Jack Lewis Remembrance

[JamesAHarrod]

The first post in my examination of Jack Lewis and his tenure as A&R at RCA Victor is now up and viewable at:

https://jazzresearch.com/jack-lewis-west-coast/

Information about Jack was scant on the internet except for a semi-obit that was mentioned on this forum a long time ago. He continued to be active in the music business after RCA let him go at the end of 1956, but his production of albums for RCA remain a benchmark in jazz. My next post will present his East Coast work at RCA.

Jim

[Chuck Nessa]

Thanks.

[ghost of miles]

Thanks as well.  I did a couple of Night Lights shows about the Jazz Workshop albums many years ago and recall not being able to dig up as much info about Jack Lewis as I would have liked.  You do tremendous work, James.

[JamesAHarrod]

I have concluded my examination of Jack Lewis’ productions as head of A&R at RCA Victor. The last post discusses Rod Levitt’s albums for Riverside and RCA Victor that continued jazz explorations in the spirit of the “Birth of the Cool” sessions with the RCA sides included in Ed Michel’s The Arrangers CD for RCA Bluebird. Here are links to the three posts:

 

https://jazzresearch.com/jack-lewis-west-coast/

 

https://jazzresearch.com/jack-lewis-east-coast/

 

https://jazzresearch.com/the-jazz-workshop-redux/

 

Jim

 

[Dan Gould]

So is this really the same Jack Lewis? Discogs ID's him as A&R man but I'm left to wonder that this isn't someone else ...

https://www.discogs.com/The-Jack-Lewis-Quintet-The-Culmination-Of-Jazz-Presents-The-Jack-Lewis-Quintet/release/7628909

Since I've been fascinated lately by records by "local" cats, in the hopes that they turn out to be really good, just obscure, I've got a cheap copy coming my way shortly.

[Dan Gould]

Interestingly, the pianist, trumpeter and bass players all have a few to quite a few credits on discogs. The tenor and the drummer ... who knows.

I hope Mr. Harrod comes back maybe there was info in the 1998 interview about Lewis' post-A&R life. He definitely doesn't mention anything about drums, only about giving up on the saxophone fairly early. Yet Lewis is the leader of the date.

I really hope this is a good record, and I have to say the funny thing is it was so cheap I just did the buy-it-now thing without doing any internet or discogs search on the artists.  Oh, and those liners don't say anything either, just a lot of talk about some musicians moving onward and upward, and some musicians not pursuing that sort of career.  An ode to "local players" - just what makes me curious ...

[Dan Gould]

Well since nobody seems to know I guess this LP is the ultimate BFT track source.

 

[JSngry]

Probably not the same guy?

[Dan Gould]

On 9/30/2020 at 4:18 PM, JSngry said:

Probably not the same guy?

For mid-seventies, and only having photos from a good time before, I wasn't prepared to say its not ... but i interacted with Mr. Harrod on his research webpage and he says no so I guess ... someone should tell Discogs.

It's still a nice album with strong contributions from the tenor player (otherwise unknown) and the pianist, who was on a few recordings with some better known artists.