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The Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra

The Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra was a jazz big band formed by trumpeter Thad Jones and drummer Mel Lewis in New York in 1965. The band performed for twelve years in its original incarnation, including a 1972 tour of the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War. The band won a Grammy Award for the album Live in Munich and in 2009 for the album Monday Night Live at the Village Vanguard. The collaboration ended in 1978 with Jones suddenly moving to Copenhagen, Denmark, after which the band became the Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra. Since the death of Lewis in 1990 it has been known as the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra. They have maintained a Monday-night residency at the Village Vanguard jazz club in New York for five decades.

Thad Jones played trumpet and cornet. His older brother was Hank Jones, a jazz pianist, and his younger brother was Elvin Jones, a jazz drummer. Thad Jones had worked as a professional since he was 16, when he played with Hank. After leaving the military in 1946, he performed with territory bands and later with Charles Mingus. From 1954–1963, he was a member of the Count Basie Orchestra, for whom he composed and arranged.[3]

Mel Lewis, a jazz drummer, had been playing in big bands since he was 15, first with Boyd Raeburn, then Alvino Rey, Stan Kenton, Terry Gibbs, and Gerald Wilson. In 1961, he toured the Soviet Union with veteran big band leader Benny Goodman. After Lewis moved to New York City, he met Thad Jones and started the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra at the end of 1965. Beginning in February 1966, the band played every Monday night at the Village Vanguard. Since Lewis's death in 1990, the band has been called the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, continuing its tradition as the Village Vanguard's house band.

The Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra was arguably the most influential big band since the swing era. Lewis brought a loose, small group style of drumming into the structure of a big band. His cymbal work became a hallmark of the Jones/Lewis Orchestra. Jones's arrangements influenced later, large-ensemble composers, such as Maria Schneider, Bob Brookmeyer, Jim McNeely, and Bob Mintzer. The Jones/Lewis Orchestra was an unusual band, creating new styles, succeeding in an era when big bands were unpopular and remaining integrated during racially tense periods.

The band's members included Bill Berry, Billy Harper, Bob Brookmeyer, Danny Stiles, Eddie Daniels, George Mraz, Hank Jones, Jerome Richardson, Jerry Dodgion, Jimmy Knepper, Joe Farrell, Jon Faddis, Marvin Stamm, Pepper Adams, Quentin Jackson, Richard Davis, Richard Williams, Roland Hanna, and Snooky Young.

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Radio & Podcasts

Zinfandel meets the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra

Read "Zinfandel meets the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra" reviewed by Kristen Lee Sergeant


Kristen explores spontaneity, form and freedom by way of the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra and a biodynamic Zinfandel from AmByth Estates in California. ...

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Jazz & Juice

Spontaneity: Zinfandel Meets The Thad Jones / Mel Lewis Orchestra

Read "Spontaneity: Zinfandel Meets The Thad Jones / Mel Lewis Orchestra" reviewed by Kristen Lee Sergeant


Welcome to June's Jazz & Juice! So if last month we took a deeper look at things that might be familiar and formal (in prose, video, and podcast,) in this one we'll be celebrating the pleasures you can't plan for. Spontaneity There's no mistaking music that's truly of and in the moment. Virtuosity, organization, and composition are all to be admired; however, spontaneity and improvisation are big parts of what sets jazz music apart from any other. Having ...

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Album Review

Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra: Consummation

Read "Consummation" reviewed by C. Andrew Hovan


When it came to progressive big bands during the '60s, few ensembles could boast the kind of staying power and muscle of the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra. With some of the biggest names in the business as part of the ensemble's regular roster and the uniformly exceptional output of writer Thad Jones, this band was successful at a time when economics were making it hard for even established organizations to stay afloat. Unfortunately, the great legacy of the Thad ...

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Album Review

Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra: Consummation

Read "Consummation" reviewed by Jack Bowers


This charming reissue from 1970 makes it even harder to accept the fact that Thad and Mel are no longer with us. Thank goodness we have such glorious music to remember them by. All of the compositions and arrangements are Jones,' and each one is an unpretentious classic of its kind. The orchestra itself is beyond reproach, with sharp and explosive brass and reeds complementing its unrivaled rhythm section (Lewis, pianist Roland Hanna, bassist Richard Davis). There's less ...

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Recording

Backgrounder: Jones/Lewis - Consummation

Backgrounder: Jones/Lewis - Consummation

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

Recorded over four sessions in January 1970 and released later that year, the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra's Consummation was one of the finest big band albums of the decade. A hit album and Grammy nominee, the LP's eight tracks were composed and arranged by Thad Jones. At the Grammy's the album lost out to Miles Davis's Bitches Brew. The combined personnel over the four sessions included Thad Jones (fluhrn); Snooky Young, Danny Moore, Al Porcino and Marvin Stamm (tp); Eddie ...

Video / DVD

Thad Jones/Mel Lewis: Groove Merchant

Thad Jones/Mel Lewis: Groove Merchant

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

The Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra was one of the last great big bands. Formed in 1965, the orchestra played Monday nights at New York's Village Vanguard and recorded and toured extensively, including a swing through the Soviet Union in 1972. When Jones decided to move to Copenhagen in 1978, the band became known as the Mel Lewis Orchestra. When Lewis died in 1990, it became the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra. The band won two Grammys, one in 1979 and the other ...

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Consummation

Blue Note Records
2002

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