April 1998

Bobby Lewis
Flugel Gourmet
Southport

By Dave Burns

The veteran trumpeter serves up gorgeous tone and confident, relaxed execution, connecting jazz and classical idioms through exemplary musicianship. Lewis is backed by combinations from seven to 18 (some charts sound as big as a symphony), with Jim Ryan, piano, on all tracks. "The Lamp Is Low" (Ravel's Pavane For A Dead Princess) is stunning; Dick Boyell's arrangements for string quartet, acoustic bass, piano and fluegelhorn of Tchaikovsky's "None But the Lonely Heart" and "Moon Love" continue the lyrical mood. Lewis' chart for Dvorak's "New World" theme is exceptional chamber jazz. Bob Ojeda's scoring of Strauss' "Zarathustra" gets a huge funky sound-what half-time college bands hope to sound like. The Brodsky/Cahn ballad "Only Trust Your Heart" is set to an easy Brazilian beat. This one's a winner!