He’s a professor at UMKC and a wildly accomplished musician who’s performed all over the world, including gigs at the Kennedy Center, the Grammys, Glastonbury and the White House. On June 21, he’ll be performing with his band, Brass and Boujee, at Kansas City’s Juneteenth Heritage Festival. Kansas City magazine sat down with Marcus Lewis to chat about music and life in his adopted city.
Who are you, and what do you do? I’m a human being, and I like to make music, so I’m a composer, arranger, trombonist and educator.
Where are you from? I’m originally from Waynesboro, Georgia. It’s a small town. Like, really small. Maybe six to eight traffic lights in the whole town. It’s outside of Augusta—basically in between Augusta and Savannah.
Where do your degrees come from? Valdosta State University. Then I got my master’s from the University of Nebraska–Omaha. I moved to New York after that because I wanted to pursue a career in jazz. Then I moved back to Georgia.
Why did you leave New York? Because it’s hard to live there and expensive? It’s hard to live there. It’s expensive. But it’s awesome in its own special way. I felt like I made the connections that I needed to make. While I was in Georgia, I got my first big gig, I’d call it, with the Ohio Players. So I did that for two years, and then I got the gig with Janelle Monae, which is, like, my big claim to fame.
It’s a good claim! What was that like? She seems kind. She is a very kind person. She’s also very driven. I think that’s the thing that I got most from working with her—her drive and determination. It was really inspiring. Like really inspiring.
And how did you end up in Kansas City? Midway through the Janelle Monae gig, my wife got a job opportunity here. I was like: “That’s fine. They have an airport.” That’s all I needed because I was on the road so much.
Your impressions of Kansas City? Kansas City is an amazing city. It’s a good-sized city, but it feels small in the way that everyone is connected, which is nice. It’s a great community here—in particular, the music and arts community. It’s very artistic. And I love the way that the culinary aspect of it works within the arts.
What do you mean? A lot of restaurants here really support jazz and support music, and then with First Fridays, things like that—it’s really nice to see.
What’s your connection with UMKC? In 2014, I did a master class with Dan Thomas who was in the position that I’m in now. He really liked the way that I taught, and so he said there was an opening for a trombone slot adjunct position and to teach arranging. One of my strongest skill sets is arranging and composing, so that’s how I started out as an adjunct.
Do you practice your instrument everyday? Oh, yeah. They say if you don’t practice for a day, you’ll know it, but if you don’t practice for three days, other people will start to know it. Something like that.
People can get lost in the act of creation—in a good way—especially with jazz. Does that happen to you? That’s what you’re always striving for. That’s the feeling you’re chasing—trying to get in that flow state.
And how do you get there? I mean, you don’t always. But you just try to clear your mind and stay in the moment. The more you make it about music and the less you make it about yourself, the easier it is to get in that space.
Obviously jazz is more improvisational, as opposed to, say, playing in a marching band. Can you speak to that a little? Yeah, way more improvisational. That’s the DNA of it, right? But sometimes people like to think the term improv just means, like, free and loose. But it’s really like developing vocabulary and learning the syntax of a language. So it’s kind of like what we’re doing right now, right? You have a set of questions that you’re going to ask, but we’re improvising, right? So jazz is the same thing.
Why did you pick the trombone? It’s not some higher calling. I was a kid at a parade in my hometown and the trombones were in the front row. I thought they looked cool.
Your band, Brass and Boujee, is one of the featured performers at the Juneteenth Heritage Festival. Tell me a little bit about your relationship to the Juneteenth holiday. You know, in a way it’s kind of sad that we have to have that holiday because of the history of this country. Like, it would have been great if there was no Juneteenth because there was no slavery. But, I mean, I’m glad it’s a national holiday. And it is a joyous occasion. And we’re opening up for Joe [Thomas], which is awesome because that was music that I grew up listening to, R&B. So, yeah, we’re gonna have fun.
To learn more about the many activities that are a part of the Juneteenth Heritage Festival, visit juneteenthkc.com.
