Mel Lewis’ father was a professional drummer and Mel would follow in his footsteps.  He was born on May 10, 1929 in Buffalo, New York. Mel was working full time by the time he was 15, and kept time for the Boyd Raeburn, Stan Kenton and Gerry Mulligan big bands.  In 1962 he toured the Soviet Union with Benny Goodman.

Beginning in 1966 Mel Lewis co-led a big band with trumpeter and cornetist Thad Jones that played Monday nights at the Village Vanguard in New York City.  The band, made up of studio musicians, specialized in compositions and arrangements by Jones, but when Jones moved to Europe in 1978 Lewis kept the band together until his death twelve years later.

Lewis is probably best known as a big band drummer, but he also participated in countless small group recording dates with musicians Chet Baker, Eric Dolphy, Stan Getz and bluesman Jimmy Witherspoon.

Here is a link to Lewis playing in a small group setting for Swiss television.  The excerpt begins with a drum solo by Mel, followed by a harmonica solo by Toots Thielemans, Horst Jankowski on piano, Pierre Cavalli playing guitar and Mats Vinding on bass.  The tune is the Neal Hefti tune Cute:

"CUTE"