George Emanuel Lewis (born July 14, 1952) is an American composer, performer, and scholar of experimental music.[1] He has been a member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) since 1971, when he joined the organization at the age of 19.[2] He is renowned for his work as an improvising trombonist and considered a pioneer of computer music, which he began pursuing in the late 1970s; in the 1980s he created Voyager, an improvising software he has used in interactive performances.[2] Lewis's many honors include a MacArthur Fellowship[1] and a Guggenheim Fellowship,[3] and his book A Power Stronger Than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music[4] received the American Book Award.[1] Lewis is the Edwin H. Case Professor of American Music, Composition & Historical Musicology at Columbia University.[5]
Lewis was born July 14, 1952, in Chicago, Illinois.[6] Lewis's father, George Thomas Lewis, was a postal worker who studied electronics under the GI Bill and had a deep love of jazz music; his mother, Cornelia Griffith Lewis, liked blues, soul, and R&B singers.[6][4]:281
Lewis began his education at a public elementary school, but he was one of many Black students who could only attend half-days, allegedly to relieve "overcrowding"; this was widely understood to be an excuse to enforce de facto segregation under superintendent Benjamin Willis, whose policies led to the 1963 Chicago Public Schools boycott.[7][4]:281 An African American teacher convinced Lewis's parents to enroll him at the University of Chicago Laboratory School, where he started classes at age 9.[4]:281 Lewis attended the Lab School from 1961 until his graduation in 1969.[8]
His parents wanted him to learn an instrument as a way to make friends, and Lewis chose the trombone, which was paid for in monthly installments.[4]:281 He played in the school orchestra and concert band, took private lessons from University of Chicago graduate students, and as a teenager joined the school's new jazz band, run by jazz historian Frank Tirro (then working on his PhD) and Dean Hey.[4]:282 In the late 1960s, classmate Ray Anderson took Lewis to hear Fred Anderson at an AACM concert, and Lewis first heard the Art Ensemble of Chicago at another concert on his high school campus.[4]:282
Education and joining the AACM
Lewis was accepted to Yale University in 1969, and at age 17 began his studies in prelaw.[4]:282 He also took music theory classes and met a number of artists in the community, but began to lose interest in school after his sophomore year and decided to take a break.[4]:283
In 1971, during his time off in Chicago, Lewis heard some musicians practicing together near his parents' house; he introduced himself, and met Muhal Richard Abrams, John Shenoy Jackson, Steve Galloway, and Pete Cosey.[4]:283 Lewis was invited to check out a show at the Pumpkin Room, but misunderstood the invitation and brought his trombone; they let him play anyway, as part of a group that also included Joseph Jarman, Kalaparusha, and Steve McCall.[4]:284 Lewis worried about his performance, but McCall invited him to play another concert; at rehearsal, he was introduced to Roscoe Mitchell, Malachi Favors, Sabu Toyozumi, Aaron Dodd, and Douglas Ewart.[4]:285 Lewis became more involved with the AACM, and Jackson encouraged him to apply to join the group. After his acceptance, Lewis was voted reading secretary and began taking minutes at weekly meetings.[4]:285 Lewis regularly played late gigs with the Muhal Richard Abrams Big Band during his year off, and in the daytime held a United Steelworkers union job at Illinois Slag and Ballast Company.[4]:303
Lewis graduated from Yale in 1974 with a degree in philosophy.[8]
Career
George E. Lewis in 2006.
In 1976, Lewis released Solo Trombone Record to great acclaim.[9]
Lewis has long been active in creating and performing with interactive computer systems, most notably his software Voyager, which "listens" and reacts to live performers.[2]
From 1988-1990, Lewis collaborated with video artist Don Ritter to create performances of interactive music and interactive video controlled by Lewis's improvised trombone.[13]
In 1992, Lewis collaborated with Canadian artist Stan Douglas on the video installation Hors-champs, featuring Lewis in an improvisation of Albert Ayler's "Spirits Rejoice" with musicians Douglas Ewart, Kent Carter and Oliver Johnson; the installation was featured at documenta 9 in Kassel, Germany.[14]
Lewis is featured extensively in Unyazi of the Bushveld (2005), directed by Aryan Kaganof,[16] a documentary about the first symposium of electronic music held in Africa.[17] Lewis gave an invited keynote lecture and performance at NIME-06, the sixth international conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression, which was held at IRCAM, Paris, in June 2006.[18]
In 2008, Lewis published a book-length history of the AACM titled A Power Stronger Than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music (University of Chicago Press).[19] Lewis later wrote an opera based on the book, titling it Afterword: The AACM (as) Opera; the work premiered at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago in 2015.[20]
Lewis (compositions, live electronic processing, live electronics and spatialization performance) with large ensembles (Ensemble Erik Satie, Wet Ink, Vancouver Olympiad)[34][35]
Lewis, George E. (2018). "Toni Dove's Nonmodern Ontologies". In McLendon, Matthew (ed.). Toni Dove: Embodied Machines. New York: Scala Arts Publishers & John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art. pp.31–41. Retrieved 23 March 2023.
Lewis, George E. (2018). "Why Do We Want Our Computers To Improvise?". In McLean, Alex; Dean, Roger T. (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Algorithmic Music. New York: Oxford University Press. pp.123–130. ISBN978-0-19-022699-2. Retrieved 23 March 2023.
Lewis, George E. (2017). "The Sound of Terry Adkins". In Berry, Ian (ed.). Terry Adkins: Recital. New York: Prestel Publishing. pp.105–129. Retrieved 23 March 2023.
Lewis, George E. (2017). "From Network Bands to Ubiquitous Computing: Rich Gold and the Social Aesthetics of Interactivity". In Born, Georgina; Lewis, Eric; Straw, Will (eds.). Improvisation and Social Aesthetics. Durham and London: Duke University Press. pp.91–109. doi:10.1215/9780822374015-005. Retrieved 23 March 2023.
Lewis, George E. (2008). "Stan Douglas's Suspiria: Genealogies of Recombinant Narrativity". In Douglas, Stan (ed.). Past Imperfect: Works 1986-2007. Ostfildern, Germany: Hatje Cantz Verlag. pp.42–53. ISBN9783775720212. Retrieved 23 March 2023.
Lewis, George E. (2007). "Living with Creative Machines: An Improvisor Reflects". In Everett, Anna; Wallace, Amber J. (eds.). AfroGEEKS: Beyond the Digital Divide. Santa Barbara: Center for Black Studies Research. pp.83–99. ISBN9780976503637. Retrieved 23 March 2023.
Lewis, George E. (2005). "The Secret Love between Interactivity and Improvisation, or Missing in Interaction: A Prehistory of Computer Interactivity". In Fähndrich, Walter (ed.). Improvisation V: 14 Beiträge. Winterthur: Amadeus. Retrieved 23 March 2023.
Lewis, George E. "Leben mit kreativen Maschinen: Reflexionen eines improvisierenden Musikers". In Knauer, Wolfram (ed.). Improvisieren: Darmstädter Beiträge zur Jazzforschung, Band 8 (in German). Hofheim: Wolke Verlag. pp.123–144.
Muhal Richard Abrams was an American educator, administrator, composer, arranger, clarinetist, cellist, and jazz pianist in the free jazz medium. He recorded and toured the United States, Canada and Europe with his orchestra, sextet, quartet, duo and as a solo pianist.
The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) is a nonprofit organization, founded in 1965 in Chicago by pianist Muhal Richard Abrams, pianist Jodie Christian, drummer Steve McCall, and composer Phil Cohran. The AACM is devoted "to nurturing, performing, and recording serious, original music," according to its charter. It supports and encourages jazz performers, composers and educators. Although founded in the jazz tradition, the group's outreach and influence has, according to Larry Blumenfeld, "touched nearly all corners of modern music."
Roscoe Mitchell is an American composer, jazz instrumentalist, and educator, known for being "a technically superb – if idiosyncratic – saxophonist". The Penguin Guide to Jazz described him as "one of the key figures" in avant-garde jazz; All About Jazz stated in 2004 that he had been "at the forefront of modern music" for more than 35 years. Critic Jon Pareles in The New York Times has mentioned that Mitchell "qualifies as an iconoclast". In addition to his own work as a bandleader, Mitchell is known for cofounding the Art Ensemble of Chicago and the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM).
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Edward L. Wilkerson Jr. is an internationally recognized American jazz composer, arranger, musician, and educator based in Chicago. As founder and director of the cutting-edge octet 8 Bold Souls, and the 25-member performance ensemble Shadow Vignettes, Wilkerson has toured festivals and concert halls throughout the United States, Europe, Japan, and the Middle East. "Defender", a large-scale piece for Shadow Vignettes, was commissioned by the Lila Wallace/Reader's Digest Fund and featured in the 10th Anniversary of New Music America, a presentation of BAM's Next Wave Festival.
Discography for jazz saxophonist Anthony Braxton.
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Steve McCall was an American jazz drummer.
Nicole Mitchell is an American jazz flautist and composer who teaches jazz at the University of Virginia. She is a former chairwoman of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM).
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Ann E. Ward was an improviser, composer and educator, and a long-serving member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). A native of Chicago who studied music from a young age, she attended Chicago Musical College of Roosevelt University, studying piano, and graduated from Kentucky State College with a degree in music composition. After performing as a vocalist with the Ken Chaney Experience, she joined the AACM in 1981, eventually becoming an integral part of the organization. Ward was one of the most noted female composers in the AACM, and performed with many ensembles such as the Great Black Music Ensemble and Samana as a vocalist, pianist and African percussionist. She served as the director of the AACM School from 1983 to 2008, volunteering her time to take an active role in music education. Ward died in 2016 at age 67.
Casserley, Lawrence. "Person to... person?" at the Wayback Machine(archived May 17, 2006) Interview with George Lewis, discussing computer music and other topics, including improvisation and Voyager
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