WINNING SPINS BY GEORGE
kanzler
A mainstay on the professional music scene in Chicago
for over forty years, Bobby Lewis plays first trumpet in a wide
variety of studio and concert settings. But Lewis is also a first-rate
jazz player who lives up to this encomium he received from Peggy Lee
when he was her musical director: "A sound like no other. I like him
best when he plays pastels, but every note is beautiful…is loving. Bobby
loves life as he loves music… and I love Bobby Lewis."
Lewis can be heard to advantage on a new album, Instant Groove
(Southport), out this month just in time for the Lewis quintet's
appearance at a JAMS concert in West Palm Beach. The quintet - with Pat
Mallinger, saxes; Jim Ryan, piano; Rob Amster, bass, and Jeff Stitely,
drums - is the core unit on the CD, which also includes appearances by
other musicians, including the impressive Chicago jazz guitarist Curtis
Robinson and percussionist Alejo Poveda.
The album reflects leader Lewis' eclectic taste and wide-ranging
experiences in jazz, from trad to post-bop and Afro-Latin. He even taps
a trip he made to India for inspiration on his own "The New Delhi Deli,"
a piece with a bright melodic line and rhythm more Bollywood than raga.
It's done by the quintet with guitar and percussion. Lewis' other
original, "Together We'll Stay," is a ballad featuring his flugelhorn
playing those "pastels" alluded to by Lee, over Ryan's synthesizer
strings and the acoustic bass of Rob Kassinger.
On flugelhorn on over half of the twelve tracks, Lewis plays it with an
easy facility and warmth that belie the instrument's reputation for
skittish difficulty. His command is especially evident in his cogent
solo on Wayne Shorter's harmonically shifting waltz, "Edda," and in his
spirited exchanges with Mallinger's tenor sax on the swinging "The
Evening Star." Mallinger proves even more alluring on alto sax than
tenor, conjuring up creamy, Johnny Hodges-like lines on his own ballad
"Sauce Melba" and a fetching swing-to-bop attack on "Line for Lyons,"
the Gerry Mulligan jazz standard.
The album is dedicated to the memory of the late electric bassist,
Thomas Kini, a longtime colleague of Lewis, and two tracks date from
earlier sessions with Kini: Henry Mancini's "Dreamsville" is an
impressionistic affair featuring overdubbed flugelhorns and bassoons as
a cushion for solo flugelhorn and Harmon-muted trumpet; while "Saudade
II" is a loping samba with spirited trumpet, alto sax, piano and guitar
solos. Another Latin-tinged delight is Clare Fisher's "Morning," with
roguish smears and glides from Lewis' trumpet and a sonically steely
guitar solo.
The album's most iconoclastic track, a tip of the hat to Lewis' time in
trad jazz bands, is Jelly Roll Morton's "Grandpa's Spells." Drummer
Stitely and tuba player Dan Perantoni shuffle and stomp behind Lewis,
who solos on cornet, both open and muted, while also dubbing in harmony
counter lines on the deep-toned alto trumpet.
The Bobby Lewis Quintet stars at a JAMS concert at the Harriet Theater
in West Palm Beach on February 28, 2006.
