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Lester Bowie (October 11, 1941 – November 8, 1999) was an American jazz trumpet player and composer. He was a member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians and co-founded the Art Ensemble of Chicago.
In 1966, he moved to Chicago, where he worked as a studio musician, and met Muhal Richard Abrams and Roscoe Mitchell and became a member of the AACM. (1992). 9780851129396, Guinness Publishing. ISBN 9780851129396 In 1968, he founded the Art Ensemble of Chicago with Mitchell, Joseph Jarman, and Malachi Favors. He remained a member of this group for the rest of his life, and was also a member of Jack DeJohnette's New Directions quartet. He lived and worked in Jamaica and Nigeria, and played and recorded with Fela Kuti. Bowie's onstage appearance, in a white lab coat, with his goatee waxed into two points, was an important part of the Art Ensemble's stage show.
In 1984, he formed Lester Bowie's Brass Fantasy, a brass nonet in which Bowie demonstrated jazz's links to other forms of popular music, a decidedly more populist approach than that of the Art Ensemble. With this group he recorded songs previously associated with Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, and Marilyn Manson, along with other material. His New York Organ Ensemble featured James Carter and Amina Claudine Myers. In the mid-1980s, he was also part of the jazz supergroup The Leaders, which included tenor saxophonist Chico Freeman, alto saxophonist Arthur Blythe, drummer Famoudou Don Moye, pianist Kirk Lightsey, and bassist Cecil McBee. In 1991, Bowie recorded the opening theme for the eighth and final season of the television series The Cosby Show.
Although seen as part of the avant-garde, Bowie embraced techniques from the whole history of jazz trumpet, filling his music with humorous glissando, blats, growls, half-valve effects, and so on. His affinity for reggae and ska is exemplified by his composition "Ska Reggae Hi-Bop", which he performed with the Skatalites on their 1994 Hi-Bop Ska, and also with James Carter on Conversin' with the Elders. He also appeared on the 1994 Red Hot Organization's compilation album, . The album, which was produced to raise awareness and funds in support of the AIDS epidemic in relation to the African-American community, was heralded as "Album of the Year" by Time.
In 1993, he played on the David Bowie album Black Tie White Noise, including the song "Looking for Lester", which was named after him. (1995). 085112674X, Guinness Publishing. 085112674X (Lester and David Bowie are not related—David Bowie's birth name was David Jones.)
Bowie took an adventurous and humorous approach to music, and criticized Wynton Marsalis for his conservative approach to jazz tradition.
Bowie died of liver cancer in 1999 at his Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, New York house he shared with second wife Deborah for 20 years. The following year, he was inducted into the Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame. In 2001, the Art Ensemble of Chicago recorded Tribute to Lester. In 2020, Bowie was featured in a mural painted by Rafael Blanco in his hometown of Frederick, Maryland.
| Numbers 1 & 2 | 1967 | Nessa Records | ||
| Gittin' to Know Y'All (features Bowie conducting the Baden-Baden Free Jazz Orchestra) | 1970 | MPS Records | ||
| Fast Last! | 1974 | Muse Records | ||
| Rope-A-Dope | 1976 | Muse | ||
| African Children | 1978 | Horo Records | ||
| Duet (with Phillip Wilson) | 1978 | Improvising Artists | ||
| The 5th Power | 1978 | Black Saint | ||
| The Great Pretender | 1981 | ECM Records | ||
| All the Magic | 1983 | ECM | ||
| Bugle Boy Bop (with Charles "Bobo" Shaw) | 1983 | Muse | ||
| Duet (with Nobuyoshi Ino) | 1985 | Paddle Wheel |
| I Only Have Eyes for You | 1985 | ECM | ||
| Avant Pop | 1986 | ECM | ||
| Twilight Dreams | 1987 | Virgin Records | ||
| Serious Fun | 1989 | DIW Records | ||
| My Way | 1990 | DIW | ||
| Live at the 6th Tokyo Music Joy (with the Art Ensemble Of Chicago) | 1990 | DIW | ||
| The Fire This Time | 1992 | In & Out | ||
| The Odyssey Of Funk & Popular Music | 1999 | Atlantic Records | ||
| When the Spirit Returns | 2000 (recorded Oct. 1997) | Birdology |
| The Organizer | 1991 | DIW | ||
| Funky T. Cool T. | 1992 | DIW |
| Old/Quartet - Roscoe Mitchell | 1967 | Nessa Records | ||
| Numbers 1 & 2 - Lester Bowie | 1967 | Nessa | ||
| Early Combinations - Art Ensemble | 1967 | Nessa | ||
| Congliptious - Roscoe Mitchell | 1967 | Nessa | ||
| A Jackson in Your House | 1969 | Actuel Records | ||
| Tutankhamun | 1969 | Freedom Records | ||
| the Spiritual | 1969 | Freedom | ||
| People in Sorrow | 1969 | Pathe Marconi | ||
| Message to Our Folks | 1969 | Actuel | ||
| Reese and the Smooth Ones | 1969 | Actuel | ||
| Eda Wobu | 1969 | JMY Records | ||
| Certain Blacks | 1970 | America Records | ||
| Go Home | 1970 | Galloway Records | ||
| Chi-Congo | 1970 | Paula Records | ||
| Les Stances a Sophie | 1970 | America | ||
| Live in Paris | 1970 | Freedom | ||
| Art Ensemble of Chicago with Fontella Bass | 1970 | America | ||
| Phase One | 1971 | America | ||
| Live at Mandell Hall | 1972 | Delmark Records | ||
| Bap-Tizum | 1972 | Atlantic Records | ||
| Fanfare for the Warriors | 1973 | Atlantic | ||
| Kabalaba | 1974 | AECO Records | ||
| Nice Guys | 1978 | ECM Records | ||
| Live in Berlin | 1979 | West Wind | ||
| Full Force | 1980 | ECM | ||
| Urban Bushmen | 1980 | ECM | ||
| Among the People | 1980 | Praxis | ||
| The Complete Live in Japan | 1984 | DIW Records | ||
| The Third Decade | 1984 | ECM | ||
| Naked | 1986 | DIW | ||
| Ancient to the Future | 1987 | DIW | ||
| The Alternate Express | 1989 | DIW | ||
| Art Ensemble of Soweto | 1990 | DIW | ||
| America - South Africa | 1990 | DIW | ||
| Thelonious Sphere Monk with Cecil Taylor | 1990 | DIW | ||
| Dreaming of the Masters Suite | 1990 | DIW | ||
| Live at the 6th Tokyo Music Joy with Lester Bowie's Brass Fantasy | 1991 | DIW | ||
| Fundamental Destiny with Don Pullen | 1991 | AECO | ||
| Salutes the Chicago Blues Tradition | 1993 | AECO | ||
| Coming Home Jamaica | 1996 | Atlantic | ||
| Urban Magic | 1997 | Musica Jazz |
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