, Genesis (Strata-East, 1974)
• Donald Byrd, Caricatures (Blue Note, 1976)
• Doug Carn, Spirit of the New Land (Black Jazz, 1972)
• Eugene McDaniels, Headless Heroes of the Apocalypse (Atlantic, 1971)
• Fania All-Stars, Live (Fania, 1978)
• Freda Payne, Supernatural High (Capitol, 1978)
• Gil Evans, Gil Evans (Ampex, 1970)
• Jeremy Steig, Temple of Birth (Columbia, 1975)
• Joachim Kühn, Hip Elegy (MPS/BASF 1976)
• Joe Cuba, Cocinando La Salsa (Fania, 2008)
• John Klemmer, Magic and Movement (Impulse!, 1974)
• Kimiko Kasai, Butterfly (CBS/Sony, 1979)
• Les McCann, Invitation to Openness (Atlantic, 1972)
• Miles Davis, Dingo (Warner Bros., 1991)
• Narada Michael Walden, Sending Love to Everyone (Walden 1995)
• Norman Connors, Dance of Magic (Cobblestone, 1972)
• Passport, Talk Back (WEA, 1988)
• Patrick Moraz, The Story of I (Atlantic, 1976)
• Paul Jackson, Black Octopus (Eastworld, 1978)
• Paul Jackson Jr., Never Alone (Blue Note, 1996)
• Roberta Flack, Feel Like Makin' Love (Atlantic, 1974)
• Robin Kenyatta, Stompin' at the Savoy (Atlantic, 1974)
• Robin Kenyatta, Beggars and Stealers (Muse, 1977)
• Rodney Franklin, Learning to Love (Columbia, 1982)
• Rolf Kühn, Cucu Ear (MPS, 1980)
• Roy Ayers, Ubiquity (Polydor, 1970)
• Teruo Nakamura, Unicorn (Three Blind Mice, 1973)
• Tim Hardin, Bird on a Wire (Columbia, 1971)
• Tony Newton, Mysticism & Romance (NCI, 1978)
• Torsten de Winkel, Mastertouch (EMI, 1985)
• Wayne Shorter, Odyssey of Iska (Blue Note, 1971)
• Weather Report, Weather Report (Columbia, 1971)

See also

In Spanish: Alphonse Mouzon para niños