Upcoming Live Appearances
May 14 & 28, June 11 & 25, July 9 & 23
Organ Monk with Gary Samuels at
Bar LunÀtico Brooklyn, NY
2pm Gospel Brunch
May 7,14,13,21,28, June 4,11,18,25, July 2,9,16,23,30
Organ Monk with Peter Valera and The Jump Blues Band
at BB Kings NYC 9:30pm
May 11,18,25, June 1,8,15,22,29, July 6,13,20,27
Organ Monk with Ray Blue
at The American Legion Post
398248 W 132nd St.
New York, NY 10027, 7pm
May 27
Organ Monk at Sistas' Place
Brooklyn NY 9pm
Artist: GREGORY LEWIS ORGAN MONK Title: THE BREATHE SUITE
Label: Self Produced
Produced by: Gregory Lewis
Release Date: MAY 05, 2017
UPC Code: 888295537964
Track listing
1. (First Movement) Chronicles Of Michael Brown 18:52
Nasheet Waits Drums, Marc Ribot Guitar Reggie Woods Tenor Sax, Riley Mullins Trumpet Gregory Lewis Hammond B3 Organ
2. (Second Movement) Trayvon 3:22
Jeremy ‘BEAN’ Clemons Drums, Ron Jackson Guitar Gregory Lewis Hammond B3 Organ
3. (Third Movement) Aiyana’s Jones Song 7:28
Jeremy ‘BEAN’ Clemons Drums, Ron Jackson Guitar Gregory Lewis Hammond B3 Organ
4. (Fourth Movement ) Eric Garner 7:19
Nasheet Waits Drums, Marc Ribot Guitar Reggie Woods Tenor Sax, Riley Mullins Trumpet Gregory Lewis Hammond B3 Organ
5. (Fifth Movement) Osiris AusarAndTheRaceSoldiers 7:50
Jeremy ‘BEAN’ Clemons Drums, Ron Jackson Guitar Reggie Woods Tenor Sax, Riley Mullins Trumpet
Gregory Lewis Hammond B3 Organ
All Compositions by Gregory Lewis
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).
But 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. Organ Monk). 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 music was contrapuntally intricate yet super funky, and often incredibly loud.
Their rendition of “Lulu’s Back in Town” was joyously raucous and their take on Monk was appropriately o -kilter. But the new material was what was the most revelatory.
Each of Lewis’s pieces was dedicated to an African American who had been killed during confrontations with police o cers. 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 merely attaching a verbal title to an instrumental composition anchors it for listeners and has the potential to serve as an outlet for a deep emotional interface with a topic that can transcend an immediate reaction to a eeting headline.
Think, for example, how a work like Penderecki’s searing Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima conveys the horrors of atomic warfare in a way that is far more visceral than reading a history book (even though the title was actually an after- thought). Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin, and the horri c episodes that led to their deaths have been permanently etched into the general public’s conscience. But Lewis, by a xing their names to his musical compositions, provides a platform for their stories to enter our subconscious and for audiences to pay tribute to who these people were.
This music, though at times dirge-like and appropriately angry, is ultimately resilient and celebratory; it allows us not only to mourn their deaths but to remember their lives.
“I can’t protest, because if I protest I go to jail. And if I go to jail, I can’t feed my ve kids. So what I can do is what I do: I write music. ... I want to get this record to each of the people ... Even if it brings joy for just a minute to these families, that’s what I can do.”
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