Biography
The path taken by Ed Lewis through jazz proved unusually circuitous. Though recognized early as a robust soloist, his exceptional sight-reading ability and expansive range kept him from taking many improvised spots after the initial years of the 1930s. He survived nearly all his peers and enjoyed extended stretches of reliable employment, yet those same technical assets ultimately consigned him to relative neglect. In 1924 he performed on baritone horn in Kansas City alongside Jerry Westbrook’s ensemble, only to switch wisely to trumpet the next year. Short engagements with the units of Paul Banks and Laura Rucker preceded his arrival as a central figure in the Bennie Moten Orchestra from 1926 to 1932, where he functioned as principal trumpet soloist—somewhat marked by the style of Bix Beiderbecke—until Hot Lips Page entered the group. Departing Moten, Lewis spent time in the large ensembles directed by Thamon Hayes between 1932 and 1934, Harlan Leonard from 1934 to 1937, and Jay McShann in 1937. A lengthy tenure with Count Basie’s Orchestra followed from 1937 to 1948, during which he appeared on numerous recordings yet soloed almost never; apart from his steady presence, his chief offering was the composition “It’s Sand, Man!” Once the Basie period concluded, Lewis drove a taxi for a while, then from the mid-1950s onward generally fronted his own understated group in New York. Although he never headed a recording session under his own name, Lewis surfaced modestly late in life by touring Europe with the Countsmen in 1984—far later than the many earlier chances he merited to exhibit his gifts.