(Anderson Meade Lewis)
DISCOGRAPHY 1961-2023 (23CD)
Lewis was born in Chicago, though some sources state Louisville,
Kentucky, on September 4, 1905 (September 3 and 13 have also been cited
as his date of birth in various sources). In his youth he was influenced
by the pianist Jimmy Yancey. His father, a guitarist who made two
recordings of his own, introduced Meade to music and arranged for him to
have violin lessons. He gave up the violin at age 16, shortly after his
father's death, and switched to the piano. The nickname "Lux" was given
to him by his boyhood friends.
He would imitate a couple of characters from a popular comic strip in
Chicago, Alphonse and Gaston, and stroke an imaginary beard as part of
the routine. His friends started calling him the Duke of Luxembourg
because of this, and the name stuck for the rest of his life. He became
friends with Albert Ammons during childhood, a friendship that would
last throughout their lives. They went to the same school together
briefly, and they practiced and learned the piano together on the Ammons
family piano.
A 1927 rendition of "Honky Tonk Train Blues”, released by Paramount
Records, marked his recording debut. He remade it for Parlophone in 1935
and for Victor in 1937, and a recording exists of a radio show, Camel
Caravan, broadcast from New York City in 1939, which includes "Honky
Tonk Train Blues”. His performance at John Hammond's historic From
Spirituals to Swing concert at Carnegie Hall in 1938 brought Lewis to
public attention. Following the event, Lewis and two other performers
from that concert, Albert Ammons and Pete Johnson, often appeared as a
trio and became the leading boogie-woogie pianists of the day.
They had an extended engagement at Café Society, toured as a trio, and
inspired the formation of Blue Note Records in 1939. 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.....
(Wikipedia)