Lewis was born and grew up in Lancashire. He came to Devon in 1970 to study at Dartington College of Arts and Rolle College Exmouth where he qualified a s a secondary teacher and, apart from a six -year period teaching music at Droitwich High School in Worcestershire, has remained in the area.
He taught music at Foxhole, part of Dartington Hall School from 1979 until it’s closure in 1987, since when he has been a freelance, self employed musician and music teacher specialising in jazz.
For 5 years (1985 to 1990) he directed a regular jazz workshop at Exeter and Devon Arts Centre (now The Phoenix) and also ran jazz evening classes in Totnes.
In the mid 1980s Lewis joined the folk based trio Threeway Street. It included singers and multi – instrumentalists Sam Richards and Tish Stubbs and include a great deal of original material, some of it co – written by Lewis. The band toured the UK a number of times and appeared at various folk festivals and even played one number at the Festival Hall in a benefit for the striking miners organised by Ewan McColl in 1985.
In 1986, he became co-director (with Keith Tippett) of the two week Jazz course at Dartington International Summer School which continues until the present . This has built up over the years to include about 35 students each week of all ages and musical experience all playing together in a large ensemble and producing a concert at the end of each week.
From 1987 until 2010 he worked part-time as an associate lecturer at Dartington College of Arts, teaching jazz piano and running a weekly jazz workshop for undergraduates as well as performing a variety of teaching, supervising and assessing duties.
During the 1980s Lewis developed his jazz playing and composing for a number of ensembles, chiefly a quartet with Mick green on sax, Dave Goodier on bass and Coach York on drums. He also played in Charlie Hearnshaw’s quartet, notably backing Slim Gaillard at the Exeter Arts Centre and joined the Midlands based band Pulse which featured singer Maggie Nicols, Fred T. Baker on bass and the late trumpeter Harry Beckett, which toured a number of times and made an LP which featured two of Lewis’ compositions.
His own band has often backed visiting jazz soloists such as saxophonists Don Rendell, Kathy Stobart and Mornington Lockett, guitarist John Etheridge and Harry Beckett. He also was involved in various Jazz In Education projects throughout the South West, including two with Maggie Nicols, teaching and performing in schools and Arts centres in Bristol, Somerset and Devon.
In the 90s Lewis completed a B.Phil. (Ed) degree in Music Education at Exeter University and briefly returned to part time music teaching at Churston Ferrers Grammar School. He was one of a group of local musicians to form the Totnes Jazz Collective in 1995 and ran a big band under their name, which also obtained National Lottery funding to work in schools in Devon and Cornwall, and in 1996/7 became a PRS funded Composer in Residence in three Cornish schools (Bude, Torpoint and Callington ) working with GCSE and "A" level students. For three years (1997 – 2000) Lewis worked for Dartington Arts as a music programmer, booking artistes and running concerts, mostly in Dartington Great Hall, of classical, jazz, folk and world music, also programming for the University of Exeter Subscription Series and Thursday lunchtime concerts.
In 2000 Lewis successfully obtained a grant of over £58,000 from Youth Music to start up a Saturday Music School (known as SaMS) at King Edward VI Community College (KEVICC) in Totnes, which continues to this day. He is administrator of 12 tutors and around 150 young people between the ages of 5 and 18 attend on a regular basis. Since 2008 he has also run a successful Big Band for KEVICC students.
In 2004 Lewis established a weekend course at the Kingcombe Centre near Bridport in Dorset, which runs every October and has attracted 15 to 20 participants every year.
There have also been various other shorter projects of note that have kept Lewis busy, including
- 1989 - 96, being a visiting Jazz Piano Tutor and Lecturer in Jazz and North Indian Classical Music at the University of Exeter, Dept. of Education (St. Lukes)
- being commissioned by Dartington Arts and the Dartington Trio to compose a work for the Trio to perform with children from Dartington Primary School. "Mother Goose" was performed in the Great Hall at Dartington in Dec. 1998.
- in 2002 a 6 month temporary contract teaching on the B. Mus jazz course at Truro College
- in 2008 forming The Mother People, a nine piece band playing the music of Frank Zappa with daughter Harriet playing tuned percussion
- in 2009 being appointed as a tutor for South West Music School, working with a singer on piano skills
- in 2010 teaching AS level set works at KEVICC
One of the reasons for studying at Dartington College in the first place was that they included Indian Music in their curriculum, a rare thing in 1970. Alisair Dick, an accomplished sitar player was the tutor, and Lewis learned tabla from Alistair, and later from the late Ustad Latif Khan, who was visiting the UK on a regular basis, accompanying renowned sitarist Ustad Imrat Khan. Lewis has continued to play tabla in both his own compositions and in traditional Indian music, notably being part of the organisation set up by Yehudi Menhuin, “Live Music Now” which takes music to hospitals, day centres and other places where music is not a regular feature. He accompanied two sitarists in these performances – John Perkins and Gerry Farrell, both of whom are sadly not with us any more, notably with Gerry in a three day tour of North Wales and playing at the Edinburgh Festival in 1987. Lewis and John also played at the Glastonbury festival in 1986.
Lewis continues to play tabla and in recent years has performed with Chinmaya Dunster (sarod) and Ricky Romain (sitar).
COMPOSITIONS and PERFORMANCES
Lewis has composed over one hundred pieces, mostly in the jazz idiom for large and small ensembles including arrangements for Jazz workshops and the Totnes Jazz Collective Big Band. He has also composed incidental music and songs for school drama productions, notably a full length rock musical "The Voyage and Homecoming of Ulysses" with drama teacher Derek Paget, at Droitwich High School (1978).
Major venue performances of compositions include:
Lewis Riley Band (sextet) - St. Georges, Brandon Hill, Bristol.
- Dartington Hall, Devon.
- The Albert, Bristol
Lewis Riley Quartet with Maggie Nicols (voice) (South West Arts Tour)
The Arnolfini, Bristol.
The Guildhall, Gloucester.
"Pulse"(Midlands based quintet)- "The Band on the Wall", Manchester. Arts Centres and Jazz clubs in Derby, Birmingham, Leicester and Exeter
"Threeway Street" (Folk-based trio) - Royal Festival Hall, London, Folk Clubs and Arts Centres from Penzance to Kendal.
“Mother People” – leader and keyboard player in 9 piece band playing the music of Frank Zappa in various South West venues.
RECORDINGS
"What Is There To Say" (LP) by Droitwich High School Blues Band (1978)
"Drunkards and Lovers"(LP) by Threeway Street , Fellside Recordings (1986)
"Stormy Weather"(LP) by Pulse, Spotlite Records (1987)
"Autobiography"(Cassette) by Lewis Riley, Daylight Recordings (1992),
re- released on CD, July 2005. click here for details and to buy »
"Mother Goose"(Cassette) by Lewis Riley (director and composer), words trad. and by pupils at Dartington Primary School; played by the Dartington Trio, the school orchestra and sung by children from the School (1999).
"Home (Is Where The Heart Is)" (CD) by Lewis Riley.11 instrumental tracks, including 6 originals, played by Lewis' regular quartet and quintet (1999). click here for details and to buy »
“The Darwin Suite” (CD) by David Haines. Worked as arranger and pianist to prepare choral pieces for trio and jazz singer Sue Kibbey (2008). click here for details and to buy »
“On the Sunny Side” (CD) by the Lewis Riley Trio (2010). click here for details and to buy »
BROADCASTS
Threeway Street- Various TV appearances on TSW and HTV 1984-86
Lewis Riley Band - BBC Radio 3 "Impressions"; 40 Min. live recording from St. Georges Brandon Hill, Bristol, 9th Oct. 1993.
PUBLICATIONS
"Starting to Improvise Jazz Piano", Boosey and Hawkes, (1988) now sadly out of print.
Arrangement of “St. Thomas” (Sonny Rollins) in ABRSM Jazz Piano Grade 2.
