George Lewis

George Lewis

George Lewis is a New Orleans jazz clarinetist, born in New Orleans in 1900 and dying in 1968. He plays in the traditional dixieland and jazz style and is associated with the New Orleans revival that brings older jazz musicians back to wider attention in the mid-20th century.

Early life and playing career

Lewis is born in the French Quarter of New Orleans and is playing clarinet professionally by 1917. He works around the greater New Orleans area, performing with Buddie Petit, Chris Kelly, Kid Ory and other bandleaders. During the Great Depression he takes day work as a stevedore and continues to play music whenever he can.

Recordings and reputation

In 1942, when Bunk Johnson is recorded in New Orleans, Johnson selects Lewis for the session. Lewis then makes his first recordings under his own name for American Music Records. In 1944 he is badly injured in a stevedoring accident on the New Orleans docks, but he returns to playing while recovering at home on Burgundy Street. With Lawrence Marrero on banjo, Alcide Pavageau on string bass and Bill Russell bringing a portable disc recorder, he records an early version of what becomes his best-known piece, The Burgundy Street Blues. The title is later given by Russell, and the tune begins as an improvised blues based on figures from Louis Armstrong records.

Later years

Lewis stays with Bunk Johnson’s band until 1946, including a trip to New York. After Johnson retires, Lewis takes over leadership of the band, usually with Jim Robinson on trombone, Alcide Pavageau and Lawrence Marrero, and a changing line of New Orleans trumpet players. From 1949 he is a regular performer in Bourbon Street clubs and has broadcasts on WDSU radio. In 1952 he takes his band to San Francisco for a residency at the Hangover Club, then undertakes a tour of the United States that includes recordings at Capitol Studios in Los Angeles. In the 1960s he tours Europe and Japan several times, and younger clarinetists model their playing on his style. He later lives in Algiers, commutes across to New Orleans, and performs regularly at Preservation Hall until shortly before his death.

Style and legacy

Lewis admires Louis Armstrong’s records, although his own style remains rooted in the earlier pre-Armstrong tradition. His playing is closely linked with the revival of older New Orleans jazz and with the rediscovery of ragtime-era musicians by record labels, critics, venue operators and fans. He becomes one of the most influential New Orleans clarinetists of his generation.