Gordon Lewis is the Jazz and Commercial Music Area Chair and Instructor of Double Bass at the University of Minnesota Duluth. Lewis directs the UMD Jazz Ensemble I, directs jazz combos, and teaches courses in the Jazz and Commercial Music curriculum, including jazz improvisation, music industry, and jazz writing. Lewis also produces the annual Head of the Lakes Jazz Festival, which has brought high school groups from around the region and world renowned guest artist to UMD every spring for over 50 years. In the String Area, Lewis teaches major and non-major bass lessons at UMD.
Lewis is a multi-faceted musician, who is especially adept at performing in both jazz and classical realms. As a jazz bassist, Lewis has been a dynamic participant in the jazz scenes of several major cities, performing at top jazz clubs including the Green Mill in Chicago, Ryles Jazz Club in Boston, the Blue Room in Kansas City, and the Jazz Estate in Milwaukee. Lewis has recorded and performed with jazz guitarist Wayne Goins and vocalist Patricia Thompson, among many others. In the summer of 2018, Lewis was invited to tour Northern Germany with the Blue Lake Faculty Jazz Quartet.
As an orchestral bassist, Lewis is a member of the double bass section of the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra. Lewis has also performed with the South Bend Symphony, the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra, the Southwest Michigan Symphony Orchestra, the Fox Valley Symphony Orchestra, and the Topeka Symphony.
Active as an educator in a variety of contexts, Lewis has also served on the faculties of the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, Kansas State University, and Washburn University. For twelve summers Lewis was on the faculty at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp. Lewis has served as a clinician and teacher at L’École de Musique Dessaix-Baptiste in Jacmel, Haiti, Western Michigan University’s Summer Seminar, and at the Hastings College Jazz Festival.
Lewis has presented research on the music of Charles Mingus at the College Music Society International Conference in Bogotá and MedellÃn, Colombia and on the Scandinavian jazz scene at the College Music Society International Conference in Stockholm, Sweden and Helsinki, Finland. Lewis has performed at International Double Reed Society conferences in Redlands, California and Tampa, Florida. Lewis has also written articles on the bass for The Instrumentalist magazine.
Lewis received his Master of Music degree from DePaul University in Chicago, IL and his Bachelor of Music degree from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, MA. His classical bass teachers include Jeff Bradetich, Donald Palma, and Rob Kassinger and his jazz bass teachers include Cecil McBee and John Lockwood.