JOEY LEWIS

 

KING OF THE 'SAGA THING'

 

By Caldeo Sookram

Sunday Express

Section 2

July 23, 2000

Page 3

 

Joey Lewis takes credit for introducing some new things in local music.  His band started off in the 1950s, an era when saga boys ruled the town.  Lewis quickly took note of that and one day while plucking the strings on his guitar, he came up with a new beat, which he called the "Saga thing".

 

The emphasis of the beat was based on a unique style of strumming the guitar, says Lewis.  The beat picked up, and a Saga thing dance soon arrived in the dancehalls around the country.  Party-goers stepping onto the dance floor started pointing their index fingers towards the sky.  The rest were just natural movements in true Trini style.

 

Saga thing took the country by storm.  Top calypsonians were singing to the beat.  Other bands were soon embracing the saga thing.  Every guitarist was trying to strum like Lewis and, according to him; those who couldn't play the beat were booted out of their bands.

 

"Some guitar men lost their work because they couldn't play the saga thing beat," says Lewis.

 

He started playing music at the age of ten, with his elder brothers Sonny and Randolph.  They had their own separate bands.

 

On his first public engagement with Sonny's band he played the piano.  He recalls that the party was held in a house.  "The party was swinging and the floor was sinking under the weight of human beings.  They grabbed me out to safety otherwise it would have had a different outcome."

 

But things changed after a few years.  Sonny decided that he didn't want any little boys around in his band.  He fired Joey.

 

That only inspired young Joey, then aged 16, to form his own band.  With a bunch of friends, Lewis being the youngest, a new band was launched in 1954.  The band comprised Joey Lewis on the piano, Johnny Bristol, trumpet; Horace Henry, alto saxophone; Jeffery Jordan, tenor saxophone; Horace Gordon, bass; Alvin Cummings, drums; Noel Proute, congas; Billy Greene, timbales and Ernest Guerra, bongos.

 

They called the band Joey Lewis and the Teenagers.  Playing for a gentleman named Maurice Richards, the band's first engagement, they received a tidy sum of $16, Joey Lewis remembers.

 

In those days John "Buddy" Williams was the heavyweight on the music scene, says Lewis, who recalls a musical shootout with Buddy in 1956.  "We played four tunes and Buddy played four tunes.  The judge Pat Castagne declared a draw.  We played another rounds and so did Buddy.  The judge again declared a draw.  The prize money of $50 was shared between both bands."

 

Lewis said people felt his band had won the contest, but the judge told him later that he couldn't allow a youth like him to beat a top brass like "Buddy" Williams.

 

Joey Lewis was the first youth band to hit the scene in the 1950s.  after them came the Dutchy Brothers, Clarence Curvan, Boyie Lewis, Vin Cardinal and Ed Watson, among others.

 

Competition was fierce, he says, and his band had to hold tight to survive.  But most importantly, Lewis says that to stay in the business successfully for more than four decades, he learned to compose and arrange his own music.  "When I opened my band I was forced to learn to write music, because when you have to pay a man to compose and arrange, then that is a big bite off the band's earnings."

 

It was while playing with his brother Sonny that Lewis learned to write music.  He admits that he wasn't accurate in his placings of the crochets, minims, quavers, bars and chords.

 

But he kept working hard at it and during some of his overseas trips he bought music books, from which he learned a lot.  "From what I've learned, I was able to teach my brother Boyie and he in turn was able to teach Ed Watson," says Lewis.

 

But there's one musician whom Lewis holds in high esteem - Frankie Francis.  "I learned a lot from Frankie.  Whenever I turned to him for help, he willingly assisted me.  He is one of our greatest musicians."

 

Over the years the band made several changes, with new instruments replacing old ones.  The name changed too.  Known today as Pal Joey Lewis and his Orchestra, the leader explains that many years ago, his friends saw a movie with Frank Sinatra.  In that movie there was a business place with the sign "Pal Joey" written at the front of a building.  "My friends invited me to see the movie.  We all enjoyed it.

 

"After that they started calling me 'Pal Joey'.  Well, the name sounded nice so we adopted it for the band."

 

Today the band has ten members.  "One of my sons Jerry Lewis has been playing keyboard for the last 19 years.  Another member George Boucaud, an alto saxophone player is still with the band after 44 years.

 

"After my first alto saxophone player Horace Henry left to go abroad, I was looking around for a good player.  I remember Roy Cape came and auditioned, but he couldn't just make it.  You see I was looking for a now-for-now player.  Then George Boucaud came and fitted in with the band.  He has been here ever since," says Joey.

 

"It was real tough in the early days," recalls Lewis.  I remember we got six flat tyres while going to play in a fete at Mayaro.  "That was only a little piece of adventure."

 

He has travelled extensively throughout the Caribbean, North America and Europe.  He remembers meeting a lot of celebrities, among them jazz greats Buddy Taylor and Dizzy Gillespie at Carnegie Hall.  He remembers Dizzy's advice to him in 1965: "If they (musicians) selling oranges, you sell apples Joey."

 

"I did exactly that and it has kept going to this day."

 

Pal Joey has done recordings with top calypsonians like Sparrow, Duke, Terror, Shorty, Chalkdust and Singing Francine.  He has performed on Scouting For Talent, won Brass-o-Rama in 1979 and the Best Playing Band on the road for Carnival.  For 20 years his bad has brightened up the streets of Port of Spain for Carnival.

 

He has among his collection of instruments the first semi-solid guitar to arrive in Trinidad and Tobago.  "That is now a piece of antique," he says.

 

For his life-long contribution to music Joey Lewis was presented the key to the city of Port of Spain last Thursday.  In fact, that day was declared "Joey Lewis Day".

 

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