John Lewis (1920-2001): Legendary, iconic, and innovative musician, composer, arranger, ensemble leader, producer, and teacher

SOUND PROJECTIONS

AN ONLINE QUARTERLY MUSIC MAGAZINE

EDITOR:  KOFI NATAMBU

SPRING, 2019

VOLUME SEVEN    NUMBER ONE

WADADA LEO SMITH

Featuring the Musics and aesthetic Visions of:

CINDY BLACKMAN

(March 23-29)

RUTH BROWN

(March 30-April 6)

JOHN LEWIS

(April 7-13)

KOKO TAYLOR

(April 14-20)

PUBLIC ENEMY

(April 21-27)

WALLACE RONEY

(April 28-May 4)

MODERN JAZZ QUARTET

(May 5-11)

DE LA SOUL

(May 12-18)

KATHLEEN BATTLE

(May 19-25)

JULIA PERRY

(May 26-June 1)

HALE SMITH

(June 2-8)

BIG BOY CRUDUP

(June 9-15)

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/john-lewis-mn0000424292/biography

John Lewis 

(1920-2001)

Artist Biography by Scott Yanow

 

The musical director of the Modern Jazz Quartet for its entire history, John Lewis found the perfect outlet for his interest in bop, blues, and Bach. Possessor of a "cool" piano style that (like Count Basie's) makes every note count, Lewis with the MJQ has long helped make jazz look respectable to the classical music community without watering down his performances.

After serving in the military, Lewis was in the Dizzy Gillespie big band (1946-1948). He recorded with Charlie Parker during 1947-1948 (including "Parker's Mood"), and played with Miles Davis' Birth of the Cool Nonet, arranging "Move" and "Rouge." He worked with Illinois Jacquet (1948-1949) and Lester Young (1950-1951), and appeared on many recordings during the era. In 1951, Lewis recorded with the Milt Jackson Quartet which by 1952 became the Modern Jazz Quartet. Lewis' musical vision was fulfilled with the MJQ and he composed many pieces, with "Django" being the best-known. In addition to constantly touring with the MJQ during 1952-1974, Lewis wrote the film scores to Odds Against Tomorrow, No Sun in Venice, and A Milanese Story, recorded as a leader (including the 1956 cool classic "Two Degrees East, Three Degrees West," collaborations with Gunther Schuller, and records with Svend Asmussen and Albert Mangelsdorff), and worked with Orchestra U.S.A. in the mid-'60s. When the MJQ broke up in 1974, Lewis worked as an educator and occasionally recorded as a leader. With the MJQ's rebirth in 1981, he has resumed his former role as its guiding spirit until his death in 2001. Most of Lewis' own projects were recorded for Atlantic.

https://musicians.allaboutjazz.com/johnlewis

John Lewis

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The Modern Jazz Quartet managed that rarest feat of all: to make great art that pleased the serious listener as well as it did the general public. The M.J.Q., as they were known, featured vibraphone, bass, drums, and piano, and yet had the breadth of an orchestra and the intimacy of the most delicate chamber ensemble. Even when they played music written by others, it sounded as though it had been written for them, but they played mostly original compositions by musical director John Lewis, about whom too much can never be said. His was one of those quintessentially American lives a tale of someone who truly invented a life based on a love of music.

John Lewis is certainly a unique figure in American music. Born in 1920, he grew up in New Mexico, graduating from Albuquerque High School in 1937, and from the University of New Mexico in 1941 with a degree in anthropology. Before he joined the army, Lewis encountered both tenor saxophonist Lester Young and composer, bandleader, and pianist Duke Ellington. They were to be formative influences”Young for showing how improvisation can have all the hallmarks of great composition, and Ellington in terms of how to set the music down on manuscript paper without sacrificing its spontaneity. Both these men also reveled in musical counterpoint. And throughout his life, Lewis thrived on the frisson that one good idea engendered. In fact, many of his achievements can be viewed through a prism of action and reaction. Lewis was an avid student and admirer of European music, and used it as a model from which to launch his own penchant for variations. He managed to retain the flavor of some these influences, yet created an idiom that was intrinsically American. Lewis could made a quartet sound like an orchestra, and knew how to make an orchestra swing and move on a dime like the best small jazz groups.

He collaborated with many of the prime innovators of his time, and was a major force in bringing the savant of “free” jazz, Ornette Coleman, to the fore at a time when the jazz establishment was skeptical, to say the least. Yet Lewis's own music always had a traditional feeling to it. He relied heavily on the blues and the indigenous forms of jazz, but brought them into a wide variety of progressive contexts where they always sounded fresh. Lewis remembered times past, but always created in the present tense. Like many original artists, he had an aura. On the surface a shy, gentle man, Lewis had a will of iron, yet he exuded for the most part a feeling of calm.

Emerging from the army in 1946, Lewis came to New York and met Dizzy Gillespie, who quickly recruited him to join his big band as composer, arranger, and pianist, replacing Thelonious Monk. Gillespie's music was so punishing on the brass players that they had to rest frequently, spelled by the rhythm section. Lewis, vibraphonist Milt Jackson, bassist Ray Brown, and drummer Kenny Clarke, with whom Lewis had served overseas, evinced a natural affinity for each other. This led to the formation several years later of the Modern Jazz Quartet. The intervening years found Lewis freelancing with Charlie Parker, Young, Miles Davis (including the seminal Nonet recordings), and Ella Fitzgerald. Ever the student, Lewis managed to combine his nighttime jazz life with studies at Manhattan School of Music, where he received his M.A. in 1953.

Lewis's piano playing was one of jazz's greatest treasures, though it has been overshadowed by his reputation as a composer, arranger, and musical director. From his first recordings with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie in 1947, however, it was clear that Lewis brought something new and challenging to the idiom of jazz piano. At a time when young pianists were scuffling to play as fast as they could, and to sound like Parker on the keyboard, Lewis championed a more orchestral/contrapuntal style. His piano frequently functioned behind soloists in the same way that the Ellington or Basie bands did. Lewis's solos were spare and pithy. It was not for nothing that he was sometimes compared to Count Basie for his mastery of space and depth of accompaniment. Both Parker and Lester Young made some of their most inspired recordings with Lewis at the piano. They will become friends for life. Lewis's playing is nothing short of brilliant in its epigrammatic way, which should come as no surprise given his encyclopedic knowledge of the jazz tradition in general, and the Kansas City blues idiom in particular.

John Lewis ranks with Ellington, Mingus, Monk, and Morton as one of the great jazz composers. As an educator, he was a prime mover in the Lenox School of Jazz in the 1950s, and spent many years at the City College of New York in the '70s and '80s in addition to lecturing at Harvard. There were also workshops and residencies all over the world. Largely and unfairly forgotten today is his pioneering Orchestra U.S.A., which was decades ahead of its time in Lewis's desire to cross the musical borders between jazz and classical music at will.

At the center of Lewis's musical life was the aforementioned Modern Jazz Quartet, and it might have very well been the ultimate expression of his love of counterpoint. Lewis sought out a varied group of guests to join the quartet in special projects and this led to a plethora of brilliant music. Among the most notable M.J.Q. pairings were the ones with Jim Hall, the Beaux Art String Quartet, Sonny Rollins, and Laurindo Almeda. As a unit, the group made for a wonderful contrast with the bulk of their peers in the jazz world. No long solos, no endless repetitions of basic form; indeed, Lewis went way out of his way to ensure that every tune sounded different from another. Keys were varied, as were textures and the lengths of the pieces themselves.

These four jazz giants Lewis, Jackson, bassist Percy Heath, and drummer Connie Kay (who replaced Clarke in 1955) were as different as individuals as they were instrumentally when deep in some extended Lewis composition. They meshed perfectly and kept perfect (and swinging) time. They were also a family, with all that implies. Suffice it to say that as individuals they never sounded better than when they played together. The aura is still there”inside the fugues, the counterpoint, the blues, the abhorrence of cant and cliché that was John Lewis and that remains alive in his music.

John Lewis died aged 80 on March 31, 2001, in his last years he recorded a pair of albums for Atlantic, “Evolution,” and “Evolution II,” (1999-2000) which were a beautiful summary of his career. Fittingly, his final concert appearance came in a lavish gala at Lincoln Center in New York, when he played in settings ranging from solo piano to big band.

Bio by Loren Schoenberg, on the faculty at The Juilliard School. 

https://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/31/arts/john-lewis-80-pianist-composer-and-creator-of-the-modern-jazz-quartet-dies.html

Archives | 2001

John Lewis, 80, Pianist, Composer and Creator of the Modern Jazz Quartet, Dies

by PETER KEEPNEWS 

MARCH 31, 2001

NEW YORK TIMES 

John Lewis, the mastermind of one of the most famous ensembles in jazz, died on Thursday. He was 80 and lived in Manhattan.

Over the years Mr. Lewis distinguished himself not just as a pianist with a distinctively low-key touch but also as a composer, arranger and educator. But he was internationally lauded for one thing above all: his long tenure as pianist and musical director of the Modern Jazz Quartet.

The M.J.Q., as it was popularly known, was probably the most celebrated small group in jazz history and unquestionably the most durable. The quartet made its first recordings in 1952, gave its first public performance the next year and except for a seven-year layoff was a leading concert attraction from the mid-1950's to the late 90's. In all that time, both its personnel and its quiet, delicate approach remained virtually unchanged.

The quartet, whose other members were the vibraphonist Milt Jackson, the bassist Percy Heath and, for most of its existence, the drummer Connie Kay, was nominally a cooperative group. But more than any other member Mr. Lewis was responsible for both its sound and its identity.

It was he who contributed the bulk of the group's compositions and arrangements. Just as important, it was he who established its dignified public image.

Committed to the idea that jazz was every bit as serious an art form as classical music, he determined that the members of the M.J.Q. would wear tuxedos in performance, and he strove to secure as many bookings as possible in concert halls rather than nightclubs.

''John's vision for the group was to change the music from just a jam session, or rhythm section and soloist idea, to something more . . . to change the whole attitude about the musc,'' Mr. Heath told the critic Gary Giddins.

The M.J.Q.'s music was largely a reflection of Mr. Lewis's classical training, but it had its roots in the harmonically and rhythmically sophisticated style of jazz known as bebop. Mr. Lewis, Mr. Jackson and the group's original drummer, Kenny Clarke, had first worked together in the mid-1940's in a big band led by the trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, one of bebop's leading lights. But the M.J.Q. played bebop with difference.

Mr. Lewis drew as much inspiration from Bach as he did from Gillespie. The quartet's brand of jazz was genteel and understated, played with great precision at slow or medium tempos and peppered with fugal counterpoint. It was a far cry from the breakneck pace and flashy virtuosity most listeners associated with bebop.

This approach, which the M.J.Q. applied even to the earthiest blues, attracted a large and loyal audience, including many listeners who were otherwise indifferent to jazz. The critics called it ''chamber jazz'' -- not always with affection.

Mr. Lewis was widely praised for his high artistic standards and his ingenuity as a composer. The British musician and critic Max Harrison wrote that Mr. Lewis had ''succeeded where all others have failed in grafting a number of classical devices into the technique of jazz without doing violence to the spirit of the music.''

But there were those who found his music a bit too precious. A 1963 concert review in Time magazine, for example, suggested that Mr. Lewis had ''gone perilously far in his quest to make jazz more respectable without making it more substantive.''

Probably the most persistent criticism of Mr. Lewis was that Milt Jackson's natural exuberance and expressiveness as a soloist were stifled by the M.J.Q.'s carefully constructed arrangements, which left relatively little room for improvisation. Mr. Jackson often expressed that view himself, and when the quartet disbanded in 1974 after 22 years his dissatisfaction with his limited role was one of the main reasons.

Still, Mr. Jackson took part in the occasional reunion concert, and despite his misgivings the M.J.Q. reunited permanently in 1981.

Connie Kay, who had been the drummer since 1955, died in 1994 and was replaced by Percy Heath's younger brother Albert the next year. After a few more years of touring, the Modern Jazz Quartet's long run came to an end when Percy Heath decided he no longer wanted to tour. Any hopes of one last reunion were stilled when Milt Jackson died in 1999.

John Aaron Lewis was born on May 3, 1920, in LaGrange, Ill., and grew up in Albuquerque. He took his first piano lesson at age 7 and studied both music and anthropology at the University of New Mexico.

While serving in the Army in Europe during World War II he met Kenny Clarke, who had already established himself as the most important drummer in the nascent bebop movement. At Clarke's urging, Mr. Lewis moved to New York after his discharge in 1945 and submitted some arrangements to Gillespie, who was forming a big band with Clarke as his drummer. Gillespie began using his arrangements and eventually hired him to replace Thelonious Monk as the band's pianist.

After a few years with Gillespie, Mr. Lewis became a busy freelance sideman, performing or recording with Charlie Parker, Lester Young, Ella Fitzgerald and other jazz luminaries.

His piano style, partly derived from Count Basie's, was different from that of most of his contemporaries. As a soloist he depended as much on silence as he did on notes to get his message across; as an accompanist he was as likely to play fuguelike counter lines as the staccato chords that were standard bebop procedure.

In 1949 and 1950, Mr. Lewis participated as both pianist and arranger in a series of recordings with a nine-piece ensemble led by the trumpeter Miles Davis. Although the music attracted little notice at the time, its pastel colors and restrained ambience came to be regarded as a seminal influence on the so-called cool jazz that flourished in the middle and late 50's.

The Modern Jazz Quartet -- which would come to be regarded by many listeners as the epitome of cool jazz, although in truth its approach defied easy categorization -- was born not long after those sessions. The group first recorded in 1952, as the Milt Jackson Quartet, but before the year was out it had changed its name and established its personality.

At first the quartet's biggest challenge was simply getting noisy nightclub audiences to pay attention to a brand of jazz that was significantly quieter than the norm. But the strength of the music soon compensated for its lack of volume, and by the end of the 50's people all over the world were paying attention.

The M.J.Q. was a steady seller of records and concert tickets well into the 70's and a dependable model of cohesiveness in performance. Despite its carefully cultivated group identity, however, its members all maintained separate careers, and Mr. Lewis never lacked for work to keep him occupied during the quartet's periodic hiatuses.

From 1958 to 1982 he was musical director of the Monterey Jazz Festival in California. From 1962 to 1965 he was a leader of Orchestra U.S.A., a jazz ensemble augmented with strings and woodwinds that was the leading exponent of the mixture of jazz and classical music known as third stream music. From 1985 to 1992 he was musical director of the American Jazz Orchestra, a big band established by Gary Giddins that performed both classic works and new compositions, helping to establish the jazz repertory movement of the 90's.

Mr. Lewis, who received a master's degree from the Manhattan School of Music in 1953, also kept one foot in academia throughout his career. He taught music at Harvard and the City College of New York, and in the late 1950's he was a founder of the Lenox School of Jazz in Massachusetts, one of the first schools in the world devoted solely to jazz.

Many of Mr. Lewis's compositions, among then ''Django'' and ''Two Degrees East, Three Degrees West,'' achieved the status of jazz standards. He also wrote music for symphony orchestras and chamber ensembles as well as the scores for several movies, most notably ''No Sun in Venice'' and ''Odds Against Tomorrow.''

Mr. Lewis's most recent albums -- both on Atlantic, the label for which the Modern Jazz Quartet made almost all of its records -- were ''Evolution,'' a solo recital released in 1999, and ''Evolution II,'' a quartet album released earlier this year. Reviewing ''Evolution'' in The New York Times, Ben Ratliff wrote: ''Mr. Lewis has applied as much thought to the arrangement of these songs as he would if he were playing with a group, and then made a music that's utterly at peace with itself.'' Also in The Times, Adam Shatz called ''Evolution II'' ''a record that will give ample pleasure for as long as people are listening to jazz.''

Mr. Lewis performed selections from both albums, as well as works from various stages of his career, at a concert at Avery Fisher Hall in January. He played piano in the first half of the concert and conducted the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra in the second half.

For all the acclaim he received over the years, Mr. Lewis remained a modest and soft-spoken man. He always seemed a little uncomfortable in the spotlight and led a quiet offstage life with his family. He is survived by his wife, Mirjana, a harpsichordist; a son, Sasha; a daughter, Nina; a sister, Marylyn Gore, and three grandchildren.

And while he was proud of his accomplishments, he was never complacent.

''Remember,'' he told an interviewer in 1961, at the height of the Modern Jazz Quartet's success, ''you have to communicate as clearly and as correctly as you can. In my case, if I make a mistake the audience may not realize it. But I do. And I'm part of the audience too.''

Indeed, in an interview with John S. Wilson of The Times two decades later, shortly after the M.J.Q. had reunited, Mr. Lewis sounded as much like a member of the audience as a member of the group.

''You can't take the Modern Jazz Quartet for granted,'' Mr. Lewis said. ''They amaze me.''

A version of this obituary; biography appears in print on March 31, 2001, on Page B00009 of the National edition with the headline: John Lewis, 80, Pianist, Composer and Creator of the Modern Jazz Quartet, Dies. Order Reprints| Today's Paper

http://vermontreview.tripod.com/Interviews/lewis.htm 

The Evolution of a Pianist: An Interview with John Lewis
by Brian L. Knight
Vermont Review

After fifty years of playing and composing, pianist John Lewis is attacking the jazz idiom with the same youthful enthusiasm that he possessed when he moved to New York City in the 1940s. One of Lewis’ first gigs was sitting in with Gillepsie’s big band in 1946 where he played piano and wrote arrangements. After his introduction to the trumpeter, Lewis continued an impressive career in which he recorded "Parker’s Mood" with Charlie Parker, played with Miles Davis for the now famous "Birth of the Cool" album and was one/ fourth of the long running Modern Jazz Quartet. With vibist Milt Jackson, drummer Kenny Clarke and bassist Percy Heath, the Modern Jazz Quartet became one of the most popular jazz bands ever as they toured the world and recorded numerous successful albums. Throughout the Modern Jazz Quartet’s long tenure (1952-1974), it was Lewis’ brilliant compositions that kept the band pushing forward. 

Lewis is also one of the biggest proponents of the "Third Stream" which was the blending of both classical and jazz styles. This fine ability and vision led to Lewis’ involvement in work outside of the Modern Jazz Quartet such as composing scores for films, leading big bands and arranging for orchestras. Despite being active in the music industry for over 50 years and reaching many pinnacles of success, Lewis remains very active as a musician: he still leads orchestras, plays the occasional concert and to top it all, he has released Evolution(Atlantic Records). On this album, Lewis revisits tunes from throughout his career – "Django", "Afternoon in Paris", and many others. This time around, Lewis approaches these songs from more of the point of view as a solo pianist more than musical composer. From his home in New York City, which he has called home since his arrival in Gillepsie’s band, the Vermont Review spoke to Lewis about his latest album.

New York City, where he has called home for over fifty years

Vermont Review: After playing music for over fifty years, you must have given countless interviews. Are you a fan of them?
John Lewis: A fan of interviews? Not so much, I am more of a fan of music playing.

VR: Your latest album, Evolution, features you alone on the piano. How often do you play solo piano?

JL: Not too often, but I do play concerts.

VR: Which do you prefer, working with a band or solo on the piano?

JL: Things are different now. I spent most of my life working with the Modern Jazz Quartet and that was just about a lifetime project. Since that is not possible anymore, I have spent more time with the piano, which I have fallen in love with. It is a wonderful instrument, which I knew all along but I didn’t have time to devote to it.

VR: Have you ever ventured with the electric piano or synthesizers?

JL: That is another instrument to me. It is a keyboard instrument. It really is not a piano. It should have another name, we just got to figure out one. The harpsichord is not a piano. The organ is not a piano. I don’t think the keyboard should be called a piano because they are not. It is an useful instrument just the same.

VR: Does the name of your album reflect any personal evolution?

JL: Yes I have. We all do and should. That is exactly what the title refers to.

VR: Evolution has a lot of great tunes, one being "Afternoon in Paris", which has been in your repertoire for some time. Was that tune written in Paris?

JL: That tune was written many, many, many years ago. The original recording, I think was with JJ Johnson and Sonny Stitt. That is what I think. I am not sure about it. It was so long ago. Then it was recorded on an album later in Europe with some young European musicians and the album was called Afternoon in Paris.

VR: What do you think of Paris? Have you ever spent any time there?

JL: Yes, I just come back from there.

VR: Were you vacationing?

JL: No. Half of the time was spent playing a solo concert and half the time conducting a band.

VR: Did you get any free time?

JL: Very little, but I have been Paris many many times. Lots of times in France I should say.

VR: Another tune on Evolution is "Django", named after the guitarist Django Reinhardt. Did he have an influence on you as a musician?

JL: Not an influence, but he was a great wonderful musician and one of the most powerful musicians for his instrument that I ever heard.

VR: Did you ever get a chance to play with him?

JL: No, I heard him play. He came to the United States on a tour as a guest of Duke Ellington. This had to be, I think, around 1957. At the time I was playing and arranging for Dizzy Gillepsie. We were playing down on 52^nd Street at the Famous Door and he used to come down and spend all night with us. And even sometimes when he was working, we had to push him out to go do his job.

VR: You just mentioned Duke Ellington. There is a tune on Evolution called "For Ellington." Did you ever play with the Duke?

JL: No, because Ellington was a piano player of course.(laughter)

VR: I guess you can mark one against me with that question. You seem to revisit him quite a bit with your work with the Lincoln center Jazz Orchestra and assorted tunes.

JL: The Modern Jazz Quartet also recorded an album. It was all Ellington stuff except for the song "For Ellington" and a piece that Milt Jackson wrote for the album.

VR: Jumping up to the Modern Jazz Quartet. This may be the second naïve statement of the day, but I will ask anyway: Did the Milt Jackson Quartet become the Modern Jazz Quartet because they shared the same initials?

JL: No. The name that we wanted was not available at the time. It was already copyrighted by another company. We were calling it the New Jazz Quartet so we had to settle for the Modern Jazz Quartet.

VR: So the initials were a coincidence?

JL: Yes.

VR: The cover of Evolution features a picture of an ice fishing shack. Are you an ice fisherman.

JL: No, I am not but a very good friend of mine is – Oscar Peterson.

VR: Where does he do his fishing?

JL: Up in Canada. He has his favorite spot – he doesn’t tell anybody.

VR: So if you just got back from France and you stay busy with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. Do you play live a lot?

JL: On occasion. Nothing like the kind of tours that the Modern Jazz Quartet did. We were constantly touring all the time. Too much.

VR: Like many musicians, you spent some time in the Army. Just as the army imposes character discipline, did it also provide playing discipline?

JL: No. I had that going before I joined Army.

VR: Who was responsible for teaching the piano? 

JL: I guess my grandmother who raised me. Then my first teacher was a cousin of my mother who was a music teacher.

VR: You are credited with the bridging of classical and jazz music forms. Which came first for you?

JL: Both music at the same time. It is not a question of liking one or the other. Before require work and I had great experiences hearing and sometimes participating in classical performances…….and jazz performances. The wonderful thing about jazz though is that I have been able to, because I have had a nice long life, watch the music develop a language. To be able to express a great many human experiences – that is another exciting element that jazz has had for me. 

VR: Like your album title suggest, jazz has evolved tremendously since your first involvement. Is it still changing?

JL: It is still enriching itself. It has a mainstream now. It has a tradition that it can draw from.

VR: One of the first songs that you wrote was "Toccata" for Dizzy Gillepsie. Do you ever revisit that tune?

JL: (laughter) No. I haven’t heard that one for a long time.

VR: Your work with Miles Davis in the late 1940s with his nonet is heralded as the "Birth of the Cool". In retrospect, those sessions are considered landmark. Did you think they were landmark at the time?

JL: No. We were really all having a wonderful time with music. That is what we were interested in doing at the time.

VR: Both you and Miles Davis possessed an economical approach to playing music. Is it difficult to have two economical players in the same band?

JL: It is not difficult. If you have to be in the same band playing, you will reach some agreement about how you each will play. And you don’t do that by speaking about it, you just play.

VR: I guess the same theory would apply when you played with Charlie Parker?

JL: He was a virtuoso player. That was one of his principal techniques of expression – virtuosity. He was very different from most virtuosos because it was the most musical virtuosity I ever heard.

VR: You scored a lot of scores for films. Compared to bands, was this challenging?

JL: Yes, very much so but I enjoyed it. It is challenging and hard work. You have to work very fast. I had opportunities to do about three different ways of creating scores for films. There is no real standard. There is no standard for what is a producer for a film or what is director for a film. They are all individual acts of creation.

VR: You have been a bandleader/arranger for most of your life. Is there anymore enjoyment in leading than there is in playing?

JL: If it necessary that they can do that, you do it in order to get the enjoyment out of the playing. (laughter) Otherwise, I am happy to have somebody else do it as long as they do it well. 

VR: What do you do when your are not involved with music.

JL: Spending time with my family.

To suggest a John Lewis album is a tough task, as he was involved with countless albums with Dizzy Gillepsie, Miles Davis, Milt Jackson, Illinois Jacquet and many more. For a bare bones look at both Lewis’ compositional skills and playing style, Evolution (Atlantic Records) is a great collection of his works.

https://books.google.com/books?id=HE1KDQAAQBAJ&dq=JOHN+LEWIS++(MUSICIAN)&source=gbs_navlinks_s

John Lewis and the Challenge of "Real" Black Music

by Christopher Coady

University of Michigan Press, October 4, 2016 - Music -  

241 pages

For critics and listeners, the reception of the 1950s jazz-classical hybrid Third Stream music has long been fraught. In John Lewis and the Challenge of “Real” Black Music, Christopher Coady explores the work of one of the form’s most vital practitioners, following Lewis from his role as an arranger for Miles Davis’s Birth of the Cool sessions to his leadership of the Modern Jazz Quartet, his tours of Europe, and his stewardship of the Lenox School of Jazz.

Along the way Coady shows how Lewis’s fusion works helped shore up a failing jazz industry in the wake of the 1940s big band decline, forging a new sound grounded in middle-class African American musical traditions. By taking into account the sociocultural milieu of the 1950s, Coady provides a wider context for understanding the music Lewis wrote for the Modern Jazz Quartet and sets up new ways of thinking about Cool Jazz and Third Stream music more broadly.

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2001/apr/02/guardianobituaries.johnfordham

Music

John Lewis

Classically trained musician who co-founded the legendary Modern Jazz Quartet in the 1950s and was part of the Birth of the Cool 

by John Fordham

Sun 1 Apr 2001  

The Guardian  (UK)

The Modern Jazz Quartet was laid-back long before anybody thought of the expression, and it stayed that way after it went out of currency. One of the few jazz ensembles to become widely loved outside the world of the modern jazz cognoscenti, it was also one of the longest lived. Eventually, after a 30-year career beginning in 1954, the band's tinkling, metronomic, glassily perfect music came to a halt in the mid-1970s, as if it had been generated by clockwork musicians whose springs had finally wound down. But it restarted by public demand in the 1980s and continued until mortality broke the springs for good. Both John Lewis, the group's Illinois-born co-founder and compositional guru, and his original vibraharp partner, the late Milt Jackson, were far bigger figures than their CVs with the MJQ suggested. Lewis, who has died in New York at the age of 80, was a writer of haunting jazz themes and film-scores and a pianist of fragility and patience in an instrumental world populated by pyrotechnicians. An experimenter, his cross-genre forms predated contemporary music's open-handed swapping of idioms and methods by decades. He also confirmed, within the MJQ and outside it, that subtle arrangement - sometimes disapproved of in the more cliffhanging of jazz circles - could make the difference between a specialised audience and a much wider one.

Lewis's soft chords and glancing punctuation, against the sinewy lines of the double-bass and the shuffle and distant rumble of the percussion, made MJQ music identifiable from the first bar - even if it also drove some hardcore jazz fans into the nearest bar - and it was that chamber-group sound, emphasising the new bebop's most elegant, baroque-like formal properties, and playing down its heat, that led the band to dominate jazz record sales in the 1950s and early 1960s.

Lewis was classically trained and the MJQ's stately tempos, elegant counterpoint and borrowings from rondos and fugues testified to it. He also insisted on tuxedos for the band's performances and, wherever possible, gigs in classical concert halls and recital rooms rather than clubs - manifestations of his conviction that jazz was entitled to equal treatment and status with formal music.

The MJQ could be absorbing in its melodic cleverness, hypnotic in its restraint, prove that blues could be effective without bashing, and oblige audiences to listen below the surface. Yet the group - particularly later - also had a tendency to coyness and, at times, an avoidance of risk that could bring it close to resembling a high-class Palm Court outfit. Some observers felt that the group deployed the mannerisms and gestures of classical music and jazz without the breadth of texture and emotion of the one and the urgent spontaneity and surging pulse of the other - and even the great vibraharpist Milt Jackson came to contend that the group's artifice didn't get the best out of him, his dissatisfaction being a major impetus for the 1974 dissolution.

Lewis and Jackson were the MJQ cornerstones, but both worked in other contexts that allowed their talents to flower more vividly - the bluesy Jackson as one of jazz's most exciting vibraharp improvisers, and Lewis as a composer, educator and great-and-good figure across a span of contemporary music.

The pianist was born in LaGrange, Illinois, and initially he grew up in Albuquerque with his mother after his parents' divorce. A classical pianist from early childhood - his mother, who died when the boy was four, was a trained singer - Lewis studied music and anthropology at the University of New Mexico, met the pioneering bebop drummer Kenny Clarke on military service in Europe, and moved to New York after the war at Clarke's urging. Clarke's presence in Dizzy Gillespie's revolutionary postwar bop-influenced big band brought an offer to Lewis too - and soon, his mix of bop's advanced harmonies, classical devices, and Count Basie's minimalist melodic approach brought him freelance work with Charlie Parker, Lester Young, Illinois Jacquet, Ella Fitzgerald, King Pleasure and others.

At the end of the 1940s, Lewis participated in the famous Birth of the Cool sessions with Miles Davis, in which the trumpeter mirrored some of Lewis's gathering fascination with softer dynamics, classical textures, and more complex formal structures. These remarkable sessions did much to put the 50s Cool Jazz movement into a decade of unhurried motion.

In 1952 the Gillespie band's rhythm section (Lewis, Clarke, Ray Brown on bass) plus a Gillespie soloist, the Detroit vibraharpist Milt Jackson, began to record as the Milt Jackson Modern Jazz Quartet. But though it was to be a collectively run ensemble, it was Lewis's interests that increasingly shaped its identity. By 1954, Percy Heath and Connie Kay had come in on bass and drums, the quartet was under Lewis's musical direction, and its success story became one of the most striking jazz has ever known.

Yet from 1957 onwards, Lewis was also writing film scores - notably for Roger Vadim's Sait-on jamais? (No Sun In Venice) 1957, and Robert Wise's Odds Against Tomorrow (1959). He wrote music for ballets and symphony orchestras, stage plays and television documentaries. He was involved in the formation of the Jazz and Classical Music Society and the propagation of the mixed jazz/classical "third stream" approach. He also held academic and advisory posts and, after 1980, a raft of honorary doctorates.

For almost a quarter of a century he was musical director of California's Monterey jazz festival, and from 1962 to 1965 was a leader of Orchestra USA, a hybrid band featuring jazz instruments plus strings and woodwinds. The MJQ was reformed in 1983 for some lucrative Japanese gigs, and continued until Milt Jackson's death in 1999.

Between 1985 and 1992, Lewis was also musical director of the the repertory American Jazz Orchestra. His academic work also took in Harvard and the City College of New York. In the late 1950s he had founded the Lenox School of Jazz in Massachusetts.

Lewis remained as quiet and undemonstrative as his music throughout his life. His compositions Django (1954) and Two Degrees East, Three Degrees West (1956) are still played by jazz musicians everywhere. Evolution (1999) was an album of solo recital and its follow-up emerged earlier this year to considerable critical warmth.

John Lewis is survived by his harpsichordist wife, Mirjana, a son, daughter and three grandchildren.

John Aaron Lewis, musician, born May 3 1920; died March 29 2001


https://musicaficionado.blog/2016/03/19/django-by-the-modern-jazz-quartet/

March 19, 2016 

Django, by the Modern Jazz Quartet

John Lewis is one of the most underrated figures in the history of Jazz. He does not typically show up in lists of top musicians, composers or arrangers in the genre, but in the 1950s he was at the forefront of several developments in Jazz, among them Cool and the Third Stream. Starting with the Birth of the Cool, the 1949 Miles Davis Nonet sessions for which Lewis wrote some of the arrangements along with Gerry Mulligan, and through the classic recordings with the Modern Jazz Quartet, the group he founded with Milt Jackson, John Lewis demonstrated how Classical music can inspire Jazz musicians to focus on composition and arrangement.

John Lewis had many admirers among musicians in the 50s, among them Miles Davis. In 1956 Davis, interested in the Third Stream, a movement led by Gunther Schuller that looked to combine Classical and Jazz sensibilities, recorded a John Lewis composition named Three Little Feelings. Its style and tone remind me of the classic recordings Davis would make with Gil Evans, starting with Miles Ahead which he recorded a year later. Davis also praised John Lewis’ composition Django as one of the best compositions ever, and even  recorded it with Michel Legrand on Legrand Jazz in 1958.

The Modern Jazz Quartet recorded Django on December 23, 1954 in one of the last recordings that included drummer Kenny Clarke. A few months later Clarke decided to move to Paris and was replaced by Connie Kay. That lineup stayed together almost 40 years until Kay’s death in 1994. Django is one of John Lewis’ most lyrical compositions. It is dedicated to Django Reinhardt who died in May 1953, a year before this recording was made.

Django Reinhardt

While it is a blues, it owes as much to Bach as it does to the blues. Its structure is unique. It starts and ends with what to me sounds like a eulogy to Reinhardt, with a somber melody accentuated by single bass notes. It then follows a 32-bar cycle for the solos, but instead of a typical AABA form, each section made of 8 bars, it starts with two 6-bars A part, then an 8-bar B part, and ends with a 12-bar A-part, of which the last 8 bars are in a boogie rhythm. To create anticipation before each solo begins, there is a quick double-time section between solos. In the best of the John Lewis tradition, it is a well composed piece of music. In the year 2000 NPR included the composition in its 100 most important American musical works of the 20th century.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lewis_(pianist)

John Lewis (pianist)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

JOHN LEWIS IN 1977

John Aaron Lewis (May 3, 1920 – March 29, 2001) was an American jazz pianist, composer and arranger, best known as the founder and musical director of the Modern Jazz Quartet. 

Early life

 

John Lewis was born in La Grange, Illinois, and after his parents' divorce moved with his mother, a trained singer, to Albuquerque, New Mexico when he was two months old. She died from peritonitis when he was four and he was raised by his grandmother and great-grandmother.^[1][2][3] He began learning classical music and piano at the age of seven.^[4] His family was musical and had a family band that allowed him to play frequently and he also played in a Boy Scout music group.^[5] Even though he learned piano by playing the classics, he was exposed to jazz from an early age because his aunt loved to dance and he would listen to the music she played.^[5] He attended the University of New Mexico,^[4] where he led a small dance band that he formed^[6] and double majored in Anthropology and Music.^[5] Eventually, he decided not to pursue Anthropology because he was advised that careers from degrees in the subject did not pay well.^[5] In 1942, Lewis entered the army and played piano alongside Kenny Clarke, who influenced him to move to New York once their service was over.^[7] Lewis moved to New York in 1945^[7] to pursue his musical studies at the Manhattan School of Music and eventually graduated with a master's degree in music in 1953.^[4] Although his move to New York turned his musical attention more towards jazz, he still frequently played and listened to classical works and composers such as Chopin, Bach and Beethoven.^[5]

 

Jazz career

 

Lewis (1946–1948)

Once Lewis moved to New York, Clarke introduced him to Dizzy Gillespie's bop-style big band. He successfully auditioned by playing a song called "Bright Lights" that he had written for the band he and Clarke played for in the army.^[8] The tune he originally played for Gillespie, renamed "Two Bass Hit", became an instant success.^[9] Lewis composed, arranged and played piano for the band from 1946 until 1948 after the band made a concert tour of Europe.^[4][8] When Lewis returned from the tour with Gillespie's band, he left it to work individually. Lewis was an accompanist for Charlie Parker and played on some of Parker's famous recordings, such as "Parker's Mood" (1948) and "Blues for Alice" (1951), but also collaborated with other prominent jazz artists such as Lester Young, Ella Fitzgerald and Illinois Jacquet.^[4]

In an article about Dexter Gordon for WorldPress.com, reviewer Ted Panken suggests that ". . . Higgins’s buoyant ride cymbal and subtle touch propels the soloists through the master take of "Milestones," a John Lewis line for which Miles Davis took credit on his 1947 Savoy debut with Charlie Parker on tenor."^[10] Panken seems certain of his claim but does not offer corroboration to a charge that Davis took credit for music that was not his own.

Lewis was also part of trumpeter Miles Davis's Birth of the Cool sessions. While in Europe, Lewis received letters from Davis urging him to come back to the United States and collaborate with him, Gil Evans, Gerry Mulligan and others on the second session of Birth of the Cool.^[11] From when he returned to the U.S. in 1948 through 1949, Lewis joined Davis's nonet^[11] and is considered "one of the more prolific arrangers with the 1949 Miles Davis Nonet".^[12] For the Birth of the Cool sessions, Lewis arranged "S'il Vous Plait", "Rouge", "Move" and "Budo".^[13]
Lewis, vibraphonist Milt Jackson, drummer Clarke and bassist Ray Brown had been the small group within the Gillespie big band,^[14] and they frequently played their own short sets when the brass and reeds needed a break or even when Gillespie's band was not playing.^[15] The small band received a lot of positive recognition and it led to the foursome forming a full-time working group, which they initially called the Milt Jackson Quartet in 1951 but in 1952 renamed the Modern Jazz Quartet.^[4]

 

Modern Jazz Quartet

 

The Modern Jazz Quartet was formed out of the foursome's need for more freedom and complexity than Gillespie's big band, dance-intended sound allowed.^[16] While Lewis wanted the MJQ to have more improvisational freedom, he also wanted to incorporate some classical elements and arrangements to his compositions.^[12] Lewis noticed that the style of bebop had turned all focus towards the soloist, and Lewis, in his compositions for the MJQ, attempted to even out the periods of improvisation with periods that were distinctly arranged.^[17] Lewis assumed the role of musical director from the start,^[4] even though the group claimed not to have a leader.^[18] It is commonly thought that "John Lewis, for reasons of his contributions to the band, was apparently the first among the equals".^[19] Davis even once said that "John taught all of them, Milt couldn't read at all, and bassist Percy Heath hardly".^[19] It was Lewis who elevated the group's collective talent because of his individual musical abilities.^[19]

Lewis gradually transformed the group away from strictly 1940's bebop style, which served as a vehicle for an individual artist's improvisations, and instead oriented it toward a more refined, polished, chamber style of music.^[20] Lewis's compositions for The Modern Jazz Quartet developed a "neoclassical style"^[21] of jazz that combined the bebop style with "dynamic shading and dramatic pause more characteristic of jazz of the '20s and '30s".^[12] Francis Davis, in his book In the Moment: Jazz in the 1980s, wrote that by "fashioning a group music in which the improvised chorus and all that surrounded it were of equal importance, Lewis performed a feat of magic only a handful of jazz writers, including Duke Ellington and Jelly Roll Morton, had ever pulled off—he reconciled the composer's belief in predetermination with the improviser's yen for free will".^[17]

Lewis also made sure that the band was always dressed impeccably.^[22] Lewis believed that it was important to dress the way that they came across in their music: polished, elegant and unique.^[22] Lewis once said in an interview with Down Beat magazine: "My model for that was Duke Ellington. [His band] was the most elegant band I ever saw".^[23]

From 1952 through 1974, he wrote and performed with and for the quartet.^[4] Lewis's compositions were paramount in earning the MJQ a worldwide reputation for managing to make jazz mannered without cutting the swing out of the music.^[24] Gunther Schuller for High Fidelity Magazine wrote:

It will not come as a surprise that the Quartet's growth has followed a line parallel to Lewis' own development as a composer. A study of his compositions from the early "Afternoon in Paris" to such recent pieces as "La Cantatrice" and "Piazza Navona" shows an increasing technical mastery and stylistic broadening. The wonder of his music is that the various influences upon his work—whether they be the fugal masterpieces of Bach, the folk-tinged music of Bartók, the clearly defined textures of Stravinsky's "Agon", or the deeply felt blues atmosphere that permeates all his music—these have all become synthesized into a thoroughly homogeneous personal idiom. That is why Lewis' music, though not radical in any sense, always sounds fresh and individual.^[25]

During the same time period, Lewis held various other positions as well, including head of faculty for the summer sessions held at the Lenox School of Jazz in Lenox, Massachusetts from 1957 to 1960,^[4] director of the annual Monterey Jazz Festival in California from 1958 to 1983,^[7] and its musical consultant,^[26] and "he formed the cooperative big band Orchestra U.S.A., which performed and recorded Third Stream compositions (1962–65)".^[4] Orchestra U.S.A., along with all of Lewis's compositions in general, were very influential in developing "Third Stream" music, which was largely defined by the interweave between classical and jazz traditions.^[7] He also formed the Jazz and Classical Music Society in 1955, which hosted concerts in Town Hall in New York City that assisted in this new genre of classically influenced jazz to increase in popularity.^[27] Furthermore, Lewis was also commissioned to compose the score to the 1957 film Sait-On Jamais,^[28] and his later film work included the scores to Odds Against Tomorrow (1959), A Milanese Story (1962), Derek Jarman's version of The Tempest (1979), and the TV movie Emmanuelle 4: Concealed Fantasy (1994). His score to Odds Against Tomorrow was released on both an original soundtrack album (UA 5061) and an interpretation album by the MJQ in 1959.

The MJQ disbanded in 1974 because Jackson felt that the band was not getting enough money for the level of prestige the quartet had in the music scene.^[29] During this break, Lewis taught at the City College of New York and at Harvard University.^[4] Lewis was also able to travel to Japan, where CBS commissioned his first solo piano album.^[30] While in Japan, Lewis also collaborated with Hank Jones and Marian McPartland,^[31] with whom he performed piano recitals on various occasions.^[30]

In 1981, the Modern Jazz Quartet re-formed for a tour of Japan and the United States, although the group did not plan on performing regularly together again.^[29] Since the MJQ was no longer his primary career, Lewis had time to form and play in a sextet called the John Lewis Group.^[4] A few years later, in 1985, Lewis collaborated with Gary Giddins and Roberta Swann to form the American Jazz Orchestra.^[4] Additionally, he continued to teach jazz piano to aspiring jazz students, which he had done throughout his career.^[30] His teaching style involved making sure the student was fluent in "three basic forms: the blues, a ballad, and a piece that moves".^[30] He continued teaching late into his life.

In 1989, Lewis was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Berklee College of Music. He was recognized for his impact on jazz and his amazing career.^[32]

In the 1990s, Lewis partook of various musical ventures, including participating in the Re-birth of the Cool sessions with Gerry Mulligan in 1992,^[33] and "The Birth of the Third Stream" with Gunther Schuller, Charles Mingus and George Russell,^[34] and recorded his final albums with Atlantic Records, Evolution and Evolution II, in 1999 and 2000 respectively.^[35] He also continued playing sporadically with the MJQ until 1997, when the group permanently disbanded.^[36]

Lewis performed a final concert at Lincoln Center in New York and played a repertoire that represented his full musical ability—from solo piano to big-band and everything in between.^[35] He died in New York City on March 29, 2001, at the age of 80, after a long battle with prostate cancer.^[1] He was survived by his wife of 39 years, harpsichordist Mirjana (née Vrbanić), a son and daughter, and three grandchildren.^[37][38]

 

Music

Style and influence

Leonard Feather's opinion of Lewis's work is representative of many other knowledgeable jazz listeners and critics:^[39] "Completely self-sufficient and self-confident, he knows exactly what he wants from his musicians, his writing and his career and he achieves it with an unusual quiet firmness of manner, coupled with modesty and a complete indifference to critical reaction."^[40] Lewis was not only this way with his music, but his personality exemplified these same qualities.^[5]

Lewis, who was significantly influenced by the arranging style and carriage of Count Basie,^[41] played with a tone quality that made listeners and critics feel as though every note was deliberate. Schuller remembered of Lewis at his memorial service that "he had a deep concern for every detail, every nuance in the essentials of music".^[42] Lewis became associated with representing a modernized Basie style, exceptionally skilled at creating music that was spacious, powerful and yet, refined.^[35] In an interview with Metronome magazine, Lewis himself said:

My ideals stem from what led to and became Count Basie's band of the '30s and '40s. This group produced an integration of ensemble playing which projected—and sounded like—the spontaneous playing of ideas which were the personal expression of each member of the band rather than the arrangers or composers. This band had some of the greatest jazz soloists exchanging and improvising ideas with and counter to the ensemble and the rhythm section, the whole permeated with the fold-blues element developed to a most exciting degree. I don't think it is possible to plan or make that kind of thing happen. It is a natural product and all we can do is reach and strive for it.^[43]

It is considered, however, that Lewis was successful in exemplifying, in his arrangements and compositions, this skill that he admired.^[44] Because of his classical training, in addition to his exposure to bebop, Lewis was able to combine the two disparate musical styles and refine jazz so that there was a "sheathing of bop's pointed anger in exchange for concert hall respectability".^[45]

Lewis was also influenced by the improvisations of Lester Young on the saxophone.^[46] Lewis had not been the first jazz pianist to be influenced by a horn player. Earl Hines in his early years looked to Louis Armstrong's improvisations for inspiration and Bud Powell looked to Charlie Parker.^[46] Lewis also claims to have been influenced by Hines himself.^[5]

Lewis was also heavily influenced by European classical music. Many of his compositions for the MJQ and his own personal compositions incorporated various classically European techniques such as fugue and counterpoint,^[35] and the instrumentation he chose for his pieces, sometimes including a string orchestra.^[47]

In the early 1980s, Lewis's influence came from the pianists he enjoyed listening to: Art Tatum, Hank Jones and Oscar Peterson.^[30]

 

Piano style

 

Len Lyons depicts Lewis's piano, composition and personal style when he introduces Lewis in Lyons' book The Great Jazz Pianists: "Sitting straight-backed, jaw rigid, presiding over the glistening white keyboard of the grand piano, John Lewis clearly brooks no nonsense in his playing, indulges in no improvisational frvolity, and exhibits no breach of discipline nor any phrase that could be construed as formally incorrect. Lewis, of course, can swing, play soulful blues and emote through his instrument, but it is the swing and sweat of the concert hall, not of smoke-filled, noisy nightclubs." Although Lewis is considered to be a bebop pianist,^[35][48] he is also considered to be one of the more conservative players.^[4] Instead of emphasizing the intense, fast tempoed bebop style, his piano style was geared towards emphasizing jazz as an "expression of quiet conflict".^[19] His piano style, bridging the gap between classical, bop, stride and blues, made him so "it was not unusual to hear him mentioned in the same breath with Morton, Ellington, and Monk".^[49] On the piano, his improvisational style was primarily quiet and gentle and understated.^[4] Lewis once advised three saxophonists who were improvising on one of his original compositions: "You have to put yourself at the service of the melody.... Your solos should expand the melody or contract it".^[50] This was how he approached his solos as well. He proved in his solos that taking a "simple and straightforward... approach to a melody could... put [musicians] in touch with such complexities of feeling",^[50] which the audience appreciated just as much as the musicians themselves.^[50]

His accompaniment for other musicians' solos was just as delicate.^[4] Thomas Owens describes his accompaniment style by noting that "rather than comping—punctuating the melody with irregularly placed chords—he often played simple counter-melodies in octaves which combined with the solo and bass parts to form a polyphonic texture".^[4]

 

Compositions and arrangements

 

Similarly to his personal piano playing style, Lewis was drawn in his compositions to minimalism and simplicity.^[41] Many of his compositions were based on motifs and relied on few chord progressions.^[51] Francis Davis comments: "I think too, that the same conservative lust for simplicity of forms that draws Lewis to the Renaissance and the Baroque draws him inevitably to the blues, another form of music permitting endless variation only within the logic of rigid boundaries".^[52]

His compositions were influenced by 18th-century melodies and harmonies,^[4] but also showed an advanced understanding of the "secrets of tension and release, the tenets of dynamic shading and dramatic pause"^[50] that was reminiscent of classic arrangements by Basie and Ellington in the early swing era. This combining of techniques led to Lewis becoming a pioneer in Third Stream Jazz, which was combined classical, European practices with jazz's improvisational and big-band characteristics.^[4]
Lewis, in his compositions, experimented with writing fugues^[53] and incorporating classical instrumentation.^[16] An article in The New York Times wrote that "His new pieces and reworkings of older pieces are designed to interweave string orchestra and jazz quartet as equals".^[54] High Fidelity magazine wrote that his "works not only show a firm control of the compositional medium, but tackle in a fresh way the complex problem of improvisation with composed frameworks".^[25]

Thomas Owen believes that "[Lewis'] best pieces for the MJQ are 'Django', the ballet suite The Comedy (1962, Atl.), and especially the four pieces 'Versailles', 'Three Windows', 'Vendome' and 'Concorde'... combine fugal imitation and non-imitative polyphonic jazz in highly effective ways."^[4]

Discography

As leader/co-leader

• The Modern Jazz Society Presents a Concert of Contemporary Music (Norgran, 1955)
• Grand Encounter (Pacific Jazz, 1956) - with Bill Perkins, Jim Hall, Percy Heath & Chico Hamilton
• Afternoon in Paris (Atlantic, 1957) - with Sacha Distel
• The John Lewis Piano (Atlantic, 1957)
• European Windows (RCA Victor, 1958)
• Improvised Meditations and Excursions (Atlantic, 1959)
• Odds Against Tomorrow (Soundtrack) (United Artists, 1959)
• The Golden Striker (Atlantic, 1960)
• The Wonderful World of Jazz (Atlantic, 1960)
• Jazz Abstractions (Atlantic, 1960) - with Gunther Schuller and Jim Hall
• Original Sin (Atlantic, 1961)
• A Milanese Story (Soundtrack) (Atlantic, 1962)
• European Encounter (Atlantic, 1962) - with Svend Asmussen
• Animal Dance (Atlantic, 1962 [1964]) - with Albert Mangelsdorff
• Essence (Atlantic, 1960–62) - music composed and arranged by Gary McFarland
• P.O.V. (Columbia, 1975)
• Statements and Sketches for Development (CBS, 1976)
• Sensitive Scenery (Columbia, 1977)
• Helen Merrill/John Lewis (Mercury, 1977) with Helen Merrill
• Mirjana (Ahead, 1978) featuring Christian Escoudé
• An Evening with Two Grand Pianos (Little David, 1979) with Hank Jones
• Piano Play House (Toshiba, 1979) with Hank Jones
• Duo (Eastworld, 1981) with Lew Tabackin
• Kansas City Breaks (Finesse, 1982)
• Slavic Smile (Baystate, 1982) with the New Jazz Quartet
• Preludes and Fugues from the Well-tempered Clavier Book 1 (1984, Philips)
• The Bridge Game (1984, Philips)
• The Chess Game Volume 1 (1990, Polygram)
• The Chess Game Volume 2 (1990, Polygram)
• Private Concert (1991, EmArcy)
• Evolution (Atlantic, 1999)
• Evolution II (Atlantic, 2000)

As sideman with Charlie Parker

• The Genius of Charlie Parker (1945–8, Savoy 12009)
• "Parker's Mood" (1948)
• Charlie Parker (1951–53, Clef 287)
• "Blues for Alice" (1951)

As member of the Miles Davis Nonet

• The Complete Birth of the Cool (1948–50, Capitol Jazz)

As leader of Orchestra U.S.A. (with Gunther Schuller and Harold Farberman)

• Orchestra U.S.A. (1963, Colpix, 448), including "Three Little Feelings"

Recordings with the Modern Jazz Quartet

• Vendome (1952, Prestige 851)
• Modern Jazz Quartet, ii (1954–5, Prestige 170) incl. "Django" (1954)
• Concorde (1955, Prestige 7005)
• Fontessa (1956, Atlantic 1231) included "Versailles"
• The Modern Jazz Quartet Plays No Sun in Venice (Atlantic, 1957)
• The Modern Jazz Quartet (Atlantic, 1957)
• Third Stream Music (1957, 1959–60, Atlantic. 1345) including "Sketch for Double String Quartet" (1959)
• The Modern Jazz Quartet and the Oscar Peterson Trio at the Opera House (Verve, 1957)
• The Modern Jazz Quartet at Music Inn Volume 2 (Atlantic, 1958)
• Music from Odds Against Tomorrow (United Artists, 1959)
• Pyramid (Atlantic, 1960)
• European Concert (Atlantic, 1960 [1962])
• Dedicated to Connie (Atlantic, 1960 [1995])
• The Modern Jazz Quartet & Orchestra (Atlantic, 1960)
• The Comedy (1962, Atlantic 1390)
• Lonely Woman (Atlantic, 1962)
• A Quartet is a Quartet is a Quartet (1963, Atlantic 1420)
• Collaboration (Atlantic, 1964) – with Laurindo Almeida
• The Modern Jazz Quartet Plays George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess (Atlantic, 1964–65)
• Jazz Dialogue (Atlantic, 1965) with the All-Star Jazz Band
• Concert in Japan '66 (Atlantic [Japan], 1966)
• Blues at Carnegie Hall (Atlantic, 1966)
• Place Vendôme (Philips, 1966) – with The Swingle Singers
• Under the Jasmin Tree (Apple, 1968)
• Space (Apple, 1969)
• Plastic Dreams (Atlantic, 1971)
• The Legendary Profile (Atlantic, 1974)
• In Memoriam (Little David, 1973)
• Blues on Bach (Atlantic, 1973)
• The Last Concert (Atlantic, 1974)
• Reunion at Budokan 1981 (Pablo, 1981)
• Together Again: Live at the Montreux Jazz Festival '82 (Pablo, 1982)
• Echoes (Pablo, 1984)
• Topsy: This One's for Basie (Pablo, 1985)
• Three Windows (Atlantic, 1987)
• For Ellington (East-West, 1988)
• MJQ & Friends: A 40th Anniversary Celebration (Atlantic, 1992–93)

With Clifford Brown

• Memorial Album (Blue Note, 1953)

With Ruth Brown

• Ruth Brown (Atlantic, 1957)

With Dizzy Gillespie

• The Complete RCA Victor Recordings (Bluebird, 1937-1949, [1995])
• The Bop Session (Sonet, 1975) with Sonny Stitt, Percy Heath and Max Roach

With Milt Jackson

• Ballads & Blues (Atlantic, 1956)

With Joe Newman

• I Feel Like a Newman (Storyville, 1956)

With Sonny Rollins

• Sonny Rollins at Music Inn (MetroJazz, 1958)

With Sonny Stitt

• Sonny Stitt/Bud Powell/J. J. Johnson (Prestige, 1949 [1956]) – with J. J. Johnson
• Stitt Plays Bird (Atlantic, 1964)

Barney Wilen

• Jazz Sur Seine (Philips, 1958 [2000])

Contributions

• Bill Evans: A Tribute (Palo Alto, 1982) – performs "I'll Remember April"
• The Jazztet and John Lewis (Argo, 1961) – as composer and arranger

Notes

Thurber, Jon (March 31, 2001). "John Lewis; Led the Modern Jazz Quartet". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 19, 2018.

Hightower, Laura (2004). "John Lewis". Contemporary Musicians. Gale. Retrieved August 19, 2018.

Lewis, John; Quinn, Bill. "John Lewis Interview Part 1". Howard University. Retrieved August 20, 2018.

Owens, Thomas (October 31, 2001). "John Lewis". New Grove Music Online.

Lyons, p. 77.

Giddins, p. 378.

Lyons, p. 76.

Korall, Burt (2002). Drummin' Men: The Heartbeat of Jazz The Bebop Years. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 81–82. ISBN 0-19-514812-6.

Giddins, p. 379.

Ted Panken, "On Dexter Gordon’s 89th Birthday, my liner notes for The Complete Prestige Recordings of Dexter Gordon", February 27, 2012.

Lyons, p. 78.

Davis, p. 228.

Sultanof, Jeff. "The Dozens: The Birth of the Cool" Archived 2008-09-24 at the Wayback Machine. Jazz.com.

This practice of having small groups within the big band began in 1935 when Benny Goodman had a trio in his band that would play when the arrangers and other musicians in his band needed a break. Since that time, it became common for big bands to have smaller groups within (Giddins, p. 378).

Lyons, p. 79.

Giddins, p. 380.

Davis, p. 229.

Giddins, p. 383.

Idonije, Benson (October 19, 2009). "Lewis and The Modern Jazz Quartet". The Guardian Life Magazine.

Giddins, pp. 379–381.

Williams, Richard (2009). The Blue Moment. W. W. Norton & Company, p. 5, ISBN 0571245072.

Giddins, p. 382.

Bourne, Michael (January 1992). "Bop Baroque the Blues: Modern Jazz Quartet," Down Beat, pp. 20–25.

Giddins, p. 387.

Schuller, p. 56.

Schuller, p. 135.

Schuller, p. 134.

Schuller, p. 195.

Lyons, pp. 81–82.

Lyons, p. 80.

He met Marian McPartland while teaching at Harvard (Lyons, p. 80).

https://books.google.com/books?id=KEHGs88c-aAC&pg=PT653&lpg=PT653&dq=%22John+Lewis%22+honorary+doctorate+berklee&source=bl&ots=7UE1GNm-GZ&sig=fEdqE4M0u_5OrZ7FFbTJxCJOUXA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjs_ImXyYzYAhUhm-AKHdK5D-UQ6AEIXTAI#v=onepage&q=%22John%20Lewis%22%20honorary%20doctorate%20berklee&f=false

Stewart, Zan (June 18, 1992). "Mulligan Presides Over Rebirth of Cool: 'This Is the Sound We Were Striving For,' Says Veteran Saxophonist, Who Plays in Newport on Friday", Los Angeles Times.

Ramsey, Doug (January 1997). "Jazz Reviews: The Birth of the Third StreamGunther Schuller/John Lewis/Jimmy Giuffre/J. J. Johnson/George Russell/Charles Mingus" by Doug Ramsey. JazzTimes.

John Lewis Archived 2012-06-20 at the Wayback Machine. All About Jazz.

Voce, Steve (April 30, 2005). "Percy Heath". The Independent. Retrieved December 11, 2018.

Fordham, John (April 2, 2001). "Obituary: John Lewis". The Guardian. Retrieved August 19, 2018.

"Paid Notice: Deaths: Leiis, Mirjana". The New York Times. July 28, 2010. Retrieved August 19, 2018.

Originally from Encyclopedia of Jazz 1960 edition (Lyons, p. 76).

Lyons, pp. 76–77.

Giddins, p. 377.

Ratliff, Ben (April 19, 2001). "Recalling the Gentle Elegance of John Lewis, Jazzman", The New York Times.

Giddins, p. 388.

Davis, p. 230.

Davis, p. 227.

Silver, Horace; Philip Pastras, and Joe Zawinul (2006). Let's Get to the Nitty Gritty: The Autobiography of Horace Silver. Berkeley, Calif. [u.a.: University of California Press, p. 51, ISBN 0520253922.

Davis, p. 231.

He played with many of the great bebop players such as Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Sonny Rollins.

Davis, p. 233.

Davis, p. 234.

Giddins, p. 391.

Davis, p. 232.

He appreciated fugues for their use of counterpoint in jazz (Giddins, p. 380).

54. Pareles, Jon (June 23, 1987). "The Modern Jazz Quartet" The New York Times.

References

• Davis, Francis (1986). In The Moment: Jazz in the 1980s. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195040902.
• Giddins, Gary (1998). Visions of Jazz: The First Century. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195132416.
• Lyons, Len (1983). The Great Jazz Pianists. Da Capo Press. ISBN 0306803437.

 

Further reading

 

• Lalo, Thierry (1991). John Lewis (in French). Editions du Limon. ISBN 978-2907224222.
• Coady, Christopher (2016). John Lewis and the Challenge of 'Real' Black Music. University of Michigan Press. ISBN 9780472122264.

 

External links

 

• JAZCLASS – John Lewis and the MJQ
• Lewis interviewed by Bill Quinn in the Howard University Jazz Oral History Project
• John Lewis on IMDb

THE MUSIC OF JOHN LEWIS: AN EXTENSIVE VIDEO OVERVIEW, A CROSS SECTION OF RECORDINGS, MUSICAL ANALYSIS AND COMMENTARY PLUS VARIOUS INTERVIEWS WITH JOHN LEWIS:

John Lewis - 20 East 30 West (Live, 1999)

John Lewis - I Can't Get Started

A Master of Jazz Solo Piano - The MJQ's John Lewis

"The Golden Striker" (John Lewis),Modern Jazz Quartet

"Django"(John Lewis),Modern Jazz Quartet in London

Blues on Bach: The music of John Lewis

Body and soul - John Lewis

John Lewis - Off The Wall

John Lewis - Afternoon in Paris (1949)

JOHN LEWIS - I Remember Clifford

The Golden Striker John Lewis Conducts Music For Brass

John Lewis - Harlequin