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George Lewis (13 July 1900 – 31 December 1968) was an American jazz clarinetist who achieved his greatest fame and influence in the later decades of his life. Lewis was born Joseph Louis Francois Zenon, in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana. Lewis' great-great grandmother by his mother, Alice Zeno, was a Senegalese slave who was brought over to Louisana around 1803. Zeno's family retained some knowledge of Senegalese language and customs until Alice's generation. Lewis was playing clarinet professionally by 1917, at the age of seventeen, working with Buddy Petit and Chris Kelly... MORE

George Lewis (13 July 1900 – 31 December 1968) was an American jazz clarinetist who achieved his greatest fame and influence in the later decades of his life. Lewis was born Joseph Louis Francois Zenon, in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana. Lewis' great-great grandmother by his mother, Alice Zeno, was a Senegalese slave who was brought over to Louisana around 1803. Zeno's family retained some knowledge of Senegalese language and customs until Alice's generation. Lewis was playing clarinet professionally by 1917, at the age of seventeen, working with Buddy Petit and Chris Kelly regularly as well as the trombonist Kid Ory and other leaders. At this time, he seldom traveled far from the greater New Orleans area. During the Great Depression he took a job as a stevedore, continuing to take as many music jobs after hours as he could find, a schedule that often meant he got very little sleep. In 1942, when a group of New Orleans jazz enthusiasts, including jazz historian Bill Russell, went to New Orleans to record the older trumpeter Bunk Johnson, Johnson chose Lewis as his clarinetist. Previously almost unknown outside of New Orleans, Lewis was soon asked to make his first LESS