John Lewis
piano
Pianist and composer, musical director of the Modern Jazz Quartet; Barry names him with Hank Jones among the older pianists he says musicians like him learned from, players the colleges never asked how to teach.
- mentions
- 7
- recordings
- 7
- Barry speaking
- 4
What Barry says
Barry says teachers are wrong all over the world because the colleges never asked pianists such as Hank Jones, John Lewis, Dick Katz and John Bunch how to teach, though they are the ones musicians like him learned from. The schools goofed, so he and Eli Yamin try to show what is right.
Jazz theory, part 1: key families a minor third apart0:351:12Jazz theory, part 1, with score0:02
At the Jazz Congress in 2020 Barry lists the pianists of his time, Wynton Kelly, Bill Evans, John Lewis, Hank Jones and himself. Had they been asked who was the best pianist in the world, some would have said Art Tatum, but for most of the young ones there was only one name: Bud Powell.
Answering students at a 2004 master class, Barry objects to pianists who keep the left hand high and play single notes in the right. He names the oldest pianists, himself, Hank Jones, Duke Jordan (still alive, he says) and John Lewis: none of them played that way. They learned two-handed chords, so the new way did not come from them.
Artists House Master Class Barry Harris - Student Interviews After Concert8:289:019:33
In his own words
who do they ask how to teach in these colleges? See, that’s what’s wrong. ... they didn’t ask John Lewis, they didn’t ask them, Dick [Katz], you know, John Bunch.
If you had asked us who was the best pianist in the world, some of us would say, well, you know, we think Art Tatum. But you know, most of us, the young ones like this, there’s only one name you say, Bud Powell.
Hank Jones is one of the oldest ... we had Duke Jordan, he’s still alive, and we had John Lewis, and none of us played like that, none of us
Every mention
7 moments in the recordings, 4 of them Barry speaking. Each says who is talking.
Jazz theory, part 1: key families a minor third apart
- 0:35
The colleges never asked Hank Jones, John Lewis, Dick Katz or John Bunch how to teach; they taught us.
Jazz theory, part 1, with score
- 0:02
Another transcript of the same lesson opening: the schools did not ask Lewis and the others how to teach.
Accepting the Bruce Lundvall Visionary Award
- 7:56
Named with Kelly, Bill Evans, Hank Jones and Barry; Tatum or Bud would have been their pick for best.
Artists House Master Class Barry Harris - Student Interviews After Concert
- 9:01
One of the oldest pianists, with Hank Jones and Duke Jordan, none of whom kept the left hand high.
Interview: Bird, Hawkins, Monk and New York
- 30:14
Speaker unclear
Named among the pianists on Columbia’s compilation LP I Remember Bebop, which includes Barry playing Monk.
Artists House Master Class Barry Harris - Introduction by Gary Giddins
- 7:29
Someone else
Gary Giddins lists Lewis, with Bill Evans, among pianists who tried the Fender Rhodes; Barry never changed.
ManagersPro.com “Barry Harris talks about as a mentor to developing pianists.”
- 7:29
Someone else
The same Giddins introduction in another upload: Lewis and Bill Evans tried the Fender Rhodes in the 1970s.
In the interviews and notes
The workbook for Barry’s first workshop video has a section on borrowed notes, and one of its examples is based on John Lewis’s tune Django.
Barry Harris (on video); Howard Rees (producer, The Barry Harris Workshop Video ¶19
Cleary’s one-bar ii-V exercise, built from bebop licks, ends with a pattern from Lewis’s Afternoon in Paris. Lewis first recorded it in 1949 with Sonny Stitt and J.J. Johnson; Cleary suggests the lick came from Parker’s Marmaduke, cut with Lewis on piano.
Tom Cleary (University of Vermont), Midnight Donna and Reets in Paris: anagrams ¶3Tom Cleary (University of Vermont), Midnight Donna and Reets in Paris: anagrams ¶4
Cleary’s own rhythm-changes tune borrows a pattern from Afternoon in Paris, alongside material he names in Barry’s terms: the turnaround lick and the 4 lick.
Tom Cleary (University of Vermont), Simple Paris Dancers: a bop-style rhythm changes ¶5
Cleary notes that only after Parker and Bud Powell, who had merely hinted at larger forms, did Lewis’s long contrapuntal works, Three Windows among them, show what extended composing with a bebop outlook could sound like.
Tom Cleary (University of Vermont), Six Degrees of Bud Powell, Part ii-V-I ¶14
In a thread on the first Things I Learned From Barry Harris episode, a forum member talking about bebop blues believes Lewis is credited with the bars 7 and 8 change Cmaj7 to Dm7, then Em7 to A7 (or E flat minor 7), which became common.
jazzguitar.be members (usernames kept per post), Things I Learned From Barry Harris ep 1 (jazzguitar.be forum thread) ¶47jazzguitar.be members (usernames kept per post), Things I Learned From Barry Harris ep 1 (jazzguitar.be forum thread) ¶48
Method ideas nearby
Ideas of the method taught in the classes where they come up, with how many mentions fall in each.
- 2.1The chromatic scale is the source of every scale2
- 2.4Minor thirds and key families (brothers and sisters)2
- 11.2Keep the left hand low and make it interesting1
- 11.5Touch1
- 14.2Every key, every degree, every way1
- 15.2Bebop, tradition, and what is wrong with jazz education1
- 15.4The lineage1
- 2.2The two whole-tone scales (‘man and woman’)1