Original Sin (John Lewis album)

Original Sin (subtitled Music for Ballet Composed by John Lewis) is an album in the third stream genre composed by John Lewis recorded for the Atlantic label in 1961.^[1]

Original Sin
Studio album by John Lewis
Released	1961
Recorded	March 27–28 & 31, 1961 NYC
Genre	Jazz
Label	Atlantic SD 1370
Producer	Nesuhi Ertegun
John Lewis chronology
Jazz Abstractions (1960) Original Sin (1961) European Encounter (1962)

Reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[2]
DownBeat	[3]

The contemporaneous DownBeat reviewer criticised the sound balance on the opening track – "it very rapidly becomes a concerto for cymbal and small band" – and condemned the inconsistency of the music: "The first variation of Part 2 is unabridged musical comedy pit band. But the tantalizing thing is that Variation 2 is a clever, self-sustaining, unified, and original little composition. Variation 3 sounds like a fashion show, but Variation 4 is a lovely, light, unpretentious piece, and Variation 5 is simple, stark, and well composed[,] reminiscent of Aaron Copland at his best."^[3] AllMusic awarded the album 2 stars.^[2]

Track listing

All compositions by John Lewis

1. "Part One: Creation of the World & Creation of Adam" - 3:53
2. "Part Two: Recognition of Animals"
   1. "Introduction" - 0:47
   2. "Variant I: Zebra, Lion, Camel" - 1:27
   3. "Variant II: Walrus, Ape" - 0:52
   4. "Variant III: Lamb, Leopard" - 1:48
   5. "Variant IV: Rabbit, Skunk, Fox" - 0:45
   6. "Variant V: Mountain Sheep, Deer" - 1:40
   7. "Finale" - 2:10
3. "Part Three: Birth of Eve" - 3:48
4. "Part Four: Adam & Eve Pas de Deux" - 2:36
5. "Part Five: Teaching & Temptation" - 4:11
6. "Part Six: Expulsion from the Garden of Eden" - 2:46

Personnel

• John Lewis - conductor, arranger
• Unidentified large orchestra

References

1. Atlantic Records Catalog: 1300 series accessed September 21, 2015
2. Allmusic listing, accessed September 21, 2015
3. Mathieu, Bill (October 12, 1961). "John Lewis: Original Sin". DownBeat. Vol. 28, no. 21. pp. 30, 32.