George Lewis (clarinetist)
Encyclopedia
George Lewis was an American jazz
clarinet
ist who achieved his greatest fame and influence in the later decades of his life.
of New Orleans, Louisiana
. Lewis' great-great grandmother by his mother, Alice Zeno, was a Senegal
ese slave who was brought over to Louisana around 1803. Zeno's family retained some knowledge of Senegalese language and customs until Alice's generation.
regularly as well as the trombonist Kid Ory
and other leaders. At this time, he seldom traveled far from the greater New Orleans area. During the Great Depression
he took a job as a stevedore
, continuing to take as many music jobs after hours as he could find, a schedule that often meant he got very little sleep.
In 1942, when a group of New Orleans jazz enthusiasts, including jazz historian Bill Russell, went to New Orleans to record the older trumpeter Bunk Johnson
, Johnson chose Lewis as his clarinetist. Previously almost unknown outside of New Orleans, Lewis was soon asked to make his first recordings as a leader on American Music Records
, a label created by Russell to document the music of older New Orleans jazz musicians and bands.
Although purists, such as folklorist/musicologist Alan Lomax
and others, touted Lewis as an exemplar of what jazz had been before it became overly commercialized by the popular swing bands of the late 1930s and early 1940s, Lewis was no "dinosaur," in Gary Giddins
' words. When Lomax brought Lewis on a Rudi Blesh
's radio show in 1942, he played the solo from clarinetist Woody Herman
's then-recent hit, "Woodchopper's Ball
", but his hosts had no idea that Lewis was applying his distinctive style to one of the latest hot tunes.
In 1944 Lewis was injured seriously while working on the docks. A heavy container nearly crushed his chest, and for a time it was feared he would never play again. Against all odds, however, Lewis began practicing while convalescing in bed at his Burgundy Street home in the French Quarter
. His friends, banjo
player Lawrence Marrero
and string bass player Alcide "Slow Drag" Pavageau, brought their instruments to Lewis's bedside. Bill Russell brought his portable recorder, and they recorded, among other things, an improvised blues that was to become Lewis' signature piece
, christened "Burgundy Street Blues" by Russell. The performance interpolated a number of phrases and ideas that can be found in Louis Armstrong's playing, in particular his Hot Five recording of the Kid Ory composition "Savoy Blues." These blues figurations were perhaps just "in the air" around New Orleans in the early days, but it is also true that Armstrong's records were popular in New Orleans just as they were in the rest of the country.
As he recorded Lewis, Russell occasionally retitled some of his interpretations of pop tunes, for example, "New Orleans Hula" for "Hula Lou". These changes may sometimes have been made for copyright
reasons, but occasionally it was simply because the musicians reported the titles inaccurately to Russell.
Lewis stayed with Bunk Johnson's newly popular band through 1946. This included a trip to New York City
, where they played for dancing at the Stuyvesant Casino on Second Avenue. At this time, the band members included Johnson, Lewis, Marrero, Pavageau, trombonist Jim Robinson
, pianist Alton Purnell
, and drummer Baby Dodds
. While in New York, they recorded for the Decca
and Victor labels.
After Bunk's retirement, Lewis took over leadership of the band, usually featuring Robinson, Pavageau, Marrero, Purnell, drummer Joe Watkins, and a succession of New Orleans trumpet players—including Elmer Talbert, Avery "Kid" Howard
, and Percy Humphrey
.
Starting in 1949 Lewis was a regular at the French Quarter's Bourbon Street
entertainment clubs and had regular broadcasts over radio station WDSU
. The Lewis band was featured in the June 6, 1950 issue of Look
magazine, which was circulated internationally. The article was accompanied by photographs taken of the band by Stanley Kubrick
.
National touring soon followed, and Lewis became a symbol of the New Orleans jazz tradition. Traveling ever more widely, he often told his audiences that his touring band was "the last of the real New Orleans jazz bands."
In 1952 Lewis took his band to San Francisco for a residency at the Hangover Club. That was followed by a tour around the United States. In the 1960s he repeatedly toured Europe
and Japan
and many young clarinetists around the world modeled their playing closely on his technique. While in New Orleans, he played regularly at Preservation Hall
from its opening in 1961 until shortly before his death late in 1968. Paintings of him performing were painted by New Orleans artists and sitting portraits sold to collectors. A recording of his band by Atlantic Records, part of a series titled "Jazz at Preservation Hall," was like the others in the series actually recorded not at the Hall but at Cosimo Matassa's recording studio on Governor Nichols Street.
His music was extremely influential on a whole generation of British New Orleans jazz musicians, and many clarinettists based their style (at least initially) on Lewis's playing. He first visited Britain in 1957, playing across the country with Ken Colyer
's Jazzmen. In 1959 he returned, this time with his full band, and received a warm response. British fans of the old New Orleans style were thrilled to see and hear in the flesh some of the old masters from the Crescent City.
George Lewis is name-checked in the Bob Dylan
song "High Water" from the album "Love and Theft".
Jazz author and critic Gary Giddins
has described Lewis as "an affecting musician with a fat-boned sound but limited technique".
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
clarinet
Clarinet
The clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...
ist who achieved his greatest fame and influence in the later decades of his life.
Ancestry
Lewis was born Joseph Louis Francois Zenon, in the French QuarterFrench Quarter
The French Quarter, also known as Vieux Carré, is the oldest neighborhood in the city of New Orleans. When New Orleans was founded in 1718 by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, the city was originally centered on the French Quarter, or the Vieux Carré as it was known then...
of New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The New Orleans metropolitan area has a population of 1,235,650 as of 2009, the 46th largest in the USA. The New Orleans – Metairie – Bogalusa combined statistical area has a population...
. Lewis' great-great grandmother by his mother, Alice Zeno, was a Senegal
Senegal
Senegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...
ese slave who was brought over to Louisana around 1803. Zeno's family retained some knowledge of Senegalese language and customs until Alice's generation.
Musical career
Lewis was playing clarinet professionally by 1917, at the age of seventeen, working with Buddy Petit and Chris KellyChris Kelly (jazz)
Chris Kelly was an American jazz trumpeter born in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana on Deer Range Plantation, perhaps best-known for his early contributions on the New Orleans jazz scene. Throughout the 1920s he was a regular collaborator with clarinetist George Lewis...
regularly as well as the trombonist Kid Ory
Kid Ory
Edward "Kid" Ory was a jazz trombonist and bandleader. He was born in Woodland Plantation near LaPlace, Louisiana.-Biography:...
and other leaders. At this time, he seldom traveled far from the greater New Orleans area. During the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
he took a job as a stevedore
Stevedore
Stevedore, dockworker, docker, dock labourer, wharfie and longshoreman can have various waterfront-related meanings concerning loading and unloading ships, according to place and country....
, continuing to take as many music jobs after hours as he could find, a schedule that often meant he got very little sleep.
In 1942, when a group of New Orleans jazz enthusiasts, including jazz historian Bill Russell, went to New Orleans to record the older trumpeter Bunk Johnson
Bunk Johnson
Willie Gary "Bunk" Johnson was a prominent early New Orleans jazz trumpet player in the early years of the 20th century who enjoyed a revived career in the 1940s....
, Johnson chose Lewis as his clarinetist. Previously almost unknown outside of New Orleans, Lewis was soon asked to make his first recordings as a leader on American Music Records
American Music Records
American Music Records is a United States-based record label specializing in traditional New Orleans jazz.The label was founded by William Russell in 1944, who ran the label almost entirely by himself for most of his life...
, a label created by Russell to document the music of older New Orleans jazz musicians and bands.
Although purists, such as folklorist/musicologist Alan Lomax
Alan Lomax
Alan Lomax was an American folklorist and ethnomusicologist. He was one of the great field collectors of folk music of the 20th century, recording thousands of songs in the United States, Great Britain, Ireland, the Caribbean, Italy, and Spain.In his later career, Lomax advanced his theories of...
and others, touted Lewis as an exemplar of what jazz had been before it became overly commercialized by the popular swing bands of the late 1930s and early 1940s, Lewis was no "dinosaur," in Gary Giddins
Gary Giddins
Gary Giddins is an American jazz critic, author, and director, best known for his longtime work with The Village Voice. Born in Brooklyn, and raised on Long Island, Giddins graduated from Grinnell College, Iowa, in 1970...
' words. When Lomax brought Lewis on a Rudi Blesh
Rudi Blesh
Rudi Blesh was an American jazz critic and enthusiast....
's radio show in 1942, he played the solo from clarinetist Woody Herman
Woody Herman
Woodrow Charles Herman , known as Woody Herman, was an American jazz clarinetist, alto and soprano saxophonist, singer, and big band leader. Leading various groups called "The Herd," Herman was one of the most popular of the 1930s and '40s bandleaders...
's then-recent hit, "Woodchopper's Ball
Woodchopper's Ball
"Woodchopper's Ball", also known as "At the Woodchopper's Ball" is a 1939 jazz composition by Joe Bishop and Woody Herman. The up-tempo blues tune was the Woody Herman Orchestra's biggest hit, as well as the most popular composition of either composer, selling a million records.The tune has been...
", but his hosts had no idea that Lewis was applying his distinctive style to one of the latest hot tunes.
In 1944 Lewis was injured seriously while working on the docks. A heavy container nearly crushed his chest, and for a time it was feared he would never play again. Against all odds, however, Lewis began practicing while convalescing in bed at his Burgundy Street home in the French Quarter
French Quarter
The French Quarter, also known as Vieux Carré, is the oldest neighborhood in the city of New Orleans. When New Orleans was founded in 1718 by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, the city was originally centered on the French Quarter, or the Vieux Carré as it was known then...
. His friends, banjo
Banjo
In the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...
player Lawrence Marrero
Lawrence Marrero
Lawrence Marrero was an American jazz banjoist.Marrero was born in New Orleans, Louisiana and grew up in a musical family. His brothers were Eddie , John and Simon while their father Billy was a bass player too...
and string bass player Alcide "Slow Drag" Pavageau, brought their instruments to Lewis's bedside. Bill Russell brought his portable recorder, and they recorded, among other things, an improvised blues that was to become Lewis' signature piece
Signature song
A signature song is the one song that a popular and well-established singer or band is most closely identified with or best known for, even if they have had success with a variety of songs...
, christened "Burgundy Street Blues" by Russell. The performance interpolated a number of phrases and ideas that can be found in Louis Armstrong's playing, in particular his Hot Five recording of the Kid Ory composition "Savoy Blues." These blues figurations were perhaps just "in the air" around New Orleans in the early days, but it is also true that Armstrong's records were popular in New Orleans just as they were in the rest of the country.
As he recorded Lewis, Russell occasionally retitled some of his interpretations of pop tunes, for example, "New Orleans Hula" for "Hula Lou". These changes may sometimes have been made for copyright
Copyright
Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...
reasons, but occasionally it was simply because the musicians reported the titles inaccurately to Russell.
Lewis stayed with Bunk Johnson's newly popular band through 1946. This included a trip to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, where they played for dancing at the Stuyvesant Casino on Second Avenue. At this time, the band members included Johnson, Lewis, Marrero, Pavageau, trombonist Jim Robinson
Jim Robinson (trombonist)
Jim Robinson, also known as Big Jim Robinson was an American jazz musician, based in New Orleans, renowned for his deep, wide-toned, robust "tailgate" style of trombone playing, which enabled him to achieve a wide swoop between two notes as he moved the slide—while continually buzzing air...
, pianist Alton Purnell
Alton Purnell
Alton Purnell was an American jazz pianist. He was a longtime performer in Dixieland jazz....
, and drummer Baby Dodds
Baby Dodds
Warren "Baby" Dodds was a jazz drummer born in New Orleans, Louisiana."Baby" Dodds was the younger brother of clarinetist Johnny Dodds. He is regarded as one of the very best jazz drummers of the pre-big band era, and one of the most important early jazz drummers...
. While in New York, they recorded for the Decca
Decca Records
Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....
and Victor labels.
After Bunk's retirement, Lewis took over leadership of the band, usually featuring Robinson, Pavageau, Marrero, Purnell, drummer Joe Watkins, and a succession of New Orleans trumpet players—including Elmer Talbert, Avery "Kid" Howard
Kid Howard
Avery "Kid" Howard was an American jazz trumpeter associated with the New Orleans jazz scene....
, and Percy Humphrey
Percy Humphrey
Percy Gaston Humphrey was a jazz trumpet player and bandleader in New Orleans, Louisiana.In addition to his own jazz band, Percy Humphrey and His Crescent City Joymakers, for more than thirty years he was leader of the Eureka Brass Band. He also played in the band of the pianist Sweet Emma Barrett...
.
Starting in 1949 Lewis was a regular at the French Quarter's Bourbon Street
Bourbon Street
Bourbon Street is a famous and historic street that spans the length of the French Quarter in New Orleans, Louisiana. When founded in 1718, the city was originally centered around the French Quarter...
entertainment clubs and had regular broadcasts over radio station WDSU
WDSU
WDSU, virtual channel 6, is the NBC-affiliated television station for the New Orleans, Louisiana television market. It is owned by Hearst Television, which in turn is wholly owned by the Hearst Corporation. It broadcasts on UHF digital channel 43...
. The Lewis band was featured in the June 6, 1950 issue of Look
Look (American magazine)
Look was a bi-weekly, general-interest magazine published in Des Moines, Iowa from 1937 to 1971, with more of an emphasis on photographs than articles...
magazine, which was circulated internationally. The article was accompanied by photographs taken of the band by Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick was an American film director, writer, producer, and photographer who lived in England during most of the last four decades of his career...
.
National touring soon followed, and Lewis became a symbol of the New Orleans jazz tradition. Traveling ever more widely, he often told his audiences that his touring band was "the last of the real New Orleans jazz bands."
In 1952 Lewis took his band to San Francisco for a residency at the Hangover Club. That was followed by a tour around the United States. In the 1960s he repeatedly toured Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
and many young clarinetists around the world modeled their playing closely on his technique. While in New Orleans, he played regularly at Preservation Hall
Preservation Hall
Preservation Hall is a noted jazz performance hall located at 726 St. Peter Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana. It hosts nightly concerts featuring a rotating roster of bands. The bands of Preservation Hall typically perform jazz in the New Orleans style.Despite the fame of the...
from its opening in 1961 until shortly before his death late in 1968. Paintings of him performing were painted by New Orleans artists and sitting portraits sold to collectors. A recording of his band by Atlantic Records, part of a series titled "Jazz at Preservation Hall," was like the others in the series actually recorded not at the Hall but at Cosimo Matassa's recording studio on Governor Nichols Street.
His music was extremely influential on a whole generation of British New Orleans jazz musicians, and many clarinettists based their style (at least initially) on Lewis's playing. He first visited Britain in 1957, playing across the country with Ken Colyer
Ken Colyer
Kenneth Colyer was a British jazz trumpeter and cornetist, devoted totally to New Orleans jazz. His band was also known for skiffle interludes.-Biography:...
's Jazzmen. In 1959 he returned, this time with his full band, and received a warm response. British fans of the old New Orleans style were thrilled to see and hear in the flesh some of the old masters from the Crescent City.
George Lewis is name-checked in the Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
song "High Water" from the album "Love and Theft".
Jazz author and critic Gary Giddins
Gary Giddins
Gary Giddins is an American jazz critic, author, and director, best known for his longtime work with The Village Voice. Born in Brooklyn, and raised on Long Island, Giddins graduated from Grinnell College, Iowa, in 1970...
has described Lewis as "an affecting musician with a fat-boned sound but limited technique".
Discography
- 1962: Jazz at Preservation Hall 4: The George Lewis Band of New Orleans - The George Lewis Band of New Orleans, with George Lewis (cl), Avery "Kid" Howard (tpt, Jim Robinson (tbn), Manual Sayles )bj), Alcide "Slow Drag" Pavageau (bs), Isaac "Snookum" Russell (p) Papa John JosephPapa John JosephPapa John Joseph was an early New Orleans jazz string bass player.Joseph was born in St. James Parish, Louisiana and moved to New Orleans by 1906.He played with Buddy Bolden early on...
(b) Joe Watkins (d) (Atlantic LP 1411)