Victor Lewis is an American jazz drummer, composer, and educator.
Early life
Victor Lewis was born on May 20, 1950 in Omaha, Nebraska. His father, Richard Lewis, who played saxophone and mother, Camille, a pianist-vocalist were both classically trained musicians who performed with many of the "territory bands" that toured the midwest in the forties. Consequently, Victor grew up with jazz as well as popular and European classical music at home. He would also go with his father to hear touring big bands as they passed through Omaha, such as Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Woody Herman. Victor started studying music when he was ten and a half years old. Too small for the acoustic bass, he began on cello, but switched to the drums a year and a half later inspired by the drum line marching in holiday parades. As part of his formal studies, he also studied classical piano.
Career
By the time he was 15, Victor began playing drums professionally on the local scene. As one of the few drummers who could read music, he jumped ahead of many of the older musicians for calls on commercial jobs. His big band jazz drumming style was greatly changed after hearing a record of Tony Williams with Miles Davis' Quintet. In addition to Williams, he was greatly influenced by the jazz combo styles of Art Blakey, Kenny Clarke, Max Roach and Philly Joe Jones. He started his own small group to play around town and quickly ascended to playing with nationally known jazz musicians, the first of which was accompanying Hank Crawford in Omaha. In 1974 Lewis moved to Manhattan, Victor's first gig there was a night at Boomer's with bassist Buster Williams, where he met trumpeter Woody Shaw. Lewis joined the trumpeter's band, becoming a steady member, and a just a few months later he made his recording debut on Shaw's classic, The Moontrane. In the early seventies, the fusion and pop-jazz scenes were becoming popular. Quickly adapting, the drummer was soon recording with Joe Farrell, Earl Klugh, Hubert Laws, Carla Bley and David Sanborn. On his first outing with Sanborn, Lewis recorded his own compositions, "Seventh Avenue" and "Sophisticated Squaw" and later "The Legend of the Cheops." In 1980, Lewis left Shaw's group to join Stan Getz, in a long collaboration that lasted until the saxophonist's death in 1991. Throughout the eighties, Lewis was one of jazz's busiest freelancers, touring and recording with, among others, Kenny Barron, Art Farmer, J.J. Johnson, Mike Stern, John Stubblefield, Grover Washington Jr., The Manhattan Jazz Quintet, Bobby Hutcherson and Bobby Watson. As an educator, Lewis has contributed as a freelance instructor with The New School University Jazz School-Mannes Music School Jazz Program in New York City and appears in drum clinics around the world. In 2003 Lewis joined the faculty of Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ where he teaches drummers and coaches jazz combos. In the press, there have been several feature articles about him in publications such as Downbeat, The Wire, Jazz Times as well as Modern Drummer.
