Home » Jazz Musicians » Vic Lewis
Vic Lewis
The Vic Lewis West Coast All-Stars: With Love to Gerry
by Jack Bowers
If by All--Stars" Vic Lewis means a world--class rhythm section backing three superb front--liners, then he's squarely on the mark, as With Love to Gerry (Mulligan, of course) embodies exactly that. There are two exceptions, the opening Noblesse," performed by an a cappella trombone choir" (actually, Andy Martin overdubbed), and the luminous Ballade," handsomely shaped by Christian Jacob's unaccompanied piano. Martin, one of the West Coast's (and the world's) stellar young trombonists, is partnered the rest of the way by ...
read moreVic Lewis & the West Coast All-Stars: With Love to Gerry
by Mike Neely
For a band to play Gerry Mulligan's music well all they need is a sophisticated horn section with an unerring sense of rhythm, a core of intelligent soloists with a wide range of stylistic knowledge, and a fluent rhythm section that can accompany with both vigor and taste. Vic Lewis and the West Coast All-Stars measure up to this demanding description on their new release With Love To Gerry.Baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan was not only a great musician, ...
read moreBackgrounder: Vic Lewis - Plays Bossa Nova
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Vic Lewis was a British jazz guitarist and bandleader with enormous taste and ease. In 1963, he recorded a superb album entitled Vic Lewis Plays Bossa Nova at Home and Away (CSD). The first side was recorded in London in February and the second side was recorded in Hollywood in January. What's remarkable about this album are the musicians brought in for the dates. In both the London and Hollywood sessions, we're talking about the very upper tier of studio ...
read more
Vic Lewis Plays Bossa Nova
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
One of my favorite little-known bossa nova albums was recorded by a British big-band leader born in 1919. Inconceivable, but true. Vic Lewis Plays Bossa Nova at Home and Away was recorded in Los Angeles in January 1963 and in London for EMI in February as an RCA-EMI joint venture. The L.A. tracks were done with top Hollywood jazz artists while the balance was recorded with British jazz musicians. Many of the players in both cities had recorded with Lewis ...
read more
Vic Lewis (1919-2009)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Vic Lewis, a British bandleader whose intensive admiration for Stan Kenton and other West Coast jazz artists led him to form one of Britain's most admired American-sounding jazz orchestras of the late 1940s and 1950s, died on Monday in the U.K. He was 89.
Most American jazz fans are unfamiliar with Lewis, primarily because the bandleader toured the U.S. only intermittently during his seven-decade career and recorded almost exclusively in England. Like Ted Heath, another British bandleader who made commercial ...
read more