Dave Lewis
King of the Northwest Hammond

If you’re rapping about masters of the Hammond, and you drop the name Dave Lewis, you’re likely to be met by slack jaws and blank stares. That is, unless you’re in Seattle.

The period between the late 50’s and the mid 60’s was a hugely fertile one for R&B and rock in the Pacific Northwest, more specifically Seattle and Tacoma in Washington and Portland in Oregon. Bands like the Wailers, the Sonics, the Kingsmen, Don & The Goodtimes, the Viceroys and others were huge local favorites, many of them tasting national fame at least once. The music most of these groups made was a frantic white variation on black R&B. In fact the biggest hit to come out of this scene was the Kingsmen’s remake of Richard Berry’s legendary  ‘Louie Louie’. Dave Lewis was, literally the only major black player in this crowd of musicians.

Lewis started out in the late 50’s leading the Dave Lewis Combo, a 5-piece R&B band in which he played piano. By 1960 Lewis had switched to the Hammond, the instrument on which he would create his biggest successes. His core combo, which aside from himself featured Seattle fixture Joe Johansen on guitar and Dicky Enfield on drums, would record a string of 45’s (and at least one LP) for the local  Jerden, Panorama and Picadilly labels and nationally for A&M.

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