| Photo by Lissa Wales | Head shot photos: Judy Kirtley |
Articles —
Complete Freedom
by Ted Panken
DOWNBEAT
November 2006
Drummer Lewis Nash may be rooted in the tradition,
but he's not afraid of innovation.
"I wanted to immerse myself in the lineage, to interact with movers and shakers in the music from further back. I knew I wasn't going to lose my desire to be creative or forget how to explore."
Drum Major
by Ted Panken
THE JOURNAL NEWS
Life & Style
January 10, 2006
Lewis Nash of Spring Valley keeps the beat alive and
all that jazz.
"When you are rooted, you don't have to be afraid of trying new things," says drummer Lewis Nash." ...His style is built on precise technique, unwavering musicality, spot-on time and an in-the-moment imagination that allows him to riff spontaneously on his encyclopedic array of drum vocabulary.
Lewis Nash Quartet's tribute to Tommy Flanagan
Music Review: Detroit Free Press
By Mark Stryker, Music Writer
September 03. 2006
Washington and Nash set up a buoyant groove, relaxed but swinging intensely... Hardly any rhythmic wrinkle hinted at by the soloists escaped the notice of Nash, who commented on them with quick reflexes and taste.
Lewis Nash - Finessing That Beat
Hot House
By Paul Blair
June, 2006
As a youngster growing up in Phoenix, Lewis Nash did a little drumming yes - but primarily in school bands and other local groups specializing in funk and R&B. Even as a broadcast journalism major at Arizona State University, he'd given little thought to the idea of making music his profession. So exactly what turned this son of the Southwest into one of New York's (and the world's) most admired and most in-demand percussionists?
The Village Voice
January, 2003
LEWIS NASH - From the time he relocated from Phoenix
to New York, Nash had no trouble getting work with the best musicians,
but it wasn’t until 1990, when he became a member of the Tommy Flanagan
Trio, that he was universally recognized as the great drummer of his generation
- resourceful, inventive, subtle and infallibly tasteful.
—Gary Giddins
Discipline In a Muted Sound – Lewis Nash
by Ben Ratliff
THE NEW YORK TIMES
THE ARTS In Performance
JAZZ: January 29, 2003
Kaplan Penthouse
A small subcategory of jazz is marked by typically
African-American musical expression — carrying distinct elements
of blues and gospel — and filtered through a silencer. Or to put
it another way, the music is imprinted by such precise attention to dynamic
control that a strange quiescence results.
The Modern Jazz Quartet is famous for that sound. John Lewis, of that group, derived some of his thinking from Count Basie’s 1930’s bands. But other groups of the quartet’s time (Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, Horace Silver’s groups, Miles Davis’s quintets) controlled a greater share in the jazz language then and since, and this more delicate sound isn’t often heard.
Lewis Nash, a remarkably subtle, swinging drummer, resurrects it.
"Sonny
(Rollins) leapfrogged joyously over the tremendous beat being laid down
by Lewis Nash at the drums...
Nash proved to
be exceptionally resourceful
in this magnificent contest!"
— Roland Ramahan, Wire Magazine
The Beat Goes on at Lincoln Center
by Will Friedwald
NEW YORK SUN
JAZZ: February 2003
“Without rhythm, your heart wouldn’t
beat,” Frank Sinatra once quipped. “ I would just sit around listening to Eddie Fisher records.”
Sinatra wasn’t just aiming a zinger at a rhythmically challenged
crooner, he was making a solid point, and it’s one that few musicians
would argue with. Rhythm and percussion are at the heart of what makes
jazz. Without it, jazz would be something else: polka bands, Irish folk
music...
"Nash... illuminates the drums' melodic capacity
and their ability to project humor and fear and joy."
— Don Williamson, www.allaboutjazz.com
CONCERT REVIEW
Drums a melodic instrument to Nash
by Rebecca Cline Howard
DESERET NEWS: March 2001
"I like to think of the capability of the drum set as someone would approach the harp or flute or piano... The capacity to create music which can move someone, can touch someone, can inspire someone – I think all those things are possible at the drum set. It's not just a rhythm, time-keeping instrument."
"I like to approach the drums kind of like a poet. There's beauty in there if you approach it that way."
"His swing,
his sense of color,
the intelligence of his drum solos
and his ability to put a groove on almost anything
account for his popularity."
— Stanley Crouch
Just Jazz
Sidemen Shine Behind the Spotlight
September, 1999
"Duke Ellington proved... it only helps the group when you let your people shine as brightly as they can."