McCoy Tyner performs at the 2010 Middelheim Jazz Festival

McCoy Tyner performs at the 2010 Middelheim Jazz Festival

Photo: Peter Van Breukelen/Redferns

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10 Essential Cuts From Jazz Piano Great McCoy Tyner

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The Philly pianist, who recently died at 81, tore up the rulebook as part of the John Coltrane Quartet and as a prodigious solo artist
Morgan Enos
GRAMMYs
Mar 7, 2020 - 10:25 am

John Coltrane might not have scraped the heavens without McCoy Tyner there to tether him to terra firma. "My current pianist, McCoy Tyner, holds down the harmonies, and that allows me to forget them," Coltrane said in a 1961 interview. "He's sort of the one who gives me wings and lets me take off from the ground from time to time."

Tyner began playing with the former's John Coltrane Quartet in 1960, just as its leader slipped out of the binds of bebop and embraced modal jazz. But rather than focusing on coloring outside the lines, he chose to anchor the music with a 100-pound weight. With his mighty left hand, he gave Trane, bassist Jimmy Garrison and drummer Elvin Jones a launchpad for explosive improvisations.

The jazz world now mourns its humble-yet-intrepid giant of the piano. Tyner died this week, Friday, March 6, of unknown causes, as reported by his nephew, Colby Tyner, to The New York Times. He was 81.

Born in Philadelphia, Tyner cut his teeth in the Jazztet with trumpeter Art Farmer, saxophonist Benny Golson and a revolving-door lineup of trombonists, bassists and drummers. In 1958, a year prior to joining that band, Coltrane recorded Tyner's composition, "The Believer," at Rudy Van Gelder Studios.

When the pair joined forces, the results were some of Coltrane's most memorable albums: 1961's Coltrane Jazz, My Favorite Things and Olé Coltrane; 1962's Coltrane Plays The Blues; and 1965's epochal A Love Supreme, the latter of which was nominated for Best Instrumental Jazz Performance - Small Group Or Soloist With Small Group and Best Original Jazz Composition at the 8th GRAMMY Awards, held in 1966. 

For The Record: John Coltrane's 'A Love Supreme'

After A Love Supreme, Coltrane began experimenting with bigger, more feverish free jazz ensembles. Tyner parted ways with him in 1965, but his story hardly ended there. As a solo artist and as a leader, he won five GRAMMYs, including Best Jazz Instrumental Performance for 1987's Blues for Coltrane: A Tribute to John Coltrane and 1995's Infinity as well as Best Jazz Instrumental Album for 2004's Illuminations. His post-Coltrane body of work proved his ability to play either delicately or maximally when the setting called for it.

To celebrate the legacy of the late Tyner, the Recording Academy is highlighting his 10 essential cuts — with or without Coltrane.

"My Favorite Things" (from John Coltrane's My Favorite Things, 1961)

This Sound Of Music tune began as a cutesy ode to kittens, mittens and kettles, until Coltrane doused it in kerosene and set it on fire. His later disembowelment of "My Favorite Things" aside, the 1961 studio version is the definitive take—an innovative Eastern vamp with a sense of spiritual joy. Over its 13-minute runtime, Tyner cycles Rodgers and Hammerstein's melody to the point of hypnosis. When the key change hits, the quartet takes flight like geese with the moon on their wings.

"Inception" (from Inception, 1962)

When Tyner didn't have Coltrane around, he often let his right hand take over for him. On Inception, his debut album with a trio, bassist Art Davis and drummer Elvin Jones mostly take a background role as Tyner displays breathtaking dexterity on the ivories. Despite the density of his lines, Tyner stays importantly light, breezy and tuneful on the title cut, even as he puts the pedal to the floor during his modal pontifications.

"Reaching Fourth" (from Reaching Fourth, 1963)

If Thelonious Monk was known for his major sevenths, Tyner's calling card was voicing chords in fourths—a technique that helped lay the foundation for contemporary jazz. "Fourth chords have a mysterious stasis, refusing to commit to major or minor," pianist Ethan Iverson explained in a 2018 essay about Tyner. To that end, the title track from 1963's Reaching Fourth, with bassist Henry Grimes and drummer Roy Haynes, is a fiery showcase for Tyner's favorite interval.

"Jinrikisha" (from Joe Henderson's Page One, 1963)

When it comes to clean and simple bossa-and-bop, Joe Henderson's debut Page One is hard to beat. Strangely, Tyner—due to a conflicting contract with Impulse!—was credited on the album art as "Etc." Despite not making the marquee with trumpeter Kenny Dorham, bassist Butch Warren and drummer Pete La Roca, Tyner delivers some of his subtlest, featheriest playing ever across the album, especially on the original "Jinrikisha," named after another word for a rickshaw.

"Pt. 1 — Acknowledgement" (from John Coltrane's A Love Supreme, 1965)

A Love Supreme is well-known as Coltrane's transformational statement, in which he escaped from drugs and alcohol and into the arms of his Creator. Despite his inventions, the results would be nearly unrecognizable without Tyner. His stabbed chords—again, fourths!—on "Pt. 1 — Acknowledgement" are the what-ifs, second-guesses and entrenched doubts intrinsic to any hero's journey. Meanwhile, Coltrane plays the role of Arjuna, slaying psychic monsters with his horn.

"Blues On The Corner" (from The Real McCoy, 1967)

Tyner continued playing with Henderson after Page One, joining him for Blue Note classics In 'n Out (1964) and Inner Urge (1966). The so-called "Phantom" returned the favor on The Real McCoy, a quartet date with bassist Ron Carter and drummer Elvin Jones that featured three of his signature songs: "Passion Dance," "Search For Peace" and "Blues On The Corner." The latter tune is the wittiest and best of them all, in which he stretches the titular form like taffy and reveals universes within.

"Song Of Happiness" (from Expansions, 1969)

One of Tyner's most cerebral works, Expansions features contributions from trumpeter Woody Shaw, tenor saxophonist Wayne Shorter and alto saxophonist Gary Bartz; the latter two are also respectively credited on clarinet and wooden flute. At this stage, Tyner's playing had grown borderless and oceanic, and "Song of Happiness" shimmers like refracted light, with flutist Bartz merrily approximating birdsong.

"A Prayer For My Family" (from Sahara, 1972)

Tyner rang in the 1970s by signing to Orrin Keepnews' Milestone label and recording Sahara, a terrific African- and Japanese-inspired album in which he played the flute and koto. Transcultural voyaging aside, Sahara's center of gravity is "A Prayer For My Family," an impassioned work for solo piano that manages to be both trippily multidimensional and straight down the church aisle.

"Walk Spirit, Talk Spirit" (from Enlightenment, 1973)

Recorded at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland with saxophonist Azar Lawrence, bassist Juni Booth and drummer Alphonse Mouzon, the sprawling Enlightenment is firmly in former associate Coltrane's impassioned-seeker mode. Sitting through its 70 minutes can lead to brain melt, but the swaggering, ill-tempered closer, "Walk Spirit, Talk Spirit," makes this demanding trip worth it.

"Love Surrounds Us" (from Uptown/Downtown, 1989)

Tyner mostly stayed strong throughout the 1980s, a trying era for jazz. Despite occasionally dated era production, he made excellent work with his trio and his big band. Uptown/Downtown, recorded over two nights at the Blue Note in Manhattan, shows the latter in fighting form. Muscular, driving and exciting, "Love Surrounds Us" could have been recorded in any decade and proves that even in his third act, Tyner was formidable with or without his old boss Coltrane.

The GRAMMY Jazz Family Tree

Lee Konitz

Lee Konitz performs in 1992

Photo: Frans Schellekens/Redferns

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Remembering Jazz Saxophone Legend Lee Konitz, "Cool Jazz" Pioneer And Miles Davis Collaborator

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Konitz, who died at 92 due to complications from COVID-19, recorded and featured on several dozens of albums as a leader or sideman alongside many jazz greats
John Ochoa
GRAMMYs
Apr 18, 2020 - 4:00 pm

The jazz world lost one of its most revered artists this week (April 15) with the passing of Lee Konitz, the legendary, award-winning composer and saxophonist best known for his pioneering work in the "cool jazz" style as well as his contributions to Miles Davis' Birth Of The Cool sessions between 1949 and 1950. 

Konitz, who died in Manhattan at 92 due to complications from COVID-19, held a prolific seven-decade career, which included runs and collaborations with several icons in the jazz world, including Charles Mingus, Dave Brubeck, Chick Corea, Bill Evans, Stan Kenton's Orchestra, Warne Marsh, Lennie Tristano, Bud Powell and several others. 

Born in 1927 in Chicago, Konitz began his jazz journey at a young age. Inspired by early jazz and big band greats like Benny Goodman, he began on clarinet, at age 11, which he traded for a tenor sax and then moved to the alto sax. By 1945, he went pro and began to work with fellow jazz musicians, and future regular collaborators, like Jerry Wald, Tristano, Claude Thornhill and his orchestra, Gil Evans and Gerry Mulligan.

Between 1949 and 1950, Konitz joined icon Miles Davis and several other musicians in a series of recording sessions, which would later comprise the latter's 1957 compilation Birth Of The Cool, a landmark album in the jazz canon. The album, along with Konitz's unique style, would go on to help establish and define the "cool jazz" sound, a more subdued, lighter take on the genre that broke away from the faster, complex bebop style then dominating the era. 

Read: 'Bitches Brew' At 50: Why Miles Davis' Masterpiece Remains Impactful

Miles Davis, Lee Konitz and Gerry Mulligan at the "Birth of the Cool" recording sessions in 1949

Lee Konitz (center), alongside Miles Davis and Gerry Mulligan, at the Birth Of The Cool recording sessions in 1949

While Konitz was "influential in the development of the so-called cool school," The New York Times writes, he also varied his style, "from an early unaccompanied saxophone solo album, to post-bop, free improvisations and a string of innovative duets," Billboard notes. Altogether, he recorded and featured on several dozens of albums as a leader or co-leader and sideman, including works with jazz icons as well as non-jazz artists like Elvis Costello; Konitz played on the latter's 2003 album, North.

Like the true jazz serviceman he was, Konitz continued to perform live into his 90s before his passing, The New York Times notes.

Lee Konitz is survived by his five children, three grandchildren and one great-granddaughter.

10 Essential Cuts From Jazz Piano Great McCoy Tyner

Little Richard performs at the Apollo Theatre in 2006

Little Richard performs at the Apollo Theatre in 2006

Photo: Theo Wargo/WireImage for Consilium Ventures

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Little Richard Was The Lightning Storm That Awakened Rock

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The screamer-songwriter was like nothing America had ever seen, and his unbridled joy made rock 'n' roll come alive
Morgan Enos
GRAMMYs
May 10, 2020 - 10:21 am

In your mind's eye, picture a few rock superstars: Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Jimi Hendrix, Tina Turner, Elton John, AC/DC, Prince. Chances are you thought about one of them in the past week. Now picture none of them picking up an instrument, none of them writing a tune, none of them entering your life. If Little Richard hadn't been born in 1932, this would arguably be the world we live in—a passable, but perhaps joyless place.

Little Richard didn't just play the piano passionately, or sing about joyful subjects. He was like an alien dispatched from Andromeda to administer humanity a joy inoculation. Imagine 1950s America getting an eyeful of him: his circus-freak pompadour, his gender- and race-ambiguous makeup, his flash of sequins. Just as exotic was the tortured glossolalia he screamed as if he was on fire: "A-wop-bop-a-loo-bop-a-wop-bam-boom!" from 1955's "Tutti Frutti." But as the first chapter of nearly every rock biography will attest, pent-up girls and boys all around the war-torn world read him loud and clear.

The artist born Richard Wayne Penniman, who died Saturday (May 9) at 87, wasn't the King Of Rock 'N' Roll (that's Elvis Presley), and he wasn't its founding father either (that's Chuck Berry). Watch the 1931 film Frankenstein: If rock music is Promethean Man in the watchtower lab, then Little Richard is the electrical storm that animates him, and the terrified populace is ... well, the terrified populace. But while a mob eventually cornered Frankenstein's monster in a windmill and set it ablaze, Little Richard's impact was, and still is, uncontainable. 

Soon after Little Richard dropped "Long Tall Sally" in 1956, Paul McCartney decided it'd be the first song he sang in public. When asked to describe his life's aspiration in his high school yearbook, Bob Dylan wrote: "To join Little Richard." A pre-Ziggy Stardust Bowie took notes on his hairdo, among other things. Hendrix would join his band in a decade and form The Experience a year after he left. Tina Turner based her early vocal delivery on Little Richard's. Elton John heard him and closed the menu of life choices: "I didn't ever want to be anything else." AC/DC singer Brian Johnson once described him in Genesis 1:1 terms: "There was nothing, and then there was this." As for Prince, the "gestures vaguely at everything" meme will have to do. Little Richard was a bell nobody could unring, and his chime still resonates unceasingly.

Even among his fellow rock 'n' roll pioneers, Little Richard was something strange and different. While Presley was a humble country boy and Berry was a poet with a guitar, Little Richard was a living remix of Baptist and Pentecostal church and the minstrel shows, traveling circuses and drag revues on which he cut his teeth. Beginning when he was 18, he had a few false starts in the studio: Incensed by his flamboyance and perceived impudence, Peacock Records owner Don Robey beat Little Richard so badly, he required surgery. Undeterred, Little Richard sent Specialty Records a demo two years later; producer Robert "Bumps" Blackwell described the tape as "looking as though someone had eaten off it." After Little Richard repeatedly called their staff begging them to listen to it, they relented and set up a recording date at J & M Studio in New Orleans. 

Read: Remembering The Life, Legacy And Music Of Little Richard: Rock Pioneer And GRAMMY Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient

Still, the recording session wasn't working; Little Richard was frustrated that his sound wasn't catching fire. He remembered "Tutti Frutti," a naughty song he had absentmindedly written while working as a dishwasher at a Greyhound station. He cleaned up the song's sexual references, and after a lunch break, he let it rip with that nonsensical, unforgettable refrain. The exuberant resulting single, which was a watershed for black vernacular in a pop song, hit No. 2 on the Billboard Rhythm and Blues Chart and was added to the Library Of Congress National Recording Registry in 2010. In 1998, "Tutti Frutti" was inducted into the GRAMMY Hall Of Fame.

"I wrote 'Tutti Frutti' in the kitchen, I wrote 'Good Golly Miss Molly' in the kitchen, I wrote 'Long Tall Sally' in that kitchen," Little Richard later explained to Rolling Stone in 1970 about the bus stop gig; he followed up "'Tutti Frutti" with those just-as-exultant barnburners. The cover of his 1957 debut album, Here's Little Richard, featuring a close-up of Richard in mid-scream that would make Edvard Munch proud, is the ultimate truth in advertising: There's zero ambiguity about what the music inside will sound like.

And that sound was unbridled liberation—from whitewashed suburbia, from hellfire religion typified by the preacher in 1978's The Buddy Holly Story, from the anodyne pop on the airwaves. (The Billboard pop chart in 1954 was full of downtempo tracks by Rosemary Clooney, Kitty Kallen and The Crew-Cuts.) After Little Richard experienced a religious conversation and left secular music in 1962, coming back to a music scene dominated by the British boys who idolized him, like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, was no easy task. After flower power and Woodstock made his provocations seem quaint, he soon became a thing of the rock 'n' roll revival circuit.

A zip code away from his macho peers, Little Richard was a rock star that LGBTQ folks could look up to before coming out was the norm, and he galvanized Bowie and Prince to tear up the rulebook of gender expression. And his unspoken message, whether to those in a bind over their sexuality or not, was abundantly clear: No matter who you are, scream it out. That scream was one-size-fits-all for the human experience. When you hear Macca howling like a maniac on "I'm Down," "Hey Jude" and "Oh! Darling," understand that The Beatles' keyhole to jubilation—and therefore, everyone's—had a Little-Richard-shaped key.

The songs Little Richard co-wrote or interpreted all have the same feeling of anticipation, which is applicable to every stage of life: the last minutes of school on a Friday, the beginning of an unforgettable night out, the first blush of romantic attraction. He's ready to cause trouble, but the good-natured kind—the kind that doesn't put anybody down, but instead drags everyone off the couch and into a raucous block party. His songs exist at the perpetual "here we go" moment, the exhilarating flash on the rollercoaster when your stomach plunges.

We're gonna have some fun tonight. Everything's all right.

Remembering Elvis Presley: 5 GRAMMY Facts

Annie Ross in 2015

Annie Ross in 2015

Photo: Jack Vartoogian/Getty Images

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GRAMMY-Winning Jazz Singer & Actor Annie Ross Has Died At 89

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The singer rose to fame as one-third of the innovative jazz vocal act Lambert, Hendricks and Ross
Ana Monroy Yglesias
GRAMMYs
Jul 22, 2020 - 2:22 pm

British jazz singer and actor Annie Ross died yesterday, July 22, in her Manhattan home, the New York Times reports, just shy of her 90th birthday. The GRAMMY-winning vocal maestro was born Annabelle Macauley Allan Short on July 25, 1930 in Mitcham, England.

Born to theatrical parents, Ross spent much of her life in music, film or theater, with some of her most celebrated work from her time in the GRAMMY-winning jazz vocal trio Lambert, Hendricks and Ross.

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As the Times explains, Ross first left England to live in Los Angeles with an aunt, singer/actor Ella Logan, making her film debut at just eight years old. She later studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York, and then moved to London where she adopted her stage name. But it was her next home, Paris, where she would discover her love of jazz.

In Paris, Ross performed and recorded with a handful of American jazz musicians, including drummer Kenny Clarke, with whom she dated and had her only child, Kenny Clarke Jr., who survives her. She is also survived by her partner Dave Usher.

Ross first recorded the coy number she wrote, "Twisted," in 1952 on the iconic New York jazz label Prestige Records, snagging a minor hit with it. In 1957, she joined fellow jazz vocalists Jon Hendricks and Dave Lambert to record the GRAMMY-nominated album Sing A Song Of Basie. Featuring lyrics from Hendricks and their three mailable vocals overdubbed to jubilant music from Count Basie's big band, the album was a hit and the trio was officially formed. They would be credited as popularizing this style of jazz, called vocalese, where singers improvise over popular jazz instrumentals.

The trio would earn two more GRAMMY nominations during their prolific four years together, with one resulting in a win. Following their first nomination, for Best Performance By A Vocal Group Or Chorus at the 1st GRAMMY Awards, they received another nod two years later at the 1961 GRAMMYs, for Best Jazz Performance Solo Or Small Group for their album The Hottest New Group In Jazz, which featured a popular rendition of "Twisted."

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Their golden gramophone would come just one year later, and the 4th GRAMMY Awards, winning Best Performance By A Vocal Group for High Flying, the trio's final studio album with Ross. In 1962, at the height of their fame, Ross left the group to overcome a heroin addiction. As the Times put it:

"For four years, Lambert, Hendricks and Ross were a worldwide sensation, and Ms. Ross became a model for a new breed of jazz singers who could sing rapid-fire, tongue-twisting words with precision and clarity. But despite the group's success, she quit in 1962. At the time, her departure was attributed to poor health. In later years she acknowledged that it had been fueled partly by friction with Mr. Hendricks, but mostly by her increasing dependence on heroin.

'Yeah, I had a hangup,' she told The New York Times in 1993. 'A little bit here, a little bit there, and that was it. It was the culture of the time—the long hours, having to produce every night, needing stimulation. I guess you're young and fearless and think you're going to live forever.'"

She spent her later career returning to acting, sharing her time in London's theater, British television and American films including Superman III in 1983 and Short Cuts in 1993, the latter in which she played an aging jazz singer.

That role led to over a decade of regularly sharing her voice and grace in a cabaret act at the Metropolitan Room in Manhattan, until it shuttered in 2017. Her last album came in just 2014, a tribute to the great Billie Holiday, entitled To Lady With Love.

Music World Honors John Lewis: Jennifer Hudson, Billy Porter, Paul McCartney, Katy Perry And More Pay Tribute To The Late Civil Rights Icon

John Lewis

John Lewis

Photo: Jeff Hutchens/Getty Images

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Music World Honors John Lewis: Jennifer Hudson, Billy Porter, Paul McCartney, Katy Perry And More Pay Tribute To The Late Civil Rights Icon

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A lifelong public servant and civil rights leader, Lewis was an instrumental figure in the ongoing fight for racial justice and equality in the U.S.
John Ochoa
GRAMMYs
Jul 18, 2020 - 2:16 pm

Across social media, the music world is honoring Congressman John Lewis, an iconic leader of the civil rights movement, who died Friday (July 17) following a months-long battle with pancreatic cancer. 

"Rest In Peace congressman, civil rights icon, John Lewis! We thank u and will always remember you and celebrate you for your work," GRAMMY winner Jennifer Hudson wrote on Instagram.

"This is the man that taught us all how to get into some #GoodTrouble," GRAMMY-winning performer, singer and actor Billy Porter tweeted. "One of my heroes. A true legend. Thank you for teaching us how to fight for liberty & justice for all mankind … "

Speaker Of The U.S. House Of Representatives Nancy Pelosi confirmed Lewis' death in a statement on Friday (July 17), Rolling Stone reports.

"John Lewis was a titan of the civil rights movement whose goodness, faith and bravery transformed our nation – from the determination with which he met discrimination at lunch counters and on Freedom Rides, to the courage he showed as a young man facing down violence and death on Edmund Pettus Bridge, to the moral leadership he brought to the Congress for more than 30 years," Pelosi said in her statement. 

"It is with inconsolable grief and enduring sadness that we announce the passing of U.S. Rep. John Lewis," his family said in a statement, according to Rolling Stone. "He was honored and respected as the conscience of the U.S. Congress and an icon of American history, but we knew him as a loving father and brother. He was a stalwart champion in the on-going struggle to demand respect for the dignity and worth of every human being. He dedicated his entire life to non-violent activism and was an outspoken advocate in the struggle for equal justice in America. He will be deeply missed."

Born a son of sharecroppers in 1940 in Troy, Ala., Lewis was an instrumental figure in the ongoing fight for racial justice and equality. A lifelong public servant and civil rights leader, serving more than three decades in Congress, he got his start in politics as a student activist. He was one of the 13 original Freedom Riders, a group of civil rights activists "who challenged segregated interstate travel in the South in 1961," according to The New York Times, and was the last surviving member of the Big Six, a group of civil rights leaders that included Martin Luther King Jr., James Farmer, A. Philip Randolph, Roy Wilkins and Whitney Young. Lewis also helped organize the 1963 March On Washington For Jobs And Freedom, where he spoke and where King Jr. delivered his eternal "I Have A Dream" speech. 

In 1965, as part of the Selma-to-Montgomery protest marches, Lewis led a march comprising 600 people who were demanding equal voting rights. When he and the group of nonviolent activists reached the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., they were severely beaten by state troopers, who had previously ordered the protestors to disperse. Dozens of protestors were injured and hospitalized, including Lewis, who suffered a fractured skull after a trooper hit him with a billy club, according to the New York Times. 

The highly televised event, which came to be infamously known as "Bloody Sunday" and immortalized in the 2014 film Selma, sparked outrage across the U.S. and helped galvanize support for the Voting Rights Act, according to The New York Times.

Presented to Congress by President Lyndon B. Johnson eight days after the violent confrontation, the Voting Rights Act was signed into law in August 1965, marking a milestone moment in the civil rights movement and removing previously installed legal barriers that prevented Black people from exercising their right to vote, according to HISTORY. The law would ultimately help Black citizens run for, and win, public office, including Lewis himself, The New York Times writes. 

Read: GRAMMY-Nominated Arranger Armand Hutton On Racial Divisions In The U.S.: "To A POC, It Has Always Been This Way"

Throughout his decades-long career in the U.S. government, representing Georgia's 5th congressional district, which includes Atlanta, Lewis became known as "the conscience of the Congress" for his focus on the ongoing fight for universal social and racial justice. Having been arrested for participating in nonviolent movements and protests dozens of times throughout the decades, he lived by the mantra of getting into "good trouble" in the name of equality. The maxim inspired the title of the newly released documentary, John Lewis: Good Trouble, which follows his life and legacy.

Lewis remained active in his later years. In 2016, he led a sit-in on the House floor in which he and other Democrats demanded a vote for gun control measures following the mass shooting at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla. 

Most recently, he was vocal about the killing of George Floyd and other Black people by police and has commended the resulting Black Lives Matter protests and movements. 

"The way this young man died—watching the video, it made me so sad," Lewis said of Floyd in an interview with "CBS This Morning" in June. "It was so painful; it made me cry. I kept saying to myself, 'How many more? How many more young Black men will be murdered?'

"It was very moving, very moving to see hundreds of thousands of people from all over America and around the world take to the streets—to speak up, to speak out, to get in what I call 'good trouble' … "

Last month, Lewis visited the newly erected Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, D.C., alongside the city's mayor, Muriel Bowser.

A beloved politician and social figure, Lewis transcended politics and entered mainstream pop culture. Actor Stephan James portrayed Lewis in the 2014 Oscar-winning film, Selma. Lewis also made a cameo in the music video to Young Jeezy's 2008 track "My President," which is inspired by President Barack Obama and features Nas. Lewis guest starred on the animated children's TV show "Arthur" in 2018. 

Elsewhere, Lewis released his award-winning autobiography, "Walking With The Wind: A Memoir Of The Movement, in 1998. He also released "March," his autobiographical graphic novel series about the civil rights movement, throughout the mid-2010s.

In 2011, President Barack Obama awarded Lewis the Presidential Medal of Freedom, considered to be the nation's highest civilian honor.

Following the death of John Lewis, artists from the music and entertainment worlds commemorated the late icon. 

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