Jazz Career
Once Lewis moved to New York in 1945, Clarke and Lewis tried out for Dizzy Gillespie's bop-style big band by playing a song called "Bright Lights" that Lewis had written for the band they played for in the army. They both were asked to join Gillespie's band, and the tune they originally played for Gillespie, renamed "Two Bass Hit," became an instant success. Lewis composed, arranged and played piano for the band from 1945 until 1948 after the band made a concert tour of Europe. When Lewis returned from the tour with Gillespie's band, he left the band to work individually. Lewis was an accompanist for Charlie Parker and played on some of Parker's famous recordings, such as "Parker's Mood" (1948) and "Blues for Alice" (1951), but also collaborated with other prominent jazz artists such as Lester Young, Ella Fitzgerald and Illinois Jacquet.
Lewis also was part of Miles Davis's Birth of the Cool sessions. While in Europe, Lewis received letters from Davis urging Lewis to come back to the United States and collaborate with himself, Gil Evans, Gerry Mulligan and others on the second session of Birth of the Cool. From when he returned to the U.S. in 1948 through 1949, Lewis joined the Davis's nonet and is considered "one of the more prolific arrangers with the 1949 Miles Davis Nonet". Lewis arranged the following on the Birth of the Cool sessions: "S'il Vous Plait", "Rouge", "Move" and "Budo".
Lewis, vibraphonist Milt Jackson, drummer Kenny Clarke and bassist Ray Brown had been the small group within the Gillespie big band, and they frequently played their own short sets when the brass and reeds needed a break or even when Gillespie's band wasn't playing. The small band received a lot of positive recognition and it led to the foursome forming a full-time working group, which they initially called the Milt Jackson Quartet in 1951 but in 1952 renamed the Modern Jazz Quartet.
Read more about this topic: John Lewis (pianist)
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