LEWIS, JOHN

born May 3, 1920, La Grange, Ill., U.S. John (Aaron) Lewis with the Modern Jazz Quartet in full John Aaron Lewis American jazz pianist and composer-arranger. Reared in New Mexico by academically oriented parents, Lewis studied piano from childhood and, until 1942, anthropology and music at the University of New Mexico. He served in the U.S. Army (194245) and subsequently worked as a pianist with Dizzy Gillespie, arranging Two Bass Hit, Emanon, Minor Walk, and his own Toccata for Trumpet and Orchestra for Gillespie's big band. He also worked with Miles Davis (having arranged Move, Budo, and Rouge for Davis's album Birth of the Cool), Charlie Parker, Lester Young, and Illinois Jacquet. In 1952 he became the leader of the Modern Jazz Quartet, whichwith vibraphonist Milt Jackson, bassist Percy Heath, and drummer Connie Kaywas one of the longest-lived and best-received groups in jazz history. It was active throughout most of the 1950s and '60s, disbanded in 1974, and resumed performing on a part-time basis in 1981. Its music was subtle and polite, quite close to Baroque chamber music, and often classed with the cool jazz category. Lewis also composed for nonjazz settings and wrote musical scores for cinema, ballet, and theatre. Django is the Lewis composition most frequently played by others. In 1974 Lewis became an instructor at the Davis Center for the Performing Arts at City College of the City University of New York.