Mose Allison, Jazz musician and songwriter, Died at 89

  Music

Mose John Allison, Jr. was born on November 11, 1927 and died November 15, 2016.

He was an American jazz blues pianist, singer and songwriter.

Mose was born outside Tippo, Mississippi, on his grandfather’s farm, known as the Island, “because Tippo Bayou encircles it.”

He took piano lessons from age five, picked cotton, played piano in grammar school and trumpet in high school,and wrote his first song at age thirteen.

Mose went to college at the University of Mississippi for a while, then enlisted in the U.S. Army for two years.

Shortly after mustering out, Mose enrolled at Louisiana State University, from which he graduated in 1952 with a Bachelor of Arts in English with a minor in philosophy.

He married his wife, Audre, in 1949.

They live on Long Island, where they raised four children, including a daughter, Amy, who is a musician.

Audre Allison has said that when she first met him, “I could tell that he was someone who generated his own joy.”

She has also said that “Mose has always paid attention to what is happening in the world, and has always read voraciously both past and present histories.

Mose John Allison, Jr. died at age 89.