Mike Lewis, the celebrated multi-instrumentalist known for his work with Happy Apple, Fat Kid Wednesdays and Alpha Consumer, connected with Jazz88 to discuss the run of shows he’ll be doing in November at Icehouse. Lewis highlighted some of the artists he’ll be collaborating with like Anthony Cox, S. Carey and Jeremy Yvilsaker. He also discussed his approach to choosing his musical opportunities wisely.
This originally aired on The Afternoon Cruise on 10/21/24
Sean McPherson (Jazz88): It’s the Afternoon cruise. I’m connected via phone with Mike Lewis, a great musician who works as a saxophonist, bassist and as a multi instrumentalist in a couple examples, he’s a member of Happy Apple, Fat Kid Wednesdays and Alpha Consumer. He can be heard live and on recordings with Bon Iver, on the road with Bonny Light Horseman as well. And next month, Mike Lewis is going to be curating a series of shows on Mondays at ice house in Minneapolis. Mike Lewis, how you doing?
Mike Lewis: How are you? Sean, it’s good to hear your voice
Sean McPherson (Jazz88): Likewise to hear yours. And the last time I saw you play, I had no shot at saying hello. I was at the Xcel Energy Center when you were playing with Bon Iver but you put on, they wouldn’t let me backstage. It was unbelievable. But yeah,
Mike Lewis: I’ll talk to whoever’s job that is. That’ll never happen again.
Sean McPherson (Jazz88): You put on a great show, and I was reminded of how pure of a musician you are in this setting with all sorts of lights and all sorts of things that could knock you off your game. You sounded so clear when you were working playing saxophone, I think you played a little bass as well. And obviously it might not get more different than Xcel Energy Center and Icehouse as far as intimacy, as far as scope and things like that. And I’ve seen you be a pure player mere inches away from the bell of your horn in the basement of the Turf Club. And I’m just curious, how do you maintain in what I hear is a purity of expression and a focus when you play in so many different formats?
Mike Lewis: You know, that’s, that’s a good question, man, um, it’s, I guess it’s not, fortunately, something that I spend myself a great I spend a great deal of time thinking about. It’s like, I think so much of the work was done ahead of time and is done in terms of like, I guess I try not to say yes to anything that doesn’t feel honest. You know what I mean, because it’s like, so long as, so long as whatever it is of whatever scope, whether it’s Bon Iver, or whether it’s like a completely free ensemble for like, three people. I mean, it’s like, so long as it feels right to me and I don’t feel like I’m phoning in my interest in it then, then I don’t have a difficult time disappearing into the music and the reason to be there in the first place.
Sean McPherson (Jazz88): Now you’re going to be disappearing into more than the music this upcoming month, this November at Icehouse, because you’re not only playing on most of these Mondays, but also bringing in a lot of great collaborators. We’re going to end up talking about the very first thing you do. November 3, because we’re going to play a tune from Alpha Consumer. But I want to throw some highlighter on some of these other Mondays and basically go backwards. November 25 you’re working with S. Carey, great percussionist, great pianist, and also a great vocalist, and it looks like you’re going to be collaborating with him and some more people. What do you envision for that night? Is that a pretty open ended collaboration?
Mike Lewis: I think it will be. And part of the reason why, I mean, selfishly, part of the reason why I left it a little bit open ended, is because of the fact that, like, I wanted more time for Sean and I to be able to figure out precisely what it’s going to be. But, like, we’ve played in the past in Eau Claire, these done, these lock ins in the past, where it’s just like, he and I and a rhythm section. I mean, oftentimes it’s been JT, Bates and and Jeremy Yvilsaker, and then there’s just, like, a whole mess of people that will play different songs, you know. So it’s like, I think, I think it’ll take shape as as we get closer, but there will be, you know, so, like, I don’t want to say for sure anybody is going to be there, but, but there’s, but we know a lot of people, you know, I mean, like, so I think there’ll be a fair amount of like, songwriters that that’ll be less of a jazz night in all likelihood, and more of kind of a, just like a, like, as many different friends as we can get to show up and just and play music, some originals, probably a fair amount of like, just covers and, you know, just just a, I don’t know, almost upright piano sing along, if that makes sense.
Sean McPherson (Jazz88): Now, Mike, there’s like a sort of default theory that really talented jazz musicians turn their nose up at some of that stuff. And you couldn’t be more of the opposite. You seem like somebody who embraces music that touches you, independent of genre, and perhaps maybe independent of the level of complication, is that something did you have to unlearn some jazz snobbery or or you were you always just down with a great song?
Mike Lewis: Yeah, you know, I mean, part of the reason why I got down the down the rabbit hole of like other instruments and whatnot, was because of the fascination with with other types of music and and just like so many of them, led me in these different directions, and I just didn’t want to be constantly shoehorning saxophone into that. So, like, I was like, Alright, I want to get involved in in other things. And, like, how do I do that? And I’d always loved bass and which is which like such a subtle thing, but can kind of shift the entire universe, universe, you know, above it, and something you know, well, being quite the bass player yourself. And, yeah, so, like, I never, I never had I noticed some of the snobbery here and there. But like, I just kind of, yeah, I steer clear of that. And like, don’t really have a lot of time for it in any direction. Whether it’s jazz music or pop music or any of it. I mean, it’s like any of the art forms, regardless of genre, if they’re approached with, with with earnest, with an earnest energy, can you can find, you know, I don’t know. It doesn’t just, you don’t have to be like a music school graduate to to play a good song. You know that I’m just the most, I’m the most interested in that and just in just the beauty of whatever the art form may be, you know,
Sean McPherson (Jazz88): I will drink to that. I’m not drinking obviously. I’m hanging out at the station, but I agree with you right there. I’m chatting with Mike Lewis. He’s getting ready to present Mondays in November over at Icehouse. He’s also going to be involved with a weekend of shows with Happy Apple as they celebrate the vinyl release of their new album, New York CD, happening at the Dakota on November 8 and 9th. Mike Lewis, you just called me a good bass player. I will call you a great bass player. Let’s talk about somebody who’s a better bass player than either of us by a landslide. Anthony Cox is one of your collaborators. On November 11, what made you reach out to Anthony for this particular curated night?
Mike Lewis: I mean, honestly, man, the fact that he and I have not had a chance to hang out much at all, much less play in the past. In the past few years, it was one point in which, somewhere on the pandemic, I just, like, kind of went out and hung with him for a night in his house and and I just, I just came up listening to him, you know, like we all did. And then at the point at which I was fortunate enough to start playing with him, with, with, like first was with Dave and Dean granros in a band called, Sorry Eyed Lovelies, and then, and then also JT and I have, I’ve been playing with him forever in a trio called, called Regional Jazz Trio and but, but we’ve also had this duo thing forever called reverse of Sam and Dave, which is like a playoff Sam and Dave, you know, from the R&B thing, but also Sam R ivers and Dave Holland, like in the reverse racial identity in the two of us, like, you know, me being the younger white dude and him being the, you know. Anyway, it’s just it, just like, if you know Anthony at all. He kind of he’s just a hilariously funny dude and unbelievably beautiful musician and somebody I’ve been playing with for 25 years now, somehow, 20 years something, I don’t know, I just haven’t been able to play with him forever, man, and I miss him, and this seemed like a perfect opportunity.
Sean McPherson (Jazz88): If we’re calling Dave Holland the young guy, how old are we?
Mike Lewis: Exactly right? Yeah, that’s just it. That’s what’s kind of hilarious. But it’s like Anthony is, like, just into his 70s or something. I never know how old he is, because he just perpetually looks 50 to me, but, but I don’t know. This is just, this is the Anthony Cox sense of humor that is for those that know, I’m quite famous.
Sean McPherson (Jazz88): I’ve been chatting with Mike Lewis. He’s getting ready for a run of shows Mondays at I cehouse in Minneapolis. He’s going to be hitting every Monday night with some different programming. And I mainly want to just press play on this Alpha Consumer song, which sounds like Hawaiian funeral music to me, the thing you sent over just about an hour and a half ago, Alpha Consumer is going to be on stage on November 3, the first Monday that Mike is curating alongside a group called Setting. Before I press play on this mic, and I bid adieu, anything you want to mention about this song in particular?
Mike Lewis: Just this is the first one off of a recording that I’m pretty sure will be forthcoming in from Alpha Consumer in likely sometime in the next year. Here, we recorded it quite a while ago in my living room over the pandemic. And it’s, I believe, almost entirely Jeremy Yvilsaker’s music, or it is entirely, no, we might have one cover on there. I can’t remember the sequence, anyway, but it’s, but, yeah, it was. It was right after the pandemic, like everybody started to stay home, and we just ended up in my living room to salvage a recording session. And I’m really, really proud of what what happened. So it was the first track off of that.
Sean McPherson (Jazz88): I love it. Good luck with the Mondays at Icehouse in November. And Mike Lewis, thanks for all the music you’ve given to the Twin Cities and beyond. And I can’t wait to catch some of these shows coming up next month.
Mike Lewis: Thanks. I appreciate you, brother. All right, have a good one. Bye.
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