Jazz and poetic compositions by saxophonist/poet Lewis Jordan, an international touring and recording artist, poet, actor and playwright, whose teachers are the music and poetry of Ayler, Shepp, Coleman, and the Art Ensemble of Chicago; the thoughts and spirit of Krishnamurti and Rumi.

Music at Large includes Lewis Jordan’s long-time collaborators Sandi Poindexter, Ollen Erich Hunt and Jimmy Biala, who will appear on tonight’s program, and expands as circumstances allow to include such artists as Bruce Ackley, Pearl Ubungen, Tureeda Mikel, John-Carlos Perea, Karl Evangelista, Genny Lim, David Boyce, Ian Carey, Marshall Trammell, Masaru Koga, India Cook, and many others since its inception. https://www.musicatlarge.org/music-at-large

The ensemble’s performance September 27, 2021 at Freight and Salvage in Berkeley can be viewed here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjMUFMF1Uk0. Lewis should be king! video production by Jeremy Allen | Musiquito Media https://www.musiquito.com/

Recordings by Lewis Jordan and Music at Large include This is Where I Came In (2017), face it (2019) Keys to the Highway (2020) and Critical Mass (2022).

Jordan was born in San Francisco, grew up in Chicago…with the blues…which he got too from time to time…with learning to associate creative musicians with the advancement of society as we know it. After his work with Bruce Ackley and George Sams in Sound Clinic, he co-founded United Front, the seminal San Francisco Bay Area ensemble known for its originality, aggressive imagination and cultural synthesis, alongside Sams, Mark Izu, Carleton Hoffman and Anthony Brown.

As a performer Jordan has bridged the worlds of music and the written word —through composition, saxophone and poetry. In his career, he has focused on creative structures for improvisation, which has led to his work with artists from a range of disciplines. He has performed with dancers, poets, actors and musicians—including Brenda Wong Aoki, Anthony Braxton, Juan Ceballos, Scott Davis III, Lisle Ellis, Sara Felder, Danny Glover, Q.R. Hand, Reginald Lockett, Brian Auerbach, Mark Izu, Jon Jang, Kash Killion, Genny Lim, devorah major, James Newton, Donald Robinson, Ntozake Shange, Cecil Taylor and others, many presented in his Music At Large series.

His interest continues to be meeting and working with performers delving into their deeper resources for modes of expression that honor their traditions while speaking to the urgency of the present. If that’s in B-flat, fine. If it’s in time, that could work too. If it’s outside, it must be honest…