George Lewis (clarinetist)

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George Lewis (13 July 1900 – 31 December 1968[1]) was an American jazz clarinetist who achieved his greatest fame and influence in his later decades of life. Gary Giddins describes him as "an affecting musician with a fat-boned sound but limited technique".[2]

George Lewis' legal name was George Louis Francois Zenon. He was born in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana. Lewis was playing clarinet professionally by 1917. He played with Buddy Petit and Chris Kelly regularly, and sometimes with trombonist Kid Ory and many other band leaders, seldom traveling far from the greater New Orleans area.

During the Great Depression he took a day job as a stevedore, continuing to take such music jobs after hours as he could find.

In 1942 some jazz fans and writers came to New Orleans to record the legendary older trumpeter Bunk Johnson. Bunk picked Lewis for the recording session. Previously almost totally unknown outside of New Orleans, Lewis impressed many listeners, and he made his first recordings under his own name for American Music Records, a label created by Bill Russell to document the music of Bunk Johnson and other surviving older jazzmen in New Orleans.

Although purists such as Alan Lomax held Lewis up as an exemplar of what jazz was like before commercialism, Lewis was, in Gary Giddins words, "no dinosaur". When Lomax brought him on a Rudi Blesh's radio show in 1942, he proceeded to play the solo from Woody Herman's then-recent hit "Woodchopper's Ball"; his hosts had no idea that Lewis was applying his style to one of the latest hot tunes.[2]

In 1944 Lewis was badly injured in a stevedoring accident when a container fell on his chest. For a time it was thought that even if he recovered he would be unable to play clarinet. However he started playing again while convalescing in bed at home on Burgundy Street in the French Quarter. His friends banjoist Lawrence Marrero and string bass player Alcide "Slow Drag" Pavageau brought their instruments to Lewis' bedside, Russell brought his portable disc recorder, and they recorded, among other things, the first version of what was to become George Lewis' signature number, "Burgundy Street Blues."

"Burgundy Street Blues" was titled by Russell, who also created new names for some of Lewis's interpretations of pop tunes, for example, "New Orleans Hula" for "Hula Lou." (This was perhaps done for copyright reasons, or occasionally because the musicians themselves reported the titles incorrectly.) "Burgundy Street" was originally simply an improvised blues based on figures to be heard on the records of Louis Armstrong, specifically Armstrong's Hot Five recording of Kid Ory's "Savoy Blues." Lewis was an enthusiastic admirer of Armstrong's music; the Armstrong solo on "Savoy Blues" is especially evident in Lewis' playing on "Burgundy Street."

Lewis stayed with Bunk Johnson's newly popular band through 1946, including a trip to New York City, where they played for dancing at the Stuyvesant Casino on Second Avenue. At this point, the personnel included Johnson, Lewis, Marrero, Pavageau, trombonist Jim Robinson, pianist Alton Purnell, and drummer Baby Dodds. While in New York, they recorded for both the Decca and Victor labels.

After Bunk's final 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 he 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 prominently in the June 6, 1950 issue of Look magazine, with photos by Stanley Kubrick (later famous as a film director). National touring soon followed, and Lewis became a symbol of the New Orleans jazz tradition, traveling ever more widely, and often telling 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, then began to tour around the United States. In the 1960s he repeatedly toured Europe and Japan, and many young clarinetists from around the world modeled their playing closely on his. While in New Orleans, he played regularly at Preservation Hall from its opening in 1961 until shortly before his death.

George Lewis is name-checked in the Bob Dylan song "High Water" from the album "Love and Theft".

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Some sources give 1969 as the year of his death, but see Lewis' obituary in the New Orleans Times-Picayune, cited by Tom Bethell, George Lewis: A Jazzman From New Orleans, University of California Press, 1977, p. 277.
  2. ^ a b Gary Giddins, "How Come Jazz Isn't Dead", p. 39–55 in Eric Weisbard, ed., This is Pop, Harvard University Press, 2004. ISBN 0-674-01321-2 (cloth), ISBN 0-674-01344-1 (paper). p. 43.