Rabble Without A Cause
Wednesday October 15th, 2014 with Bernard Stepien
trombonist Georges Lewis, Post-Free impressionism

Chicago trombonist Georges Lewis had a rapid start of career but his career path since then has not been confined in performing as one would naturally expect. The first decade (the ‘70s) saw him involved with the opposite extreme of the Jazz spectrum, a three year residency in the Count Basie orchestra to fill the gap left by legendary trombonist Curtis Fuller, and then a spree of recordings both as a soloist and various sizes of groups that include the then rising avant-garde Jazz star Anthony Braxton. Moreover, Lewis embarked on electronics with work on interactive music software which reached impressive levels as I witnessed at Berlin’s Total Music Meeting in 2001. Not only was the software reacting to a real musician’s music, but at one point, both Georges Lewis and Aki Takase on piano left the stage and the computer kept playing in each other’s style… at the end of the ‘70s, Georges Lewis also focused on composing for ensembles, an activity he never stopped as his concert around 2005 here in Ottawa attests. Tonight, we will focus on his Homage to Charlie Parker CD from 1979.