Bulletin: Victor Lewis
A link to his GoFundMe, and a listen to his four solo albums
Victor Lewis, the drummer/composer, is suffering from a “rare neurological condition” which has paralyzed him from the waist down; he currently has no use of his legs.
This is all I know, and I only know it from his GoFundMe page, started by Mr. Spike Wilner. Here is the link to that page.
Victor Lewis was born in 1950, and grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, the youngest child in a musical family. Childhood piano lessons evolved into a passion for the drums; by his teens Lewis was immersed in the Omaha jazz community, seeing every big band that came to town, playing where and when he could, studying closely with legendary Omaha drummer Luigi Waites.
At the University of Nebraska, he majored in classical percussion, composed tunes, and helped book McCoy Tyner and Herbie Hancock for concerts. He arrived in New York in 1974, and by the end of the year, was recording with Woody Shaw.
Widely heard albums with Stan Getz, Kenny Barron, and Carla Bley tell a meaningful story. We hear a drummer completely committed to the music, with the ear of a composer, always spotlighting the connection between the composition and the improvisation.
A decade or so older than Tain, Smitty, Ralph Peterson, and Kenny Washington, Lewis has always been a pan-jazz drummer; no variety of jazz or jazz-adjacent music is outside his purview, from Earl Klugh to Julius Hemphill, Kenny Barron to Dave Sanborn, George Cables to Gary Peacock.
I was walking around, looking for something to hear one early evening in 2001, when I first heard Mr. Lewis live, at the (Houston St) Zinc Bar, in a group led by Mark Egan. I stayed for two sets, blown away by Victor’s serious mien, beautiful sound, and seamless flow of ideas. The gig had the feel of seance.
Gerald Cleaver had been urging me to spend some time with Victor. Gerald told me that Victor was one of his main influences, how supportive Victor was and how much he brought Gerald into the circle of music, the community of musicians.
I think Gerald summarized a key element of what Victor does— Victor opens up the circle of praise to include you, whoever you are, whatever you’re doing. He brings you right in, and he immediately dispenses wisdom, truth, and beauty.
Victor is a charismatic presence. He gets your attention with his focus; one senses energies being channeled. The stakes are high, everything is on the line, because the music is his life, and by extension, your life.1
I loved Victor’s big sound. I remember hearing him with his quintet at Sweet Basil and my table rattling when he opened up on his floor tom. He did the same thing one night at The Owl in Brooklyn in 2017. He brings excitement, energy, and high stakes to every gig I’ve ever been lucky enough to see, from Hank Jones at Dizzy’s to Seamus Blake at the 55 Bar.
Victor Lewis is one of our vital links to the music’s history, and a present-tense, leading indicator; he’s a teacher, composer, bandleader. He’s been a ubiquitous presence in NY clubs for nearly 50 years, until recently visible a few times a month at Smalls, bringing his tunes to life, dispensing wisdom.
Victor has spent his life on the road, on the bandstand, and in the recording studio, lighting the fire and bringing the spirits down. He has an extensive discography, playing on upwards of 400 sessions.
Less well-known are his four albums as a leader. All four are available digitally, and should be heard; they open the circle and suggest possibilities.
In order of recording they are:
Know It Today, Know It Tomorrow (Red, recorded April 1992)
Family Portrait (AudioQuest, recorded April 1992)
Three Way Conversations (Red, recorded June 1996)
Eeeyyess! (Enja, recorded July 1996)
The albums feature incredible players (John Stubblefield, Seamus Blake, Ed Simon, Eddie Henderson, and others) and great solos, of course, but I want to notice Victor’s compositions. I love his tunes.
They are singable, memorable, and attractive; they seem to have an oblique connection to classic Sixties and Seventies pop music. I bet that one of his tunes will get stuck in your head. It always happens to me, and I always enjoy it.
Let’s check these records out.
Know It Today, Know It Tomorrow2 dedicated to Frederick Waits, Ed Blackwell, Eddie Moore, and Art Blakey, was the first album of (almost) all-Victor tunes. It’s also the recording debut of Mr. Seamus Blake.
“Hey, It’s Me You’re Talking To” is a classic Victor melody; Victor’s intro and the vamp show some Afro-Cuban wisdom. “The Truce” is a slow, swinging, trance-inducing 5/4 with a great Seamus Blake solo. “Between Two Worlds” melody suggests a classic show tune, with Eddie Henderson’s solo injecting some Seventies perspective into the music.
The rhythm section of pianist Ed Simon and a very young Christian McBride works well, though not as deep as the chemistry between Lewis, Stephen Scott, and Ed Howard would eventually become. Ed Simon was then touring and recording with Lewis and Bobby Watson in Horizon, a group that deserves a re-listen.
Recorded just a few days after Know It Today, Know It Tomorrow, Family Portrait is a deeply personal, almost experimental album which features percussionists Jumma Santos and Don Alias, saxophonist John Stubblefield, Ed Simon, Cecil McBee, and Lewis. On several tracks, there are wordless vocals from Lewis, Bobby and Pamela Watson, and others.
The net effect is sort of a world music/jazz hybrid, but this must be one of the most successful blending of those styles. The opener, “Family Portrait” is a platonic ideal of the straight-eighth note/cross stick groove. The voices sustain, the percussionists burble and bubble, a standout track.
Victor is dramatic and emphatic, bringing air and clarity to the dense, emotional music, keeping it anchored. Stubblefield and Simon light it up, the percussion churns, a portrait is drawn.
“Relentless Desire” alternates between open, pan-metric textures, and a fast 5/4, while “Bella y Cosima” features six voices in 6/4. Suggesting gospel, indigenous music of South America, and dance in the bass line and percussion. Stubblefield’s solo is a celebration; this should be heard, just give this a chance.
“At A Suggestion of Mr. Peter” is the freest track on all these albums. Victor, Santos, and Alias manage to connect an Afro-Cuban percussion section to pan-meter improvisation.
Family Portrait, recorded, as Victor writes, “in memory of [parents] Richard and Camille Lewis, whose musicianship permeates every note I play” seems to be the least-known of Victor’s albums. It’s available on Bandcamp and can be downloaded right here. (The rest of the albums are streaming on all the usual platforms.)
Three Way Conversations features Lewis with bassist Ed Howard— then the bassist in the Victor Lewis Quintet— in a trio, first with Seamus Blake, then with Terrell Stafford, and finally with Steve Wilson.
All the details of Lewis’ playing (rims, rim shots, the China cymbal, wind chimes, and that strong bass drum) are captured in loving detail, and Lewis is mixed front and center. On “Complex Dialog”, Lewis’ snare drum lick is a hook of the tune, as much a part of the composition as the melody and harmony.
Steve Wilson coaxes Lewis into a co-soloist role on “The Roamer”, while “The Shaw Of Newark” features a muted Stafford dialoging with Lewis on brushes, a splash cymbal, and what sounds like an empty plastic container. Experimentalism is never off the agenda.
The album closer “With Dignity” brings Stafford and Blake together on a simple, soulful melody. Instead of solos, we have dynamics and variation; this is one that gets stuck in my head all the time.
Enja Records released Eeeyyess! in 1997, and to date it’s the only release by the Victor Lewis group, a touring group up until the early 2000s. All the elements of the previous releases are blended together on Eeeyyess!— percussion and voices, virtuosic solos, soulful melodies, and even a spoken-word piece from Victor.
“Eeeyyess!” starts with the sound of an audience, but it’s not a live album. Victor singing the melody, Stafford’s fist-pumping solo, Blake with a wah-wah on the soprano, Don Alias mixing it up with Victor….I want to be at this gig.
“Vulnerability” has a thick mood, bassist Howard and pianist Stephen Scott working with Victor on an almost-backbeat feel. We can tell something’s going to happen. On the bridge, it happens: an accelerando and de-accelerando, maintained for the solos, a surprising choice.
Lewis and the band give Mr. James Williams’ “Alter Ego” a definitive reading, bringing out the tunes connection to Brazilian music and Stevie Wonder, while “Stamina” with its 5-bar vamp before a 20-bar release, is a master class in tension and release, with fiery Blake and Stafford solos.
“Here’s To…You Babe” features an almost slo-jam from the quintet while Victor speaks: “So here’s to you babe. Here’s a toast to then. We loved, we loved to share those moments then, but suddenly it was the end”, and so on.
Mr. Lewis should have been in movies. I don’t know another premier jazz drummer who would record a spoken-word track like this and make it work, keep it light— bravo!
Music is powerful, and can alter lives. Encoded with wisdom, drumming— loud and disruptive, or quiet and questioning— can reach our cores and alter us from the inside out. This is what Victor Lewis does when he plays, by opening the circle of praise to include us.
Like everyone I’ve focussed on, Mr. Lewis, through his music, connects communities, dispenses wisdom, and changes lives. My moments of conversation with him, after hearing him play, altered me. Some of his words and sounds will be with me forever.
These four albums are just a tiny fragment of his life’s work, and anyway, no recording could ever summarize his immense contribution. I hope you listen to them and dig them.
A speedy recovery, the deepest respect, and most sincere gratitude, for Mr. Victor Lewis.
I once asked Victor what he did to prepare for a gig. After talking about practical things, he talked about a deeply serious and humble attitude. When I told him that I felt that he always had that attitude, he mentioned noticing Woody Shaw having that attitude. All respect for Mr. Woody Shaw.
In the liner notes, Victor Lewis dedicates the album to “Frederick Waits, Ed Blackwell, Eddie Moore, and Art Blakey”, with special thanks to “Billy Hart and the legacy”. Billy Hart is thanked on Family Portrait as well.
Thanks so much for this marvellous article imparting, as it does, so much important discographical information!
This following sentence is such a compliment––"Victor opens up the circle of praise to include you, whoever you are, whatever you’re doing. He brings you right in, and he immediately dispenses wisdom, truth, and beauty." Thanks, Vinnie!