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Chicago's trombonist
George Lewis (1952), who graduated in Philosophy from Yale University,
was emblematic of the second generation of AACM musicians. He pushed the
boundaries not only of jazz music but of music in general, experimenting with
interactive computer music and becoming a multimedia artist.
His groundbreaking Solo Trombone Record (november 1976) contained the 20-minute
dissonant and overdubbing tour de force of Piece For Three Trombones Simultaneously, a journey inside the soul and the history of the instrument,
and pioneered on the trombone the kind of extended techniques
that had been applied mainly to the saxophone.
Shadowgraph (november 1977) ventured into chamber jazz with the 13-minute Monads for trombone, piano (Anthony Davis), bass clarinet (Douglas Ewart), violin (Leroy Jenkins), soprano saxophone (Roscoe Mitchell) and cello (Adbul Wadud) and no bass or percussion, the nine-minute Triple Slow Mix for a trio of sousaphone (Lewis) and two pianos (Davis and Muhal Richard Abrams) that were recorded in separate stereo channels, and the eleven-minute Shadowgraph 5 - Sextet for trombone, piano (Abrams), flutes (Ewart), violin (Jenkins), saxophones (Mitchell) and cello (Wadud).
The fifth was only one of the Shadowgraph Series (1977) for "creative orchestra". Number 1, 2 and 3 were only recorded in october 1999.
These "rhythmless" pieces sounded oneiric and otherworldly,
because Lewis sacrificed emotion and dynamics to foster textural and
subliminal trance.
The live in the studio 44-minute piece of Chicago Slow Dance (1977) for a quartet with Lewis (on electronics, trombone), Ewart (on bassoon, tenor saxophone, flute, bass clarinet), JD Parran (baritone saxophone, piccolo, Indian nagaswaram reed instrument) and Teitelbaum (synthesizer), released only four years later, presented an eerie landscape of short repetitive horn phrases, insect-like percussive noises, sirene-like drones, sparse slow dirges, warped psychedelic timbres, pastoral flute melodies.
The side-long Imaginary Suite on George Lewis Douglas Ewart (october 1978), a duo with Ewart on flutes, was Lewis' first attempt at incorporating electronic instruments and electronically-modified instruments into the grammar of jazz music.
Homage to Charles Parker (1979) contained two side-long compositions
performed by the same quartet of Lewis, Davis, Ewart and RIchard Teitelbaum
on synthesizers. The extremely techinal structure of Blues contrasted
with Homage to Charles Parker, a "tribute" to the jazz master only in
spirit (highlighted by a poignant Ewart alto solo). In practice, they were both studies on how to create impressionistic
soundscapes.
But Lewis was devoting more and more of his intelligence to multimedia
installations
such as Voyager (1981), his first major computer interactive composition,
in which the computer manipulates the performance of the improvisors in real time.
He recorded very little as a trombonist after 1981.
The 25-minute Changing With the Times on Changing With the Times (march 1993), his first album with vocals, was a postmodernist exercise in deconstructing the history of jazz music.
Slideride (august 1994) was a trombone quartet with Ray Anderson, Craig Harris and Gary Valente.
Triangulation (september 1996) was a trio with reed player Vinny Golia and bassist Bertram Turetzky.
The Usual Turmoil and Other Duets (1997) were duets with kotoist Miya Masaoka.
Conversations (november 1997) were duets with bassist Bertham Turetzky.
Lewis' most ambitious compositions were:
Virtual Discourse (1993) for infrared-controlled "virtual percussion" and four classically-trained percussionists,
Endless Shout (1994) for piano,
Collage (1995) for poet and chamber orchestra,
North Star Boogaloo (1996) for percussionist and computer,
Ring Shout Ramble (1998) for saxophone quartet,
Signifying Riffs (1998) for string quartet and percussion.
Streaming (january 2005) documents a session by Muhal Richard Abrams (on piano, percussion, flute), George Lewis (on trombone and laptop) and Roscoe Mitchell (on saxophones).
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