Meade Lux Lewis

Anderson Meade Lewis (September 4, 1905 – June 7, 1964), known as Meade Lux Lewis, was an American blues, jazz and boogie woogie pianist. Together with Pete Johnson and Albert Ammons he made boogie woogie popular.
Life
Lewis was born Meade Anderson Lewis in Chicago, Illinois . He started playing the piano not until his 18th year.In his youth he was influenced by the pianist Jimmy Yancey.

His first recording was "Honky Tonk Train Blues" for Paramount in 1927. The title was influenced by his youth where a railway run beside his home. The record was not very successful, so he washed cars to make a living. He rerecorded it for other labels in 1935 and 1937. Nearly each boogie pianist has recorded this title(f.e.Jean-Paul Amouroux, Keith Emerson, Jay McShann, Lloyd Glenn, Jörg Hegemann, Gene Phillips, Michael Pewny, Gene Taylor, Tim Wheals und Axel Zwingenberger). 1935 he was found by John Hammond and started a new career. In 1938 he played together with Pete Johnson and Albert Ammons in John Hammonds famous From Spirituals to Swing concert at Carnegie Hall. After this the pianists often played together at  Café Society and toured together. In 1941 he went to Los Angeles.

Lewis was the first pianist who played on the celeste and the  harpsichord in jazz and boogie records. In his later years he was uncomfortable with his fame as jazz and boogie pianist, so he played ragtime and pop songs. He did recordings till 1962 but at this time he was already forgotten.All about Jazz bio  He died on June 7th, 1964 in a car accident in Minneapolis.

Albums
This  three compilation albums from Classics give a good overview over Lewis´work.
    1927-1939
  1939-1941
  1941-1944

References

Category:Chicago blues musicians
Category:Blues pianists
Category:Boogie Woogie pianists
Category:American jazz pianists
Category:1905 births
Category:1964 deaths