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." 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." and studied at the University of Sydney. and the Radiation Quartet. She sang with the Ray Price Jazz Quintet, the Nat Oliver Jazz Band and the Alan Lee Jazz Quintet. She represented Australia at the International Festival of Contemporary Song in Cuba in 1967.

1970s

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 Ellis D Fogg and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. She recorded vocals for the Ray Price Jazz Quintet album, Spectrum (1971). She had to provide an acoustic set as the sound gear was not yet installed by the festival's organisers. directed by Jim Sharman. During November of that year she supported United States visitors, Buddy Guy, Junior Wells and Arthur Crudup.

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'." 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." 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)." 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."

1980s

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.

She devised, with John Derum, Piaf, the Songs and the Story, which premiered at the Princess Theatre, Melbourne in February 1982. She presented a new show, So You Want Blood, in 1983 and released an album of the same name in September. In the following year she appeared in Ta Paratragouda at the Athens Festival, Melbourne.

Lewis travelled overseas in 1987, representing Australia on a tour of Mexico with The Necks for the Cervantes International Arts Festival; it later became a one-hour SBS TV documentary, Maroubra to Mexico. She also sang in Paul Robeson's stage show, Deep Bells Ring and performed Pilgrimages, for which she wrote the text and Jim Cotter wrote the music, dedicated to a friend with AIDS. One of its songs, "Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow", later appeared on her 2003 CD, SouthHeart. The Green Left Weeklys Angela Matheson described the next project, People Like Us, at the Seymour Centre in March 1991: "A female quintet which includes Margret RoadKnight and Jeannie Lewis provides an aural chorus drawing upon a history of music ranging from Hildegard Von Bingen to Cambodian folk songs". It was directed by Peter Kingston with musical direction by Mara Kiek.

In 1992 Lewis devised a cabaret of contemporary love songs, Dangerous Lovers. Also in 1993 she received an Australia Council for the Arts Grant to study Extended Voice Techniques at Roy Hart International Theatre Centre in France and the tango in its sung form in Buenos Aires. Also in 1995 the singer performed in, Viva Diva, a series of concerts featuring original work and music from Greece, Tibet, Beijing, South Africa, Argentina, the Netherlands, Corsica and France. She released an album, Tango Australis, in 1998, which is based on her concert program of that name.

Lewis performed with Annie Deller-Peterson, Leah Cotterell, Bronwyn Calcutt, Katrina Alberts and Alison St Ledger, in Women in Voice 7 in Brisbane in July 1997. Lynda Hansen of Green Left Weekly described her as, "a long-time international performer and writer, delighted the crowd with excerpts from her new show The Baglady Hits Out."

In 1998 Lewis performed at the Homeless Women's Speakout at the YWCA, and in the Port Fairy Folk Festival,

The Palais, a building sings of lives lived in music was at the Parramatta Town Hall, 27–30 July 2000. The show involved more than fifty performers in more than 20 acts and was spread through most of the building. Urban Theatre Projects produced the show. Lewis also performed in the East Timor Year One Celebration to mark and celebrate the first anniversary of East Timor's historic U.N. Referendum on self-determination at Leichhardt on 30 August 2000.

In May 2001 she received an $80,000 Fellowship grant from the Australia Council, which she used to create Southheart. She performed in the Trade Union Concert in 2003 and in a tribute to Timorese women concert, in 2004. Also in 2004 being part of the May Day music festival in South Australia.

In 2009 Jeannie Lewis gave the Seventeenth Annual Bell Jazz Lecture.

Discography Studio albums Title Details Peak chart positions AUS Free Fall Through Featherless Flight Released: October 1973 Label: EMI ( EMC 2505) Format: LP — Tears of Steel & the Clowning Cavaleras Released: May 1976 Label: EMI (EME.1001/2) Format: 2xLP 82 Piaf - The Songs and the Story Released: 1982 Label: WEA (600114) Format: LP, CS — So U Want Blood Released: 1983 Label: Larrikin Records (LRF134) Format: LP, CS — Tango Australis Released: 1998 Label: Sole Music (SOLE 2) Format: CD — Women 'n Blues Released: 2003 Label: Full House Records (FHR 021) Format: CD — South Heart Released: 2003 Format: 2x CD —

Live albums