The Lounge Lizards In 1978 John formed
the Lounge Lizards with his brother
Evan Lurie on piano; they were the only constant members in the band through numerous lineup changes.
Robert Palmer of
The New York Times described the band as "staking out new territory west of
Mingus, east of
Bernard Herrman." While originally a somewhat satirical "fake jazz" combo spawned by the noisy
No Wave music scene, the Lounge Lizards gradually became a showcase for Lurie's increasingly sophisticated compositions. The band had five to eight members. Musicians included, at different times, guitarists
Arto Lindsay,
Marc Ribot,
David Tronzo, Michele Navazio and Danny Blumenthal; cellist
Jane Scarpantoni; vibraphonist
Bryan Carrott; keyboardist
John Medeski; drummers
Anton Fier,
Grant Calvin Weston and Dougie Bowne; percussionists
Billy Martin, E.J. Rodriguez and
Ben Perowsky; bassists
Erik Sanko,
Tony Scherr,
Oren Bloedow and
Tony Garnier; trumpeter
Steven Bernstein; trombonist
Curtis Fowlkes and saxophonists
Roy Nathanson and
Michael Blake. They made music for 20 years.
Marvin Pontiac In 1999 Lurie released the album
The Legendary Marvin Pontiac: Greatest Hits, a posthumous collection of the work of an African-Jewish musician named Marvin Pontiac, a fictional character Lurie created. It includes a biographical profile describing the troubled genius's hard life, and the cover shows a photograph purported to be one of the few ever taken of him. Lurie wrote the music and performed with
John Medeski,
Billy Martin, G. Calvin Weston,
Marc Ribot, and
Tony Scherr. The album received praise from
David Bowie,
Angelique Kidjo,
Iggy Pop,
Leonard Cohen and others. On choosing to create a character to whom the album would be fictionally credited, Lurie said in a 2008 interview, "For a long time, I was threatening to do a vocal record. But the idea of me putting out a record where I sang seemed ostentatious or pretentious. Like the music of
Telly Savalas . . . I don't sing very well, I was shy about it. As a character, it made it easier." In 2017, John Lurie released his first music album in 17 years,
Marvin Pontiac: The Asylum Tapes.
John Lurie National Orchestra Parallel to the final version of the Lounge Lizards in the early 1990s, Lurie formed a smaller group, the John Lurie National Orchestra. Lurie played alto and soprano saxes, Grant Calvin Weston played drums, and Billy Martin performed on congas, timbales, kalimba, and other small percussion. Unlike the tightly-arranged music of the Lounge Lizards, the Orchestra's music was heavily improvised and compositions were credited to all three musicians. They released the album
Men With Sticks (Crammed Discs 1993) and recorded music for the
Fishing With John TV series. In February 2014 the Orchestra released
The Invention of Animals, a collection of out-of-print studio tracks and unreleased live recordings from the '90s. Columnist Mel Minter wrote: This new release may require a reassessment of Lurie the saxophonist because the playing is engagingly fluid, inventive, and visceral—and well worth revisiting. . . . The emotional immediacy of Lurie's playing – and that of his partners – makes for riveting stuff. Think of his sax not so much as a musical instrument, but instead, as a window with a clear view of his soul. Jeff Jackson of Jazziz added, "The resulting music is delicate, primal and utterly gorgeous." ==Film and television==