Sabby Lewis

Lewis was born in Middleburg, North Carolina, United States, but was raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.{{cite news|title=Sabby Lewis; Pianist, 79|work=The New York Times|date=14 July 1994 |page=8|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/07/14/obituaries/sabby-lewis-pianist-79.html}} He started taking piano lessons when he was five and moved to Boston, Massachusetts in 1932. After working with Tasker Crosson's Ten Statesmen in 1934, Lewis organized his own seven-piece band in 1936.{{cite book|title=The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz|year=1996|publisher=St. Martin's Press|isbn=0-333-63231-1|pages=[https://archive.org/details/newgrovedictiona00kernf/page/697 697]|url=https://archive.org/details/newgrovedictiona00kernf/page/697}}

In the late 1930s and early 1940s, Sabby Lewis and his band were mainstays at notable Boston jazz venues such as the Roseland-State Ballroom, Egleston Square Gardens, and The Savoy Café.{{cite book | last1 = Vacca | first1 = Richard | title = The Boston Jazz Chronicles: Faces, Places, and Nightlife 1937-1962 | date = 2012 | publisher = Troy Street | isbn = 978-0-9839910-0-7 | quote = ...as Lewis worked the Massachusetts Avenue clubs, dance halls like the Roseland-State Ballroom and Egleston Square Gardens, and every kind of social event and dinner dance imaginable. The Savoy job was a big prize and surely some of the other capable bandleaders in town must have sought it.}}

In 1942, Lewis' band won a listener contest on a broadcast from the Statler Hotel's Terrace Room in Boston. The contest, sponsored by the F.W. Fitch Company, was to select a band to appear regularly on NBC's The Fitch Bandwagon, heard on 120 stations at the time.{{cite book | last1 = Vacca | first1 = Richard | title = The Boston Jazz Chronicles: Faces, Places, and Nightlife 1937-1962 | date = 2012 | publisher = Troy Street | isbn = 978-0-9839910-0-7 | quote = In the summer of 1942, the Lewis band won a listener contest sponsored by the F.W. Fitch Company, a maker of hair care products and a national sponsor of radio programming, to select a Boston-area band for its popular Bandwagon program on NBC.}}

Though Lewis did not tour frequently nor leave Boston often, he did perform on Broadway and in ballrooms and clubs in Manhattan such as Kelly's Stables, the Zanzibar and the Famous Door.{{cite news | first = Ernie | last = Santosuosso | title = WEEKEND; SABBY'S RETIRING - BUT NOT FROM MUSIC | date = 20 July 1984 | work = The Boston Globe | pages = 1 }} He performed with Dinah Washington and Billy Eckstine. "I recall one night at the Famous Door when Count Basie checked out the band," Lewis said. "He stood just inside the door and listened and left without saying a word. The next night I received a telegram from the Count. It contained three words: Rock 'em, Pops."{{cite news | first = Ernie | last = Santosuosso | title = WEEKEND; SABBY'S RETIRING - BUT NOT FROM MUSIC | date = 20 July 1984 | work = The Boston Globe | pages = 1 | quote = "I recall one night at the Famous Door when Count Basie checked out the band," Lewis said.}}

During World War II, Lewis' orchestra included long-time Ellington tenor saxophonist Paul Gonsalves,[https://books.google.com/books?id=I5wrGL-a-Q8C&q=Gonsalves&pg=RA5-PT106 The rough guide to jazz p.300] By Ian Carr, Digby Fairweather, Brian Priestley and drummer Alan Dawson spent much of the 1950s in the band.[https://books.google.com/books?id=I5wrGL-a-Q8C&q=alan+dawson&pg=RA5-PT106 The rough guide to jazz p. 203] By Ian Carr, Digby Fairweather, Brian Priestley Other notable alumni of the Lewis band included trumpeter Cat Anderson, Sonny Stitt, Roy Haynes, Al Morgan, Idrees Sulieman and Joe Gordon.{{cite book|title=The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz|year=1996|publisher=St. Martin's Press|isbn=0-333-63231-1|pages=[https://archive.org/details/newgrovedictiona00kernf/page/697 697]|url=https://archive.org/details/newgrovedictiona00kernf/page/697}}{{cite news | first = Ernie | last = Santosuosso | title = WEEKEND; SABBY'S RETIRING - BUT NOT FROM MUSIC | date = 20 July 1984 | work = The Boston Globe | pages = 1 }}

Lewis was seriously injured in an automobile accident in October 1962, an event which greatly curtailed his performing.{{cite journal|title=New York Beat|journal=Jet|date=December 20, 1962|volume=XXIII|issue=9|pages=63}}

Lewis became Boston's first African-American disk jockey when he went to work at WBMS (later WILD){{cite news | first = James | last = Vaznis | title = William Sebastian Lewis, 79; was jazz musician, disc jockey | date = 11 July 1994 | work = The Boston Globe | quote = In the 1950s, Mr. Lewis took to the airwaves of WBMS, later known as WILD, as Boston's first black disc jockey.}} in the 1950s.{{cite news|title=Sabby Lewis; Pianist, 79|work=The New York Times|date=14 July 1994 |page=8|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/07/14/obituaries/sabby-lewis-pianist-79.html}} Lewis received a proclamation from Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis in 1984. The special music citation celebrated his work and his place in the African-American history of Boston.{{cite news | first = James | last = Vaznis | title = William Sebastian Lewis, 79; was jazz musician, disc jockey | date = 11 July 1994 | work = The Boston Globe | quote = In 1984, he received a proclamation from then Gov. Michael Dukakis for his work and as a part of the celebration of 350 years of black presence in Boston, Mr. Lewis received a special music achievement award.}}

Lewis had second career as a housing investigator for the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination. A position from which he retired in 1984.{{cite news | first = Ernie | last = Santosuosso | title = WEEKEND; SABBY'S RETIRING - BUT NOT FROM MUSIC | date = 20 July 1984 | newspaper=The Boston Globe | page = 1 }}

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Category:1994 deaths

Category:1914 births

Category:American bandleaders

Category:20th-century American musicians