Dave Lewis (musician)
| Dave Lewis | |
|---|---|
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | David Eugene Lewis |
| Born | 1938 Texas, United States |
| Died |
March 13, 1998 (aged 59) San Diego, California, United States |
| Genres | R&B |
| Occupation(s) | Musician |
| Instruments | Keyboards, vocals |
| Years active | 1956–69 |
| Labels | Jerden, A&M |
| Associated acts | Dave Lewis Combo |
| Notable instruments | |
| Hammond B-3 organ | |
David Eugene "Dave" Lewis (1938 – March 13, 1998) was an African American rock and rhythm & blues (R&B) keyboardist, organist, and vocalist based in Seattle, Washington, US. Peter Blecha accounts his Dave Lewis Combo as "Seattle's first significant African American 1950s rock and roll band" and Lewis himself as "the singularly most significant figure on the Pacific Northwest's nascent rhythm & blues scene in the 1950s and 1960s."
The Texas-born Lewis came to the Pacific Northwest with his family during World War II. There was music in his background: his father, David Lewis, Sr., was an accomplished amateur guitarist, and his mother Bertha Lewis was similarly talented on piano. The family moved first to seek work in the navy town of Bremerton, Washington, across Puget Sound from Seattle, where they settled in the segregated Sinclair Heights housing projects. One of their neighbors was the young Quincy Jones, who took some music lessons from David Sr.
The Lewis and Jones families both eventually moved to Seattle, where they lived about five blocks apart from one another in the Central District, the center of African American life in Seattle at the time. His father worked as a fabricator at Boeing and also pulled shifts in a barber shop. Lewis tried both guitar and piano, but definitely gravitated toward the latter, especially after hearing Ray Charles, who was launching his performing career in Seattle in the late 1940s.
Lewis's first performing group was a doo-wop vocal group called the Five Checks, formed to enter a talent show held at Edmond Meany Jr. High School (now Edmond S. Meany Middle School). They went on to perform at schools around Seattle, often for audiences who had never heard anything of the sort, at least not in live performance.
As a student at Seattle's Garfield High School Lewis formed the combo that would bring him to local prominence. George Griffin from his doo-wop group played drums; Barney Hilliard and J. B. Allen both played saxophone; Jack Grey played upright bass, and Al Aquino rounded out the group on guitar. Starting off at teenage sock hops and house parties, they soon graduated to being an opening act for touring R&B acts when they played Seattle's downtown Palomar Theater (then at the corner of Third and University, now replaced by a multi-story parking garage). The Dave Lewis Combo opened for, among others Sugar Pie DeSanto, Sugar Chile Robinson, Nellie Lutcher, and Wild Bill Davis.
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