Sabby Lewis papers, 1920s-1990s

Jazz pianist and bandleader William Sebastian “Sabby” Lewis (1914-1994) was born in Middleburg, N.C. and grew up in Philadelphia. Lewis studied piano from the age of five and as a youth played for rent-raising parties and in small dance groups. Lewis’ family moved to Boston in 1932 following his high school graduation; Lewis took courses for a year at New England Conservatory but primarily focused on gigging. After a short stint with Tasker Crosson’s Ten Statesmen’s Band in 1934, Lewis organized the Sabby Lewis Band in 1936.

The band became a mainstay at notable Boston jazz venues such as the Roseland-State Ballroom, Egleston Square Gardens, and especially The Savoy Café, where they performed regularly through 1946. The eight-piece band (three saxes, two brass, three rhythm) included Lewis on piano; Gene Caines and Maceo Bryant on brass; drummer Joe Booker; saxophonists Jerry Heffron (a Boston Conservatory alumni), Elliott “Ricky” Pratt, and Jackie Fields; and bassist and sometimes-vocalist Al Morgan who joined in 1941. Later members included Bill Dorsey, Paul Gonsalves, Big Nick Nicholas, Sonny Stitt, Jimmy Tyler, Cat Anderson, Freddie Webster, Idress Sulieman (Leonard Graham), Ray Perry, Roy Haynes, and Osie Johnson. The band was often joined by a vocalist, most frequently Evelyn White. Collaborators in the forties and fifties included Nat King Cole, Dinah Washington, Billy Eckstein, Jackie Mabley, Lil Green, Billie Holiday, Coles Atkins, George Shearing Trio, Sugar Chile Robinson, and others.

In 1942, the Lewis band won a listener contest sponsored by the F. W. Fitch Company, to appear regularly on NBC's The Fitch Bandwagon. Lewis advertised his band as the Fitch Band Wagon Orchestra thereafter. The band alternated engagements at Boston and New York City nightclubs and ballrooms throughout the forties, including Club Zanzibar, Kelly’s Stables, Club Tondalayo, Club Ebony, Club Baron, and the Apollo in NYC, and Wally’s, the Down Beat Club, the Hi-Hat, and the Show Boat in Boston. Lewis led recording sessions for Continental, Crystal Tone, and Mercury in the post-war years and for a short time owned the Sabby Lewis Restaurant at 422 Massachusetts Avenue.

In December 1949, all members of Lewis’ band quit due to financial difficulties. Lewis built a new band with Alan Dawson (later replaced by Joe Gordon), Lennie Johnson, Hy Lockhart, Danny Potter, George Perry, Elwyn Fraser, and Champ Jones. In addition to their residency at Wally’s, the group played as the house band for Sugar Hill, Showtime, and the Jazz Box. After the band broke up in 1957, Lewis continued to lead small groups through the 1950s and early 60s. He joined WBMS as one of Boston’s earliest Black disc jockeys from 1952 to 1957, and also worked solo playing intermission piano in Boston lounges.

In 1962, Lewis suffered several broken fingers in a car crash and took a hiatus from performance. In 1964 he became a housing investigator for the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination. He resumed playing in the early 1970s and continued to perform across the Boston area for the next twenty years, almost up until his death in 1994.