Biography

This Northumberland, Pennsylvania native got his start in the early 1940s playing in dance bands as a fifteen year old high school student when he filled in for older musicians who were being drafted. In 1945, he too went into the army, and after the war's end, got musical training at the Berklee School of Music. After school, Lew started playing with "name" bands like Charlie Barnett, Ray Anthony, Freddie Martin and spent five years with Harry James. In the late '50s, he became a staff player at CBS in Hollywood, and working on a daily radio show called 'Matinee,' he met Billy Strange. Lew: "When Billy began writing for a lot of rock 'n' rollers and started working as a session leader, he brought me in." Twenty years, and over twenty thousand records later, when asked which one he's most proud of, Lew said 'The next one' and 'All of them.'