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George Lewis

George Lewis is a jazz trombone player and composer.

In addition to his own recordings, he has recorded or performed with Anthony Braxton, Roscoe Mitchell, Conny Bauer and others. He is a contemporary and colleague of trombonist Ray Anderson. He also has a feature segment on Laurie Anderson's album Big Science.

Lewis has long been active in creating and performing with interactive computer systems, most notably his software called Voyager, which "listens to" and reacts to live performers. Lewis gave an invited keynote lecture and performance at NIME-06, the sixth international conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression, which was held at IRCAM, Paris, in June 2006.

He is a member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) and a graduate of Yale University, where he was tapped by the The Skull and Bones. He has served as a professor at Columbia University in New York City since 2004, having previously taught at the University of California, San Diego.

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Album Review

George Lewis: The George Lewis Solo Trombone Record

Read "The George Lewis Solo Trombone Record" reviewed by Stefano Merighi


Si può cominciare dalla fine. E dire che la versione di “Lush Life" di Strayhorn è una tra le più belle mai incise. Una carezza lirica, un vibrato felino, in cui Lewis omaggia la tradizione imprescindibile, dopo averla frantumata per tutta la durata di una seduta davvero storica. Solo Trombone Record, anno 1976, ha una forza d'urto che poche sessioni in solitaria nella storia del jazz hanno raggiunto. Lo strumento è sublime, ma anche improbo, trasuda gloria e swing, ma ...

1,127
Music and the Creative Spirit

George Lewis: A Power Stronger Than Itself

Read "George Lewis: A Power Stronger Than Itself" reviewed by Lloyd N. Peterson Jr.


As an improviser, educator and an explorer of musical expression, George Lewis has become one of the significant contributors towards the respect and recognition Jazz is finally receiving as one of America's most notable and distinguished cultural achievements. He recently published what I consider to be one of the most critical books on Jazz and African American culture. I also consider the AACM to be the most culturally important group of artists that ever came together in the history of ...

535
Album Review

George Lewis: Sequel (For Lester Bowie)

Read "Sequel (For Lester Bowie)" reviewed by Kurt Gottschalk


George Lewis' electronic excursions have looked good on paper for years. However, for whatever reason, they have seemed a hard nut for the trombonist to crack in performance--but 2006 has been a good year for him. In April he presented a piece for jazz sextet plus his own laptop as a part of the New York AACM series that showed a new, cinematic side to his computer-driven composing; and in June he played a gorgeous electroacoustic duo with trumpeter Bill ...

185
Album Review

George Lewis: Sequel (For Lester Bowie)

Read "Sequel (For Lester Bowie)" reviewed by Nic Jones


On this evidence of his artistic journey, George Lewis could almost be two people. On the one hand, he is one of the most compelling trombone players out there, while on the other, he also explores the interface of electro-acoustic music with exceptional rigour and intelligence.

Over half of the music captured on Sequel is made up of the title piece, and in a sense it defines precisely what Lewis is all about. The ebb and flow of the music, ...

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Interview

George Lewis: AACM Veteran

Read "George Lewis: AACM Veteran" reviewed by Brian P. Lonergan


After a nearly twenty-year absence, trombonist George Lewis has recently returned to New York City to live and work as the Edwin H. Case Professor of Music at Columbia University. An active composer and improviser with a deep interest and vast experience in computer music, Lewis has been a member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) for more than three decades and in 2002 was named a MacArthur Fellow. He is currently finishing a book on ...

400
Album Review

George Lewis: Hello Central

Read "Hello Central" reviewed by Derek Taylor


New Orleans jazz doesn’t get much more authentic than George Lewis and his New Orleans Stompers’ faithfully rendered brand of traditional merry-making. Lewis and his colleagues recorded dozens of albums in dozens of settings, but their sound always remained at the root incorruptible and in its own sweet way sentimentally ecstatic. This reissue is no different and the session, taped at the NBC studios in San Francisco, visits the Stompers in seminal form with the added bonus of clean fidelity. ...

304
Album Review

George Lewis: Jammin' New Orleans Style in the 50s

Read "Jammin' New Orleans Style in the 50s" reviewed by Dave Nathan


Bunk Johnson, the leader of the New Orleans traditional jazz revivalist movement passed away in 1949. With its leader gone along with many of the big bands and the emergence of bop, traditional jazz was pretty much hanging on by a thread and may have gone off the radar screen of the jazz loving public if it were not for the likes of George Lewis and those who appear with him on this album. This CD is made up of ...

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2

Education

New England Conservatory Announces 2023 Speaker And Honorary Degree Recipients For Its 152nd Commencement Ceremony

New England Conservatory Announces 2023 Speaker And Honorary Degree Recipients For Its 152nd Commencement Ceremony

Source: Braithwaite & Katz Communications

New England Conservatory President Andrea Kalyn and the Board of Trustees announce composer, trombonist, and musicologist George E. Lewis as commencement speaker and honorary degree recipient at the Conservatory’s 152nd annual commencement exercises which will be held in-person on Sunday, May 21 at 2 p.m. ET. This is NEC’s largest graduating class in the school’s history. The ceremony will take place in historic Jordan Hall and will be streamed on NEC’s website (necmusic.edu). NEC will bestow honorary Doctor of Music ...

Performance / Tour

Jazz This Week: Zappa Plays Zappa, Chris Potter Trio, Peter Martin and Romero Lubambo, George Lewis and Marina Rosenfeld, and More

Jazz This Week: Zappa Plays Zappa, Chris Potter Trio, Peter Martin and Romero Lubambo, George Lewis and Marina Rosenfeld, and More

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman

It's another busy weekend for jazz and creative music in St. Louis, and with two of the week's headliners in town for performances this evening, there's no time to waste. Let's go to the highlights... Tonight, the Frank Zappa repertory group Zappa Plays Zappa, led by FZ's younger, guitar-playing son Dweezil Zappa, returns to St. Louis play at The Pageant. In case you're keeping track, this will be ZPZ's fourth stop at that particular venue since the band was formed in ...

Education

First West Coast Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute At UCLA Held August 7-11; Culminates With Wild Up Concert On August 11

First West Coast Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute At UCLA Held August 7-11; Culminates With Wild Up Concert On August 11

Source: Jensen Artists

The American Composers Orchestra (ACO) and Center for Jazz Studies at Columbia University (CJS), in cooperation with The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, and EarShot, the National Orchestra Composition Discovery Network, will present the second Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute (JCOI) from August 7-11, 2012 for the first time on the West Coast at UCLA. JCOI brings together 38 jazz composers at various stages in their careers chosen from a national pool of applicants, to explore the challenges of writing ...

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Recording

John Zorn George Lewis Bill Frisell - More News for Lulu (Hatology)

John Zorn George Lewis Bill Frisell - More News for Lulu (Hatology)

Source: Master of a Small House

Altoist John Zorn still takes it on the chin from certain critics when it comes to his cavalier claims of minimal practice on his instrument. Fortunately, he's got something an iron jaw and comparable chops to contradict any charges of dilettantism or rampant drollery. This set and its earlier companion still serve as figurative bandoliers of ammo when a defensive position is required. Zorn plays more than convincing hardbop saxophone over the course of fifteen tracks pulled from a pair ...

David Manson
trombone
Tom Weeks
guitar, electric

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