Charles P. Lowe

{{Short description|American xylophonist and music recording pioneer}}

File:Charles P. Lowe.jpg

Charles P. Lowe was an American xylophonist who made numerous recordings in the early days of the recording industry.

In 1883 Lowe was featured in a series of concerts at West End, New Orleans directed by Gustav D'Aquin.{{cite book |last=Baron |first=John H. |date=2013 |title=Concert Life in Nineteenth-Century New Orleans: A Comprehensive Reference |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DSuVAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA12 |publisher=LSU Press |page=12 |isbn=9780807150849 }} Lowe was a featured performer in New York theaters in the 1880s, including Huber's Prospect Garden (1884).{{cite book |last1=Clinton |first1=George|last2=Odell |first2=Densmore |date=1970 |title=Annals of the New York Stage: 1882-1885 |publisher=AMS Press |page=537 }}

Lowe first recorded for the New Jersey Phonograph Company in 1892 and remained the most prominent xylophonist in the recording industry's formative years.{{cite book |editor=Frank Hoffmann |date=2004 |title=Encyclopedia of Recorded Sound |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-FOSAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA1260 |publisher=Routledge |page=1260 |isbn=9781135949501 }}{{cite magazine |last=Walsh |first=Jim |date=March 1966 |title=Favorite Pioneer Recording Artists: Early Zon-o-phone Record Catalogs Part II |magazine=Hobbies |page=36 }} He recorded for most American record companies in existence before 1905, including 21 titles for Berliner Gramophone between 1897 and 1899,{{cite web |url=https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/talent/detail/93686/Lowe_Charles_P._instrumentalist_xylophone |title=Charles P. Lowe (instrumentalist : xylophone) |website=Discography of American Historical Recordings |publisher=University of California Santa Barbara |access-date=April 3, 2018}} Columbia cylinders (pre-1900 to 1905) and discs (1902 to 1905),{{cite web |url=http://www.78discography.com/ColCyl32500.htm |title=COLUMBIA (USA) "XP" cylinders: 32500 - 33000 series Numerical Listing |last1=Laboissonnière |first1=Guy |last2=Settlemier |first2=Tyrone |last3=Sage |first3=Glenn |date=April 12, 2012 |website=Online Discographical Project |access-date=April 3, 2018}} Edison cylinders,{{cite magazine |last=Walsh |first=Jim |date=January 1967 |title=A March, 1901, Catalog of "Concert" Cylinders part III |magazine=Hobbies |page=36 }} Victor Records from 1900 to 1904, and numerous recordings for Zonophone between 1900 and 1903. His last recordings were made in 1905.

Lowe played xylophones with rounded bars in order to ease the execution of glissandi.{{cite thesis |last=Singer |first=Jonathan |date=2017 |title=NOODLING CHANGES: THE DEVELOPMENT OF XYLOPHONE IMPROVISATION IN NEW YORK CITY (1916-1942) |type=PhD |publisher=The City University of New York |url=https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=3268&context=gc_etds }} His rolls were played in a faster style than was to be common later.

He was married to contralto Jacobine Wichmann Lowe, who performed as "Miss Jottie".