John Lewis

John Lewis held the post of musical director across the Modern Jazz Quartet’s full lifespan, discovering an ideal platform for fusing his affinities with bop, blues, and Bach. His restrained keyboard manner, echoing Count Basie’s economical phrasing in which every note carries weight, enabled the MJQ to earn classical listeners’ regard while preserving the group’s full expressive force.

Once discharged from military duty, Lewis performed in Dizzy Gillespie’s orchestra between 1946 and 1948. During 1947–1948 he participated in Charlie Parker sessions that included “Parker’s Mood,” and he also appeared with Miles Davis’ Birth of the Cool Nonet, supplying arrangements for “Move” and “Rouge.” Additional work came with Illinois Jacquet in 1948–1949 and Lester Young in 1950–1951, together with frequent studio dates throughout those years.

In 1951 Lewis recorded with the Milt Jackson Quartet; by 1952 the ensemble had become the Modern Jazz Quartet. That setting allowed Lewis to realize his compositional aims, resulting in numerous works of which “Django” remains the best known. While maintaining an unbroken schedule of MJQ concerts from 1952 through 1974, he also scored the films Odds Against Tomorrow, No Sun in Venice, and A Milanese Story.

Under his own name he released the 1956 cool classic “Two Degrees East, Three Degrees West,” undertook projects with Gunther Schuller, and made recordings alongside Svend Asmussen and Albert Mangelsdorff. Mid-decade he further directed Orchestra U.S.A. Following the MJQ’s 1974 dissolution, Lewis concentrated on teaching and occasional leader dates. When the quartet reconvened in 1981 he again served as its central artistic force, continuing in that capacity until his death in 2001. Atlantic issued the bulk of his independent recordings.