Feb. 03--No one loved Chicago trumpeter Bobby Lewis' work more than the great singer Peggy Lee, who was not shy about expressing her admiration for him.
Lewis, she said, has "a sound like no other. I like him best when he plays in pastels, but every note is beautiful ... is loving."
Well put, but Lewis' ineffably poetic music has been all but missing in Chicago since he played a four-night run at the Jazz Showcase last March. Less than two weeks later, he underwent major back surgery requiring months of recovery and intensive physical therapy.
Though Lewis tested himself recently by playing a few one-nighters as sideman, on Thursday evening he will make his first foray back into the spotlight leading his quintet with another extended engagement at the Showcase. At 79, the trumpeter believes he has rebuilt enough stamina to be able to play two shows a night and three on Sunday -- the usual Showcase schedule -- but a key question lingers: Will he sound as good as he always has?
"I think I'm pretty much where I was" before surgery, says Lewis, whose optimism always has radiated from his horn and his conversation.
"I don't play with a lot of force and pressure, like you see some trumpet players -- they're about to have a heart attack, it almost seems like," adds Lewis. "I never took that approach."
Indeed, Lewis always has brought Mozartean simplicity and elegance to his playing, albeit with all the harmonic sophistication you would expect from a major Chicago jazz artist. Profoundly lyrical players such as cornetist Bobby Hackett and trumpeters Chet Baker, Clark Terry and Miles Davis clearly had a profound impact on Lewis. But it's not an exaggeration to observe that Lewis' work ultimately draws inspiration from a school of playing established by a great Chicago player of roughly a century ago, Bix Beiderbecke.
Lewis likes to call his playing "Warm Cool," the title of a 2011 album of his, meaning, perhaps, that he merges the warm tonal glow of Hackett and Terry with the cool emotional temperature of Baker and Davis, among others. Notwithstanding Lewis' observation that he never has been a fortissimo player along the lines of trumpet powerhouses such as Jon Faddis, Arturo Sandoval or Nicholas Payton, it takes tremendous control to achieve the sleek, "warm cool" aesthetic that is his signature. And we won't know until Thursday night if he still conveys quite the same sound -- or if his musical fingerprint has changed.
Certainly he has been through a lot. In the years leading up to his surgery, he suffered manageable pain and chronic numbness in his feet, he says, which meant he couldn't walk very far without having to sit down to rest. Doctors diagnosed three problems with his spine: stenosis, defined by the dictionary as "a narrowing or stricture of a passage or vessel"; scoliosis, "an abnormal lateral curvature of the spine"; and spondylosis, "immobility and fusion of vertebral joints."
Considering that Lewis has spent more than 60 years playing trumpet and that musicians often develop physical problems from the demands their instruments make upon their bodies, you have to wonder if his art caused his woes.
"I asked the doctor: Is there anything I did wrong, because I belonged to a health club for 30 years, worked out, had a healthy diet and exercised to try and avoid anything like this," says Lewis.
"He said: No, it's just aging, and some people get it, and some people don't. ... I didn't want to be riding in a wheelchair in two years, which if I didn't do anything (surgically), I might have had to."
An operation that was expected to last four hours stretched to 61/2 due to complications, explains Lewis, and the recuperation was demanding. His doctors told him he shouldn't touch his horns for a couple of weeks, but that was the one order he couldn't really follow. He put a flugelhorn to his lips a few days after surgery "and tested the chops a little bit," says Lewis. "And they were fine."
Once the pain began subsiding, he started doing more walking -- with the aid of a back brace and walker for several months. After casting all that aside, it was time to see if he could make it through an entire concert, so at the end of July Lewis played a show led by saxophonist Andy Tecson in Davenport -- Beiderbecke's home town -- and was able to get through it by sitting through most of the performance.
A few subsequent dates in Chicago at the end of last year led him to believe that his endurance was building, which encouraged him to accept this week's comeback shows at the Showcase. He declined, however, to pursue working at Andy's Jazz Club, he says, because the place now has musicians working 90-minute sets -- an unusually long haul for any artist, let alone one getting his energy back and pushing 80.
Lewis says he hasn't yet decided how he's going to celebrate the big birthday next year, but in light of all he has given to music in Chicago -- he moved here from his native Oshkosh, Wis., in 1961 -- this city ought to plan a major tribute. Surely featured engagements at next year's Chicago Jazz Festival and the Made in Chicago: World Class Jazz series belong on the calendar.
"I might have a big party -- you only turn 80 once," says Lewis, though quickly pointing to other great trumpeters whom he regards as his elders.
"Art Hoyle is 85, and he's still playing great," adds Lewis, referring to another legendary Chicago jazz musician. "And I always admired (trumpeter) Doc Cheatham playing into his 90s.
"I want to be a trumpet player until I pass on."
And Chicago wants to hear him for as long as possible.
The Bobby Lewis Quintet plays at 8 and 10 p.m. Thursday through Saturday; 4, 8 and 10 p.m. Sunday at the Jazz Showcase, 806 S. Plymouth Court; $20-$35; 312-360-0234 or jazzshowcase.com.
Chicago Jazz Philharmonic
Orbert Davis' singular ensemble celebrates music often described as Third Stream, meaning it merges jazz and classical traditions. For its next concert, the CJP will play music of Third Stream innovator Gunther Schuller, 89, who will be in attendance. In addition, the concert will present the world premiere of Suite for Jazz Band and Orchestra by Daniel Schnyder. 7:30 p.m. Friday in Orchestra Hall at Symphony Center, 220 S. Michigan Ave.; $42-$72; 312-294-3000 or cso.org or chicagojazzphilharmonic.org.
"Portraits in Jazz": Howard Reich's e-book collects his exclusive interviews with Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Lena Horne, Ella Fitzgerald and others, as well as profiles of early masters such as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Billie Holiday. Get "Portraits in Jazz" at chicagotribune.com/ebooks.
hreich@tribpub.com
Twitter @howardreich
