Of course music, unless it involves singers and sung words or an interpolated spoken word narration, is more abstract and introspective than a news report can ever be. But the new material was what was the most revelatory.Įach of Lewis’s pieces was dedicated to an African American who had been killed during confrontations with police o cers. Their rendition of “Lulu’s Back in Town” was joyously raucous and their take on Monk was appropriately o -kilter.
The music was contrapuntally intricate yet super funky, and often incredibly loud. A virtuoso on a Hammond B-3 electric organ accompanied by electric guitar and drums set has been a popular instrumental combination for soul, jazz, and R&B for more than half a century, but the material performed by Lewis and his sidemen-a standard, a Thelonious Monk classic, and some Lewis originals-took the format to some unexpected places. The 30-minute ensemble showcases at the annual Chamber Music America conference typically run the gamut from string quartets to small jazz combos to the occasional outlier-a reed quintet (which replaces the ute and French horn of standard wind quintets with a saxophone and bass clarinet), a klezmer band, or at the most recent conference, a duo of trumpet and kora (the 21-string harp-lute played in Mali, Senegal, and the Gambia).īut one of the most unusual groups ever to be presented at the CMA conference, in 2016, was an organ trio fronted by Greg Lewis (a.k.a.
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