Victor Lewis

Victor Lewis (born May 20, 1950 in Omaha , Nebraska ) is an American jazz drummer.

Live and act

Lewis came from a musical family - his father was a saxophonist, his mother a pianist and singer - began cello training at the age of ten, but soon switched to drums; he also studied classical piano. At the age of fifteen he began performing professionally in Omaha, among others. a. he also accompanied Hank Crawford . He then studied classical drums at the University of Nebraska .

In 1974 he moved to New York City . At his first gig with the band of Buster Williams he met Woody Shaw , whose band he joined a few months later and with whose album The Moontrane he made his record debut; Numerous other recordings followed, such as Basel 1980 . He also worked with musicians such as Joe Farrell , Earl Klugh , Hubert Laws , Carla Bley and David Sanborn . With Sanborn he played his first own compositions - Seventh Avenue and Sophisticated Squaw ( Agaya ).

1980 Lewis left Shaw's band and joined Stan Getz's group, of which he was a member until his death in 1991. With him he recorded several albums and videos. In the late 1980s he also worked with musicians such as Kenny Barron , Art Farmer , JJ Johnson , Mike Stern , John Stubblefield , Grover Washington Jr. , The Manhattan Jazz Quintet and Bobby Hutcherson and was involved in the performance of Charles Mingus' Epitaph .

With Bobby Watson he led the group Horinzon , with which he performed worldwide and u. a. recorded the album Present Tense . In 1991 he was a guest musician on the album Underground of the wind ensemble Twenty-Ninth Street Saxophone Quartet . He has also been a member of the Kenny Barron Quintet since its inception , made recordings with musicians such as Gary Bartz , Eddie Henderson , Johnny Griffin , Janis Siegel , Larry Willis , John Hicks and Abbey Lincoln , and recorded a jazz educational album with Fred Lipsius . Since 2003 he has been teaching jazz drums at Rutgers University in New Brunswick .

Discography

• Family Portrait with John Stubblefield, Edward Simon , Cecil McBee , Don Alias , Jumma Santos (AudioQuest)
• Eeeyyess! with Seamus Blake , Terell Stafford , Stephen Scott , Ed Howard ( Enja )
• Know It Today, Know It Tomorrow with Eddie Henderson, Edward Simon, Christian McBride , Seamus Blake ( Red Records )
• Three Way Conversations with Seamus Blake, Steve Wilson , Terell Stafford (Red Records)