Lew's News

"A Helluva Piano Player" (Jazz Times, 11/07)

SEE BELOW for info on Youtube videos, Myspace pages etc.

Next Gig:

To Prez with Love Celebrating Billie Holiday

Sunday, February 24, 2008

7 PM: Concert: featuring Cameron Brown, Jeanie Bryson, John Ellis, Yoron Israel, Sheila Jordan, Sarah McLawler, Jimmy Owens, Lewis Porter, Benny Powell, James Weidman, Frank Wess, Eve Zanni. $20 donation

Saint Peter's Church
619 Lexington Avenue at 54th Street
New York, New York 10022
"E" Train to Lexington Avenue or "6" Train to 51st Street
More information: 212-935-2200 http://www.saintpeters.org/
I'm scheduled to accompany singer Eve Zanni at about 8pm, with Cam Brown on bass and Yoron Israel on drums. JUST ONE SONG!

THEN: On Monday Feb 25 I'll be presenting this at Berklee: Experimental Piano Recordings from the 1920s to Bill Evans.

On Thursday Feb 28 I will interview Randy Weston at Jazz At Lincoln Center, Columbus Circle, 7-8:30pm—only $10! http://www.jalc.org/jazzED/subs/jazz_talk.html

AND TWO GIGS ON MARCH 5:

March 5, 2:30-4pm, at the Dana Room, Dana Library, Rutgers-Newark. FREE and open to all: Trumpeter John Swana, award-winning saxophonist Xavier Perez, Lewis Porter on piano, Mike Richmond on bass, and Rudy Royston on drums.
Wednesday, March 5, 8pm-1am, at the Galapagos Art Space in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, $10
- 8PM - Burnt Sugar
- 10PM - Sabir Mateen's Omni-Sound: Sabir, Matt Lavelle, Hilliard Greene, Warren Smith
- 11PM - Knucklebean FEATURING GUEST LEWIS PORTER ON SYNTHESIZER and Brad Farberman (guitar), Adam Minkoff (bass), Nick Anderson (drums), Matt Silberman (saxophones), Matt Thomas (saxophones), Kevin Moehringer (trombone), Ben Syverson (trumpet), Phil Rodriguez (trumpet)
- Midnight - Jessica Lurie: Jessica, Andrew Drury, Jonathan Goldberger and Daniel Carter!
http://www.galapagosartspace.com/directions.html
70 North 6th Street
between Kent and Wythe
Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY 11211
718 782-5188

LOOKING AHEAD: Boston Residency, March 18-22. My schedule:

March 18, 9-10pm: I'll play live on WGBH-FM AND wgbh.org with Ron Mahdi, John Ramsay and Daniel Ian Smith.
March 19--7-9pm--short solo piano recital and lecture on Coltrane at Worcester Poly Tech.
March 20: workshops/lectures at BU (morning) and NU (afternoon) AND MIT (evening)
March 21, 8pm--duo concert at Brookline Tai Chi with Daniel Ian Smith.

APRIL 5, ca.3:30-5:30pm—Dharma Jazz (Badal Roy, Lewis Porter, Vic Juris, Karttikeya) FREE at Philoctetes Center on E. 82nd St in Manhattan. It's between 2nd and 3rd Ave, close to 2nd.
http://philoctetes.org/Calendar/living_in_the_musical_moment_dharma_jazz/
Phone: 646-422-0544

April 7-8--most likely I'll be at the U of North Texas and the High School of Performing and Visual Arts

April 9, 2:30pm--free concert at Rutgers-Newark, solo piano, synth, and duos with David Rothenberg

April 28-30--England: U of East Anglia, and I'll be interviewed live in London.

CDs, and Podcasts:
Websites:

-You can watch my entire 100 minute lecture-performance with Jane Ira Bloom, 10/13/07.

-The recording of the "legendary" smoking second set from our Big Apple gig in June (the trio with Ratzo Harris and Rudy Royston) is available NOW at Artistowned.com. There are 4 tunes and each MP3 is 99 cents.

-BOTH OF MY CDS are now at iTunes: Do a Power Search for Porter in genre Jazz, and click on Show All. The old one is at eMusic too, and soon the new one will be added!

My new "live" trio CD Italian Encounter is also available at http://altrisuoni.com/ You'll see it right on the home page but you can also search for my name. The phenomenal bassist (Furio Di Castri) and drummer (Fabrizio Sferra) on this CD are famous in Europe and have worked with Lovano, Brecker, Chet Baker, Konitz, etc., etc. My previous CD Second Voyage is still there too, with Dave Liebman, Dan Faulk, Kenny Wessel, Harvie S, and Marcus Baylor. One track from each CD is at Lewisporter.com

So far Italian Encounter has received ONLY rave reviews! THE LATEST REVIEWS: Barry McRae in Jazz Journal International, January 2008:

Porter … can most certainly practice what he preaches…He has produced an album that offers genuine creativity as well as an intriguing selection of material…Porter and di Castri enjoy a meaningful conversation of committed subtlety.

Herb Young in IAJRC Journal, Dec. 07:

They communicate with each other beautifully. They all have " ears." … "Body and Soul" gets very original treatment…My favorite is "Lester Young Samba." It really swings in a modern way…I could not digest this disc in a single hearing. However, repeated plays did release a lot of music to me.

John Bookof Music For America writes

The collected experiences of three fine musicians in one powerful and moving CD…it sounds like they've been a trio for most of their lives. The chemistry between these three musicians come from a love of jazz, music, improvisation, and creativity, even in a track like the standard "Body And Soul" the listener has no idea where things are going to go, but just moving through the song is part of the fun.

Thomas Conrad in Jazz Times (11/07):

Lewis Porter must now be known as a helluva piano player who happens to have several day gigs (as a professor, author and consultant)…Porter plays…long rhapsodic single-note runs. "Body and Soul" is a rapt, patient encounter, the melodic narrative acknowledged but time taken for subplots and glittering corollaries

NEW REVIEW by Jerry D'Souza at allaboutjazz.com:

The empathy between them is remarkable and makes for a delightful concert…. Porter can indulge in a melody and draw it out, exposing its spell charmingly. He illuminates his runs with little spaces and in a welter of notes that tumble and roar. He also has a penchant for unleashing a thunderous chord unexpectedly, but it sits perfectly in the frame of his progression….Each of the musicians brings an enterprising vision and an edge to even the most lyrical of tunes, a prime example being "Lester Young Samba."…"Again and Again (ii-V-I)," a lovely ballad, is perfectly mainstream. Porter weaves a rich melodic tapestry, his vivid colors brushed with a flurry or daubed with resolute emphasis.

Marc Medwin in AllAboutJazz-NewYork, 11/ 07:

"Body and Soul" traveled the spaceways, the journey back to the head near miraculous…The intense dialogues of Bill Evans' groups are invoked…The originals here are equally engaging…This is a well-programmed and refreshingly varied disc.

Allen Lowe's double CD Jews In Hell is out. (see Allanlowe.com) I am featured on a long piano solo (I use Allan's written theme and then improvise in the style of it; then I get more free); it also features (on separate tracks) Matthew Shipp and my friends Mark Ribot and Randy Sandke, among others.

RADIO INTERVIEWS:

-An extended recent WBGO radio interview that i feel good about is archived permanently: Go to www.wbgo.org and go to News, then go to Journal Archive, and click on July 6, 2007.

-I am featured in Episode 21 and 31 of the new Coltrane podcast series, and did some advising behind the scenes. It also features interviews with McCoy Tyner, Billy Taylor, Joe Lovano, etc. Subscribe for free!