March 11--Not a lot of 80-year-old trumpeters are playing the world premieres of four-movement jazz suites they've composed.
But Chicagoan Bobby Lewis did just that Thursday night at the Jazz Showcase, as he celebrated his recent birthday and the release of an uncommonly poetic album, the aptly named "... Play On."
Lewis' suite "Seasonal Tones" stands as the centerpiece of the new recording, and it shows an already admired artist pushing himself to aspire higher. Taking inspiration from Vivaldi's evergreen "The Four Seasons," Lewis has penned a sprawling, 25-minute opus exploring not just the times of year but the colors he associates with them. Hence he has titled each movement after a hue, "Magenta" representing spring, "Emerald" summer, and so forth.
Even without the programmatic narrative, however, "Seasonal Tones" in concert came across as a polished work summing up the inherently lyrical nature and tonal subtlety of Lewis' art. And though each movement is built on a primary motif, Lewis and his quintet did more than revel in lovely tunes: They vigorously developed this melodic material, underscoring the substantive nature of Lewis' composition.
The suite's genteel opening melody, in "Magenta (Spring)," had to disarm even skeptical listeners, the silken sound of Lewis' flugelhorn a welcome balm in a very noisy world. Pat Mallinger's alto saxophone provided ruddy contrast to Lewis' pastels, the two producing showers of notes -- as only two longtime collaborators could -- without getting in each other's way. Jim Ryan's florid pianism, drummer Jeff Stitely's nimble rhythms and Stewart Miller's warmly resonant bass playing made this a spring to remember.
Most any Chicagoan feels jubilant by the time summer arrives, and Lewis expressed that sentiment with some of the most joyful, exuberant music to have come from his pen. The intricate counterpoint he and Mallinger articulated in "Emerald (Summer)" evoked the heady freedom of the season, the two players bounding forward from one buoyant phrase to the next.
Lewis' main theme in "Amber (Autumn)" conjured bittersweet emotion, the plaintive melody hinting at the winter chill yet to come and echoing music of Billy Strayhorn. The chromatic opening notes that Mallinger played on alto saxophone recalled any number of Strayhorn compositions, Lewis' wistful flugelhorn solo emphasizing the connection.
Not surprisingly, "Ivory (Winter)" proved the most rhythmically tumultuous of the four movements, Lewis and Mallinger trading phrases fast and hard. Yet even amid these storms, the essential clarity of the ensemble sound and the elegance of the front-line playing were apparent. Lewis' neoclassical aesthetic remains a fundamental source of his art, even in a work as pictorial as "Seasonal Tones," a high point in the trumpeter's career.
But there were other, less grandly scaled pleasures in this evening too. Lewis, who often has performed and recorded with former Chicago singer Jo Belle Yonely, brought her home from Las Vegas for this occasion, and she was in sumptuous voice. Her tune "The Silent Goodbye" made a lasting impression, the singer's soft-and-husky vocal colors answered by Lewis' Harmon-muted sighs.
Lewis spent the lion's share of his career playing studio sessions, and the stylistic versatility that work requires was evident elsewhere in his opening set. He crafted 1930s-style, plunger-muted passages as persuasively as he finessed the rigors of Miles Davis' classic "Milestones."
Even at 80, Lewis must be counted a trumpeter for all seasons.
Howard Reich is a Tribune critic.
hreich@tribpub.com
When: 8 and 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 4, 8 and 10 p.m. Sunday
Where: Jazz Showcase, 806 S. Plymouth Court
Tickets: $20-$35; 312-360-0234 or www.jazzshowcase.com
