Jeannie Lewis

Jean Ethel "Jeannie" Lewis (born 8 January 1945) is an Australian musician and stage performer whose work covers many different styles such as folk, jazz, Latin, blues, opera, rock and fusion. Her music often includes a strong social consciousness and political statements. Australian musicologist, Ian McFarlane, described her as "one of the most enigmatic and expressive, yet underrated singers Australia has ever produced... Always able to adapt her emotional and dramatic voice to suit a range of moods and styles." Jean Ethel Lewis was born in 1945 as the only daughter of Samuel Phineas Lewis (1901–1976), a school teacher and trade union official, and Ethel Caroline (née Teerman, c. 1908–1985), also a school teacher. She later recalled, "I grew up with left-wing parents who were not only good human beings, but whose dreams were about quality for everyone." She attended Sydney Girls High School and studied at the University of Sydney. She started "on a teaching scholarship, majoring in French and modern history." Instead of teaching Lewis worked an office job and began her musical career in the 1960s in Sydney. She was a member of the York Gospel Singers alongside Alison MacCallum. and the Radiation Quartet. She sang with the Ray Price Jazz Quintet, the Nat Oliver Jazz Band and the Alan Lee Jazz Quintet. She was a member of the Sydney University Organising Committee for Action on Aboriginal Rights to organise action around National Aborigines Day on 8 July 1964. She was arrested in a demonstration in May 1964 at Wynyard, and helped arrange folk singers for a concert in Hyde Park to raise funds for the Freedom Ride, as well as appearing in another fund-raising concert at Paddington Town Hall. She represented Australia at the International Festival of Contemporary Song in Cuba in 1967. Lewis was one of 67 demonstrators fined for "obstructing traffic", in May 1968 while protesting against conscription during the Vietnam War, out front of the Prime Minister's Lodge. In February 1970 Lewis sang with progressive rockers, Tully, in a performance, Love 200, which used two vocalists, a light show by Roger Foley-Fogg a.k.a. Ellis D Fogg and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Created by Peter Sculthorpe, it was written to commemorate the bicentenary of Captain Cook's journey to plot the transit of Venus in 1770, which led to his "discovery" of Australia's east coast by the British explorer. Lewis, on lead vocals, was a member of a band, Gypsy Train, later in 1970; fellow members were Bobby Gebert on piano, John Helman on bass guitar (ex-Levi Smith's Clefs), Daryl McKenzie on drums, Kydric Shaw on guitar and Terry Wilson on vocals (of Tully). In March 1972 Love 200 was staged in Adelaide, where Lewis performed with Fraternity, fronted by Bon Scott, and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. She recorded vocals for the Ray Price Jazz Quintet album, Spectrum (1971). In April of that year she performed in the Timeless Trip as part of the Fairlight Festival, near Mittagong, with eight other performers. She had to provide an acoustic set as the sound gear was not yet installed by the festival's organisers. In 1972 Lewis performed songs, including the title track, for an Australian B-grade rock musical, science fiction-fantasy, film Shirley Thompson vs. the Aliens, directed by Jim Sharman. It was described as, "loathed by underground art-house and commercial managements alike".[citation needed] She worked on an "ill-fated rock opera", Terry and Frankie, in 1972. During November of that year she supported United States visitors, Buddy Guy, Junior Wells and Arthur Crudup. Lewis released her first album, Free Fall Through Featherless Flight (October 1973), via EMI. It was recorded with Les Hodge producing and Michael Carlos on moog, organ and harpsichord (ex-Tully, Levi Smith's Clefs); Ken Firth on bass guitar (ex-Tully); Greg Henson on drums; Marcia Hines on backing vocals; Alan Lee on percussion; Jamie McKinley on piano; Mike Reid on guitar; Shayna Stewart on backing vocals (ex-Tully); Mike Wade on guitar; The Fidelio String Quartet and a wind section. The cover art was designed by Martin Sharp – Lewis had sung at the opening of his art exhibition in April of that year. According to Australian musicologist, Ian McFarlane, "[it] included a breathtaking array of material like Graham Lowndes' 'Till Time Brings Change', Gulliver Smith and Jeremy Noone's 'It's Up to You' and Billy Green's adaptation of the Dylan Thomas poem 'Do not Go Gentle'." In 1974 it was awarded Best Female Vocal Album in the Australian Radio Record Awards. Fellow singer-songwriter, Bob Hudson, observed, "her appeal lies in the fact that when she is singing, what's happening up there on stage is for you, the audience, and you can feel it. She bleeds for the people she's singing to — she expresses the human condition." Lewis was appointed to the Music Board of the Australia Council for the Arts in February 1973. With John Bell and Jon English, she worked in a rock musical, The Bacchoi, written by Bryan Nason and Ralph Tyrrell based on the story of Euripides. It was the first show for the Nimrod Theatre Company at Belvoir St in Surry Hills. In 1974 a live album, Looking Backwards to Tomorrow, in and out of Concert, was released and performed on stage at the State Theatre in Sydney. McFarlane described how it features, "[her] renditions of songs by Ray Davies ('Celluloid Heroes'), Dory Previn ('Scared to Be Alone'), Stephen Sondheim ('Ladies Who Lunch'), Graham Lowndes ('The House Is Burning') and the Rev. Gary Davies ('Cocaine Blues' with backing provided by the Foreday Riders)." Her next album, Tears of Steel & The Clowning Cavaleras was a double album released in 1976 to go with a multi-media performance featuring song, theatre, dance and visuals, which had premiered at the York Theatre, Seymour Centre in the preceding November. The project was partly inspired by Pablo Neruda's poem, "Tears of Steel", and the Mexican celebration, Day of the Dead, which includes the use of calaveras – mock skeletons paraded through the streets. Alongside Lewis in the show were Carlos, Reid, Dave Ellis, Roger Frampton, Phillip Godden, Mike McGurk and John Sangster. It was produced and directed by Ted Robinson with Sharp designing the sets. In 1975 Lewis was awarded a study grant of A$8000 from the Australia Council for the Arts to travel overseas from February 1976; she spent almost three years in Central and South America and returned late in 1978. She later explained to Clive Simmons of The Canberra Times, how she was, "shocked and appalled by the grinding poverty she saw there, and by the cruelty and barbarity of the military dictatorships which governed those nations. By the time she returned, she had been radicalised by the experience." In 1979 with her band, Jeannie Lewis and the Company She Keeps, she created and performed a series of shows: From Maroubra to Mexico. Peter Ross of Tharunka observed, "she had full houses at the Kirk for her show. From Maroubra to Mexico, the Multinational Stomp. At these concerts she revealed a renewed dedication to social and political change." In July of that year she supported John McLaughlin on his Australian tour. Lewis devised a cabaret show, Krazy for You, using material by Noël Coward, Nick Lowe, and Bruce Springsteen, which she performed during 1979–80. Lewis issued a compilation album, Till Time Brings Change, in 1980. She appeared in the title role of Piaf at the Comedy Theatre, Melbourne in September. In November 1981 Lewis took the role of Low Dive Jenny, a world weary hooker, in the State Theatre Company of South Australia's production of Brecht's The Threepenny Opera. The Canberra Times' theatre critic, Ken Healey observed, "the best way to describe, and praise, the singing is to recall that [Lewis] was the best but not the only singer on stage. There was never a moment when one felt that here was a singer acting while beside her were actors singing." She devised, with John