Lewis was born Meade Anderson Lewis in Chicago, Illinois in
September 1905 (September 3, 4 and 13 have all been cited as his date of birth
in various sources). “Lux” was a boyhood nickname arising from his penchant for
doing “Alphonse and Gaston” routines. He would stroke an imaginary beard as
part of his performance, and so his friends dubbed him the “Duke of
Luxembourg,” soon shortened to “Lux.”He helped establish boogie-woogie as a major blues piano style in the 1930s and 1940s. Lewis took the rollicking piano form out of the clubs and cat houses and onto the concert stage in 1938 where its fast-flowing rhythms and charging solos delighted audiences and eventually laid the groundwork for rhythm & blues and later rock & roll.
Luxembourg,” soon shortened to “Lux.”He helped establish boogie-woogie as a major blues piano style in the 1930s and 1940s. Lewis took the rollicking piano form out of the clubs and cat houses and onto the concert stage in 1938 where its fast-flowing rhythms and charging solos delighted audiences and eventually laid the groundwork for rhythm & blues and later rock & roll.
Lewis was a master boogie-woogie craftsman. He was heavily
influenced by such boogie-woogie pioneers as Jimmy Yancey and Pine Top Smith.
Lewis recorded "Honky Tonk Train Blues," his signature piece and a
standard in the boogie-woogie repertoire, in 1927, though it wasn't released by
Paramount Records until two years later. The piece ranks with "Yancey
Special" and "Pine Top's Boogie-Woogie" as the greatest recorded
early examples of boogie-woogie piano. Lewis met Albert Ammons, a fellow piano
player, who, like Lewis, drove a taxi for a living. Eventually they shared an
apartment together in the same building where Pine Top Smith resided. All three
pianists became good friends, often sharing ideas and jamming together. It is
not surprising then that Lewis's "Honky Tonk Train Blues" bears a
striking resemblance to Smith's "Pine Top's Boogie Woogie."
After the death of Smith in 1929 at age twenty-five and the
onset of the Depression, interest in boogie-woogie faded, forcing Lewis to seek
other forms of employment to supplement his meagre income from playing the
piano. Despite boogie-woogie's decline, Lewis continued to record in the 1930s,
occasionally cutting sides as a session man playing behind singers George
Hannah and Bob Robinson.
Lewis and Ammons were key figures in the boogie-woogie
renaissance of the late 1930s and early 1940s. He was contacted by talent scout
John Hammond to play his 1938 Spirituals to Swing concert at Carnegie Hall in
New York City. Lewis, along with Ammons and fellow pianist Pete Johnson excited
the concert goers so much with their bristling boogie-woogie piano passages
that the music's second craze began then and there. Their success led to a
decade long boogie-woogie craze with big band swing treatments by Tommy Dorsey,
Will Bradley, and others; and numerous country boogie and early rock and roll
songs.
His best known work, "Honky Tonk Train Blues", has
been recorded in various contexts, often in a big band arrangement. Lewis
remade it for Parlophone in 1935 and for Victor in 1937 and a recording exists
of a Camel Caravan broadcast, including
"Honky Tonk Train Blues" from
New York City in 1939. Early recordings of the piece by other artists include
performances by Adrian Rollini, Frankie Trumbauer, classical harpsichordist
Sylvia Marlowe, theater organist George Wright (with drummer Cozy Cole, under
the title "Organ Boogie"), and Bob Zurke with Bob Crosby's orchestra.
Keith Emerson of Emerson, Lake & Palmer often included it in his repertoire
and recorded it in 1972.
Albert Ammons and Lewis 1938. |
Lewis became the first jazz pianist to double on celeste
(starting in 1936) and was featured on that instrument on a Blue Note quartet
date with Edmond Hall and Charlie Christian. Lewis also played harpsichord on a
few records in 1941.Lewis and his colleagues were booked to play the Café
Society, a chic Manhattan club where the best boogie-woogie would be heard.
Lewis remained in New
York until that year, at which time interest in boogie-woogie had
begun to wither a second time.
York until that year, at which time interest in boogie-woogie had
Pete Johnson, Meade “Lux “Lewis,
‘Big Joe” Turner and Albert
Ammons, 1939
|
L-R Meade Lux Lewis, Art Tatum, Pete Johnson and Erroll
Garner
|
Lewis was fond of the Minneapolis area, where a niece lived,
and would visit as often as he could. He appeared annually at the White House
Restaurant (no longer extant) in Golden Valley. He began a successful
three-week engagement there in May 1964. Around 2 a.m. on Sunday, June 7, Lewis
left the parking lot of the White House and headed east on Olson Memorial
Highway, when his Chrysler Imperial was rear-ended by a vehicle driven by one
Ronald Bates, who was travelling an estimated 80 mph. Lewis's car was pushed
400 feet and crashed into a tree; he was killed instantly. He was 58. Bates
survived, but his passenger died the following day.
(Info edited from
Wikipedia & All About Jazz)
Here’s something of a curiosity. It’s a "soundie"
from 1944, featuring boogie-woogie piano legend Meade Lux Lewis with Dudley
Dickerson who is miming to a Big Joe Turner vocal. The original "Roll 'Em
Pete" was recorded in 1938, with Big Joe and boogie pianist Pete Johnson.
Meade's piano here is more rollicking, somehow. Presumably "Roll 'em
Meade" wasn't considered to have quite the same feel, so it's just
"Roll 'em".
2 comments:
For “Meade ‘Lux’ Lewis - Gliding From Glendale To Chicago
-46 Red Hot Boogie Woogie Piano Classics” go here:
https://www.upload.ee/files/12233259/Meade__Lux__Lewis_-_Piano_Classics.rar.html
Disc One
1. GLENDALE GLIDE
2. RANDINI’S BOOGIE
3. TIDAL BOOGIE
4. YANCEY’S PRIDE
5. WHISTLIN’ BLUES
6. BEAR CAT CRAWL
7. NO. 1 BOOGIE
8. LUX BOOGIE
9. DENAPA BOOGIE
10. MR. FREDDY BLUES
11. TWO AND FEWS
12. RISING TIDE BLUES
13. CHICAGO FLYER
14. CLOSING HOUR BLUES
15. DEEP FIVES
16. MEADE’S BOOGIE
17. I AIN’T GONNA GIVE
18. ‘DEED I DO
19. ROCKIN’ THE CLOCK
20. BLUES WHISTLE
21. BASS ON TOP BOOGIE
22. TELL YOUR STORY
Disc Two
1. HONKY TONK TRAIN BLUES
2. YANCEY SPECIAL
3. DOLL’S HOUSE BOOGIE
4. SLOW BOOGIE
5. MEDIUM BOOGIE
6. FAST BOOGIE
7. HONKY TONK TRAIN BLUES
8. FAR AGO BLUES
9. COW COW BLUES
10. JUMPIN’ FOR PETE
11. CELESTE BLUES
12. PINETOP’S BOOGIE WOOGIE
13. ALBERT’S BLUES
14. SUITCASE BLUES
15. SIX WHEEL CHASER
16. BUGLE CALL RAG
17. ST. LOUIS BLUES
18. FAST AND BLUES
19. BIRTH OF THE BLUES
20. DARKTOWN STRUTTERS’ BALL
21. FREAKISH MAN BLUES
22. I’M IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE
23. HOW LONG BLUES
24. SOMEDAY, SWEETHEART
Calling this compilation essential is to say the least, an understatement. Jasmine have carefully selected the best tracks of one of the “true heavyweights” of the Boogie Woogie genre and put them together for your foot-tapping, finger-rapping delectation. This collection features 46 classic and collectable tracks drawn from a career which spanned five decades. This CD would not be out of place in anyone’s music collection. (Jasmine notes)
Thank you very much.
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