By Geraldine Wyckoff

People around the country and probably many around the world understand the expression “Thank God it’s Friday,” and the relief of having made it through another hard-working week. In his hit, “Blue Monday,” Fats Domino viewed Fridays as his payday that enabled him on Saturday to “go out on the streets and play.”

Often it is preferable to keep rolling after work rather than go home and, even despite the best intentions to go out later, just end up collapsing in front of the television. Two great options on the third Fridays of every month – at least until December – are early evening gigs by saxophonist Calvin Johnson at Buffa’s Bar and the Lilli Lewis Project at the Carnaval Lounge, the St. Claude Avenue establishment formerly known as Siberia. Both locales, incidentally, offer food so there’s no need to head home first and cook. These gigs on September 20 start at 6 p.m. – say what? – so the choice is yours though with Johnson blowing until 9 p.m. it’s possible to hit the Carnaval and then hit Buffa’s or the other way around.

Here, we’ll start with Johnson’s show that includes ace musicians including pianist Jesse McBride, bassist Amina Scott and drummer Levon West. That combination just screams modern jazz that Johnson agrees he’s been digging into hard since moving to New York three months ago. “I’ve had to go back to the bebop and post-bop masters so I’m really deep into Monk (pianist/composer Thelonious Monk) right now and I’m deep into (drummer) Art Blakey. “A lot of tunes will come from the Blakey and Monk songbooks because that’s just what I’m shedding on right now in New York,” Johnson explains. “I’ll stretch the band a little bit and we’ll do some New Orleans songs with a modern flair and some originals.”

The paramount reason for Johnson’s departure from his hometown was to be closer to his longtime love with whom he’d been enduring a long distance relationship. It was also an opportunity for him to expand his artistic expression. “New York is the land of individuality,” he offers. “That’s an incubator for me to find what I’m searching for right now. Everything that I hate about New Orleans, New York offers and everything I that hate about New York, New Orleans offers. I see it as the best of both worlds. I found happiness.”When Johnson comes home to New Orleans once a month, he also performs at Preservation Hall on Saturdays and Sundays. In the Crescent City the saxophonist and vocalist is probably most associated with traditional New Orleans jazz. “That’s because of my lineage,” says Johnson, “and growing up, I was under that umbrella,” he adds mentioning his brilliant uncle, saxophonist and clarinetist Ralph Johnson and also trumpeter George Johnson III, who was a regular with the Pin Stripe and Tuba Fats’ Chosen Few brass bands. “I traveled with the Preservation Hall band so people have grown to identify me with that.”

On Saturdays, Johnson plays with trumpeter Marc Braud at “the Hall” and on Sunday’s with Braud’s uncle, trumpeter Wendell Brunious. “That’s real New Orleans stuff right there,” he proclaims. “I love it… they have the same sound. I’m sure that sound comes from Wendell’s dad, Big John Brunious. They inherited it. You don’t get that up here in New York.”

Just around the corner and down St. Claude Avenue the Lilli Lewis Project, led by the hugely talented vocalist and pianist Lewis, strikes up on Friday in celebration of the ensemble’s new release, We Belong. With a goal of bringing people together, the classically trained and spiritually driven Lewis draws one in with her sincerity and musical and personal charisma. She and her Project touch on and gracefully intertwine numerous genres as heard on the album’s opening cut, “Interlock” that gets started in a jazz mode, enforced by the saxophone of Ole Oddlocken, and becomes an anthem for togetherness on the strength of Lewis committed vocals and lyrics. The percussion of Ryan Murray adds an African flavor and beauty arrives with the guitar of Smokey Brown.

Straight-up blues works for Lewis whose versatility can seeming take her anywhere. With Lewis’ sincere belief in social consciousness, reggae is also right up her alley and she offers two examples on “When the Rain Comes In,” that is a sad reminder that “It will be too late when the rain comes in.” Dig that this includes an essential trombone provided by Glen David Andrews. The final cut, “Turn It Around” begins with Lewis’ sophisticated piano, which we’d like to hear more of, and jazz-wise vocals as she tells a story in song as she often does throughout the album. “It’s a matter of survival,” she sings or more accurately preaches. Then the reggae beat kicks in to calm the fears.Lewis is undeniably compelling throughout the album though perhaps never more so than on “Coretta’s Song,” based in part on the poem and gospel classic, “I Am a Soldier.” Her passionate delivery is stunning on the selection that features clarinetist Michael White and sousaphonist Kirk Joseph.

The Lilli Lewis Project’s We Belong moves in positive directions as steered by its artistically and emotionally committed leader Lilli Lewis.

This article originally published in the September 16, 2019 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.

This article originally appeared in The Louisiana Weekly.

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