Mel Lewis Jazz Festival Bern 1986 Switzerland

[drummer78]

Very sophisticated prhasing in that solo of his.

[56conn6h]

The other tenor player who is to the right of DIck Oattes is Munich's Roman Schwaller I believe. How he landed on that stage, on that gig I have no idea. But he is one of the best soloists in Europe.

As far as all these mindless observations made in here, mocking what they look like when they play, etc. I guess that is why they are the monster players and you are trolls.

[bb1134]

Loses a stick at 1:34 and has another one out like a magician. Nice.

[mattalpweg]

...only a shadow from a spolight...

[ZackPomerleau]

What is on his snare?

[MarkR1957]

@ZackPomerleau It's a shadow of the microphone directly to Mel's right ~

[MarkR1957]

@pektus5 I agree. If you want to hear the best sounding drums by Mel that I've heard to date, get his CD called "Naturally".

The drum solo at the end of "Cherry Juice" is absolute perfection, and his drums sound incredible. Also, his DVD "Live at the Smithsonian" shows off his great sounding Slingerlands.

By the way, Mel is my favorite drummer/musician. He was absolutely amazing. Too bad he never got the recognition guys like Buddy and Louie did.

But, his bands were nothing short of superb ~

[lanceflatul]

Are you kidding? The alto sax looks like he's taking a dump right on stage. Comedic.

[pablosaxo]

@lanceflatul so what?

[gabrielpatricknava]

The alto and tenor player to the right look like they're going to spaz out, or have suffered hernia's. No wonder my ex use to laugh at jazz soloists. Some of them look like like they've got "ants in their pants". I don't think I've ever looked that funny improvising on stage. At least no one told me. Ha! Ha!

[jazzernauts]

The Tenor player S.R is Don Menza

[trombonist2526]

Is that Dick Oatts on Alto

[badisev]

The Tenor Sax player is from my home town. He's name is Roman Schwaller. He gave a consert in my town togehter with Mel. Was incredible.

[mrsticks28]

I've been a drummer for over 50 years, and while like everybody else was in awe of Buddy Rich, the drummers I truly liked were Mel Lewis, Shelly Manne, Jake Hanna, Bobby Rosengarden. Alvin Queen, Jeff Hamilton and Adam Nussbaum also get my attention.I ran into a trumpet player friend and he noted that 40 years ago we gigged together and he could hear Mel's influence on my playing even then. What a compliment. I got to know Mel pretty well in the 80's and up til he died. A great cat!

[MarkR1957]

Interesting.

I have always felt that guys like Shelly and Mel were what you REALLY call a Jazz drummer. Not that Buddy wasn't. He sure as hell was, and was THE single greatest example of drumset dominance of all time.

Mel is my all time favorite, and it's too bad that kids now feel it's all about speed. Mel was, to me, a true Master of his craft. His bands were superb. I could watch him solo and lead that band all day. I loved his soloing. Inventive and individualistic.

A Jazz Master ~

[mrsticks28]

Mark - I agree that young drummers feel that "speed is everything". The real test is to take a slow tune and make it happen. I still will listen to a drummer like Mel and learn something everytime.

[MarkR1957]

Yeah -- too bad about Mel. He should have easily had at least 10 more years in him.

But, he was playing VERY well right up to almost the end. I have a GREAT CD by The Pete Malinverni (spelling?) Trio, and on it Mel plays mostly brushes.

His playing on the album is absolutely superb. You would never know he was so sick at that time.

What can I say -- Mel was my all time favorite. Sad to say I never got to see him in person. Saw many of the greats, tho, including Buddy's band 30 times ~

[drummer78]

Funny you should mention playing slow. Someone remarked that with all these silly "World's Fastest Drummer" competions (drumming as athletics), there should be a "World's Slowest Drummer" because that would really test the ability of any drummer. Anyway, I think jazz music needs to continually remind itself that it was the working musicians who drove these bands. I'm all about celebrating greats like Duke and Armstrong but it seems like so many don't remember their "bands". That's my rant.

[welovematthewlush]

I love reading all the comments and what people say about Mel Lewis. I wish i knew him, because i know he was amazing. I'm his granddaughter.

[MarkR1957]

That's really nice. You must be very proud of Mel.

He was tryuly a one of a kind musician - there was no one who played quite like him.

He is my favorite of all time - I just wish there was more of him on video ~

[muratty49]

Is this tune "The Way"?

[isabellacastro]

Wow, that was SUPERB!

[Cymbalgroove]

Mel Lewis was INCREDIBLE!!

[dizzib]

pure class

[scopions84]

ha, that old guy dropped his sticks at 1:34

[badnote]

Yeah, I bet if you were listening instead of watching you would have never known he dropped them. Goes to show you that music is 99% visual for some people.

[Orcutti]

That old guy? That is Mel Lewis!

[drummer78]

Beautiful recovery though...in fact it resulted in a nice musical moment in that he kept the time going with that slushy hi-hat sound. If anything it made the solo that much more interesting.  There are almost no such things as mistakes at this level...just happy accidents.

[dreiffie1219]

dick oatts baby!!! wow...

[selmer1938]

That tenor guy on the right is tall as shit.

[trane1959]

yeah Dick Oatts!!!

[MarkR1957]

I really dig Mel's concept.

A total original.

A true Legend, and Jazz Master ~