Jean Ethel "Jeannie" Lewis was born on 8 January 1945 and is an Australian musician and stage performer whose work covers many different styles such as folk, jazz, Latin, blues, opera, rock and fusion.
34 Facts About Jeannie Lewis
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Jean Ethel Lewis was born in 1945 as the only daughter of Samuel Phineas Lewis, a school teacher and trade union official, and Ethel Caroline, a school teacher.
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Jeannie Lewis was a member of the York Gospel Singers alongside Alison MacCallum.
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Jeannie Lewis sang with the Ray Price Jazz Quintet, the Nat Oliver Jazz Band and the Alan Lee Jazz Quintet.
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Jeannie Lewis was a member of the Sydney University Organising Committee for Action on Aboriginal Rights to organise action around National Aborigines Day on 8 July 1964.
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Jeannie Lewis was arrested in a demonstration in May 1964 at Wynyard, and helped arrange folk singers for a concert in Hyde Park to raise funds for the Freedom Ride, as well as appearing in another fund-raising concert at Paddington Town Hall.
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Jeannie Lewis represented Australia at the International Festival of Contemporary Song in Cuba in 1967.
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Jeannie Lewis was one of 67 demonstrators fined for "obstructing traffic", in May 1968 while protesting against conscription during the Vietnam War, out front of the Prime Minister's Lodge.
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Jeannie Lewis, on lead vocals, was a member of a band, Gypsy Train, later in 1970; fellow members were Bobby Gebert on piano, John Helman on bass guitar, Daryl McKenzie on drums, Kydric Shaw on guitar and Terry Wilson on vocals.
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In March 1972 Love 200 was staged in Adelaide, where Jeannie Lewis performed with Fraternity, fronted by Bon Scott, and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.
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Jeannie Lewis recorded vocals for the Ray Price Jazz Quintet album, Spectrum.
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Jeannie Lewis had to provide an acoustic set as the sound gear was not yet installed by the festival's organisers.
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In 1972 Jeannie Lewis performed songs, including the title track, for an Australian B-grade rock musical, science fiction-fantasy, film Shirley Thompson vs the Aliens, directed by Jim Sharman.
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Jeannie Lewis worked on an "ill-fated rock opera", Terry and Frankie, in 1972.
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Jeannie Lewis released her first album, Free Fall Through Featherless Flight, via EMI.
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Jeannie Lewis was appointed to the Music Board of the Australia Council for the Arts in February 1973.
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In 1975 Jeannie Lewis was awarded a study grant of A$8000 from the Australia Council for the Arts to travel overseas from February 1976; she spent almost three years in Central and South America and returned late in 1978.
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Jeannie Lewis issued a compilation album, Till Time Brings Change, in 1980.
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In November 1981 Jeannie 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.
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Jeannie Lewis devised, with John Derum, Piaf, the Songs and the Story, which premiered at the Princess Theatre, Melbourne in February 1982.
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Also in 1982 Jeannie Lewis created and performed For a Dancer about her mother's life; it premiered at the Adelaide Festival.
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In May 1982 Jeannie Lewis supported and performed at an anti-mining rally in Broken Hill against the proposed the Honeymoon Uranium Mine.
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Jeannie Lewis presented a new show, So You Want Blood, in 1983 and released an album of the same name in September.
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Jeannie Lewis performed Ta Paratragouda in Melbourne, again, which was recorded for SBS and Greek TV.
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Jeannie 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.
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Jeannie Lewis 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.
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Jeannie Lewis had a new show, Voxy Lady, at the Adelaide Festival in 1990; it had Llew Kiek as musical director, Lois Ellis as stage director.
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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".
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In 1992 Jeannie Lewis devised a cabaret of contemporary love songs, Dangerous Lovers.
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Jeannie Lewis performed alongside Margret RoadKnight, Moya Simpson and Blair Greenberg, at the Sydney Opera House for the 1995 season of Cinderella Acappella, which is a collection of children's songs, written by Simpson's partner, John Shortis.
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Jeannie Lewis released an album, Tango Australis, in 1998, which is based on her concert program of that name.
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Jeannie 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.
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Jeannie Lewis performed in the Trade Union Concert in 2003 and in a tribute to Timorese women concert, in 2004.
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In 2009 Jeannie Lewis gave the Seventeenth Annual Bell Jazz Lecture.