Jeannie Lewis
Encyclopedia
Jeannie Lewis (born 8 January 1945) is an Australia
n musician and stage performer whose work covers many different styles such as folk, jazz, Latin, blues, opera, rock, fusion. Her music often includes a strong social consciousness and she is capable of making very strong political statements in her work.
. and studied at University of Sydney
She began her musical career in the 1960s in Sydney
. She was a part of the York Gospel Singers and the Radiation Quartet and sang with The Ray Price Jazz Quintet, The Nat Oliver Jazz Band and The Alan Lee Jazz Quintet.
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. She was arrested in a demonstration in May 1964 at Wynyard
and she helped arrange the 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. She represented Australia
at the International Festival of Contemporary Song in Cuba
in 1967.
in an ambitious rock performance named Love 200 which involved 2 vocalists, a rock band and an orchestra. Created by Peter Sculthorpe
it was written to commemorate the Captain Cook bicentennial and explored themes of Captain Cook's journey to plot the transit of Venus
in 1770, the voyage that led to his "discovery" of Australia. Also in 1970 Lewis had a band named Gypsy Train. In March 1971 Love 200 travelled to Adelaide
and this time Lewis performed with Fraternity
, fronted by Bon Scott
, and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
. Lewis also appeared on the Ray Price Jazz Quintet album Spectrum, and in April performed at the Timeless Trip at Fairlight with eight other performers.
In 1972 Lewis performed the songs for an Australian B-grade rock musical/science fiction/fantasy movie Shirley Thompson vs. the Aliens
, directed by Jim Sharman
and noted for being "loathed by underground art-house and commercial managements alike", and in an ill-fated rock opera Terry and Frankie.
In 1973 Lewis released her first album, Free Fall Through Featherless Flight. The cover was designed by Martin Sharp
. In 1974 it was awarded Best Female Vocal Album in the Australian Radio Record Awards. Also in 1973 Lewis joined the Music Board of the Australian Council for the Arts, and she, John Bell
and Jon English were in a rock musical called The Bacchoi, based on the story of Euripides
and written by Bryan Nason and Ralph Tyrrel. It was the first show for the Nimrod Theatre Company
in their new location at Belvoir St in Surry Hills
.
In 1974 Looking Backwards To Tomorrow, In and Out of Concert was released and also performed on stage at the State Theatre
in Sydney
, and Tears Of Steel & The Clowning Cavaleras was released in 1975 to go with a multi media production featuring song, theatre, dance and visuals. In 1975 Lewis was awarded a grant from the Australia Council for the Arts to study overseas and spent 2 years in Central
and South America
. In 1979, with her band Jeannie Lewis and the Company She Keeps she created and performed a series of shows titled From Maroubra to Mexico. Later that year she supported John McLaughlin on his Australian tour. Krazy For You was the cabaret Jeannie devised and performed in 1979-80.
. 1981 saw Lewis perform in a stage production of the Threepenny Opera as a world weary hooker with the South Australian Theatre Company. She also created and starred in Piaf, The Songs and the Story which included 4 national tours, with an album of 15 songs from the show being released in 1982. Also in 1982 Lewis created and performed For a Dancer about her mothers life. This premiered at the Adelaide Festival
.
In 1982 Lewis was supporting and performing at the Honeymoon Uranium mine rally at Broken Hill. 1983 saw Lewis presenting her new show So You Want Blood and releasing the album of the same name in September, and in 1984 she appeared in Ta Paratragouda in Melbourne and at the Athens Festival
. Also in 1984 Lewis appeared in Carmen, Another Perspective with the Melbourne Theatre Company
. In 1984 Lewis performed Ta Paratragouda in Melbourne. This was recorded for SBS and Greek TV.
Lewis travelled overseas in 1987, representing Australia on a tour of Mexico
with The Necks for the Cervantes International Arts Festival with later became a one hour SBS TV documentary called Maroubra to Mexico. She also sang in the Paul Robeson
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.
in 1990. This was directed by Llew Kiek and Jeannie wrote most of the show herself. One of the songs from this show, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow later appeared on her 2003 CD Southheart. "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". This was the description in the Green Left Weekly
of part of People Like Us at the Seymour Centre in March 1991. Directed by Mara Kiek.
In 1992 Lewis devised her own cabaret of contemporary love songs named Dangerous Lovers and in 1993 she sang The Plains Of Emu on the album of Australian songs and Australian artists, Going Home. Also in 1993 she received an Australia Council for the Arts Grant for study Of Extended Voice Techniques at Roy Hart International Theatre Centre in France
and the tango in its sung form in Buenos Aires
.
Lewis performed in the Sydney Opera House
1994 season of Cinderella Acappella, a collection of amusing children's songs written by John Shortis. It was recorded as a CD which was released and shortlisted for an ARIA
music award in 1995. Also in 1995 Lewis performed in "Viva Diva, a series of concerts featuring original work and music from around the world (Greece
, Tibet
, Beijing
, South Africa
, Argentina
, Holland, Corsica
, France
). Lead to the formation of Tango Australis –the group formed following the concerts and 1998 CD of the same name."
In 1997 Lewis was awarded a fellowship at the Varuna Writer's Centre, and performed with Women in Voice 7 in Brisbane
. In 1998 Jeannie performed at the Homeless Women's Speakout at the YWCA, and in the Port Fairy Folk Festival, and in "Life, Love, Death and the Weather – a collaboration with dancers Chrissie Koltai, Anka Frankenhauser, Patrick Harding-Irmer, musician Steve Blau, performed at the Performance Space as part of Dance Week." Tango Australia formed and the CD of the same name was released. Architect's Desk and The Wig Of Larks - The Bag Lady Calls The Tune were performances from 1999 and "In November 1999 Lewis collaborated with flamenco dancer Veronica Gillmer on the production Camerino, at Sydney's Tom Mann Theatre."
. It was performed at the New Theatre
at Newtown
and later, in 2001 at the Woodford Folk Festival. A CD with the same name has been produced and it is said that the show was being editied for a documentary.
The Palais, a building sings of lives lived in music was at the Parramatta
Town Hall, 27-30 July 2000. The show involved more than fifty performers in more than 20 acts and was spread through most of the building. Urban Theatre Projects produced the show. Lewis also performed in the East Timor
Year One Celebration to mark and celebrate the first anniversary of East Timor
's historic U.N. Referendum on self-determination at Leichhardt
on 30 August 2000.
In May 2001 she received an $80,000 Fellowship grant from the Australia Council, which she used to create Southheart. "All this SOUThHEART thing began with me wondering why the lyrics of so many tangos refer to the south. The tango
which inspired it, this delving into the bottom of my heart, was Corazon al Sur - Heart to the South. --That song from the south of Argentina
, that south talks to me so much of this south and the shadow of my mother in the garden in Maroubra
." Lewis was a part of the East Timor Independence Day Celebrations in 2002. Performing in the Trade Union Concert in 2003. Performing in a tribute to Timorese women concert in 2004. Also in 2004 being part of the May Day music festival in South Australia.
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n musician and stage performer whose work covers many different styles such as folk, jazz, Latin, blues, opera, rock, fusion. Her music often includes a strong social consciousness and she is capable of making very strong political statements in her work.
Early life
Lewis attended Sydney Girls High SchoolSydney Girls High School
Sydney Girls High School is an academically selective, Public high school for girls, located at Moore Park, in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia....
. and studied at University of Sydney
University of Sydney
The University of Sydney is a public university located in Sydney, New South Wales. The main campus spreads across the suburbs of Camperdown and Darlington on the southwestern outskirts of the Sydney CBD. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and Oceania...
She began her musical career in the 1960s in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
. She was a part of the York Gospel Singers and the Radiation Quartet and sang with The Ray Price Jazz Quintet, The Nat Oliver Jazz Band and The Alan Lee Jazz Quintet.
Lewis was a member of the Sydney University Organising Committee for Action on Aboriginal Rights to organise action around National Aborigines Day
NAIDOC
NAIDOC is an awareness committee and the name of an Australian week of observance lasting from the first Sunday in July until the following Sunday....
on 8 July 1964. She was arrested in a demonstration in May 1964 at Wynyard
Wynyard, Sydney
Wynyard is an urban locality around Wynyard railway station in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Wynyard is located in the Sydney central business districtand is part of the local government area of the City of Sydney...
and she helped arrange the folk singers for a concert in Hyde Park
Hyde Park, Sydney
Hyde Park is a large park in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Hyde Park is on the eastern side of the Sydney central business district. It is the southernmost of a chain of parkland that extends north to the shore of Port Jackson . It is approximately rectangular in shape, being squared at the...
to raise funds for the Freedom Ride
Freedom Ride (Australia)
The Freedom Ride of 1964 and 1965 was a significant event in the history of civil rights for Indigenous Australians.Inspired by the Freedom Riders of the American Civil Rights Movement, students from Sydney University formed a group called the Student Action for Aboriginals, led by Charles Perkins...
as well as appearing in another fund raising concert at Paddington
Paddington, New South Wales
Paddington is an inner-city, eastern suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Paddington is located 3 kilometres east of the Sydney central business district and lies across the local government areas of the City of Sydney and the Municipality of Woollahra...
Town Hall. She represented Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
at the International Festival of Contemporary Song in Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
in 1967.
1970s
In 1970 Lewis performed with TullyTully (band)
Tully was an Australian progressive rock group of the late 1960s and early 1970s which had a close association with the Sydney-based film/lightshow collective Ubu.-Formation:...
in an ambitious rock performance named Love 200 which involved 2 vocalists, a rock band and an orchestra. Created by Peter Sculthorpe
Peter Sculthorpe
Peter Joshua Sculthorpe AO OBE is an Australian composer. Much of his music has resulted from an interest in the music of Australia's neighbours as well as from the impulse to bring together aspects of native Australian music with that of the heritage of the West...
it was written to commemorate the Captain Cook bicentennial and explored themes of Captain Cook's journey to plot the transit of Venus
Venus
Venus is the second planet from the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days. The planet is named after Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty. After the Moon, it is the brightest natural object in the night sky, reaching an apparent magnitude of −4.6, bright enough to cast shadows...
in 1770, the voyage that led to his "discovery" of Australia. Also in 1970 Lewis had a band named Gypsy Train. In March 1971 Love 200 travelled to Adelaide
Adelaide
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
and this time Lewis performed with Fraternity
Fraternity (band)
Fraternity were an Australian rock band which formed in Sydney in 1970 and relocated to Adelaide in 1971. Former members include successive lead vocalists Bon Scott , John Swan , and his brother Jimmy Barnes...
, fronted by Bon Scott
Bon Scott
Ronald Belford "Bon" Scott was a Scottish-born Australian rock musician, best known for being the lead singer and lyricist of Australian hard rock band AC/DC from 1974 until his death in 1980...
, and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra is an orchestra based in Melbourne, Australia. It has 100 permanent musicians. Melbourne has the longest continuous history of orchestral music of any Australian city and the MSO is the oldest professional orchestra in Australia...
. Lewis also appeared on the Ray Price Jazz Quintet album Spectrum, and in April performed at the Timeless Trip at Fairlight with eight other performers.
In 1972 Lewis performed the songs for an Australian B-grade rock musical/science fiction/fantasy movie Shirley Thompson vs. the Aliens
Shirley Thompson vs. the Aliens
Shirley Thompson vs. the Aliens is a 1972 film directed by Jim Sharman. It is the first feature-length film from Sharman, who subsequently directed The Rocky Horror Picture Show....
, directed by Jim Sharman
Jim Sharman
James "Jim" Sharman , the son of boxing tent entrepreneur Jimmy Sharman, is a director and writer for film and stage with over 70 productions to his credit...
and noted for being "loathed by underground art-house and commercial managements alike", and in an ill-fated rock opera Terry and Frankie.
In 1973 Lewis released her first album, Free Fall Through Featherless Flight. The cover was designed by Martin Sharp
Martin Sharp
Martin Sharp is an Australian artist, underground cartoonist, songwriter and film-maker. Sharp has made contributions to Australian and international culture since the early 60s, and is hailed as Australia's foremost pop artist...
. In 1974 it was awarded Best Female Vocal Album in the Australian Radio Record Awards. Also in 1973 Lewis joined the Music Board of the Australian Council for the Arts, and she, John Bell
John Bell (actor)
John Anthony Bell, AO, OBE is an Australian actor and theatre director.Bell was born 1 November 1940 in the town of Maitland, New South Wales where he was educated at the Marist Brothers....
and Jon English were in a rock musical called The Bacchoi, based on the story of Euripides
Euripides
Euripides was one of the three great tragedians of classical Athens, the other two being Aeschylus and Sophocles. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to him but according to the Suda it was ninety-two at most...
and written by Bryan Nason and Ralph Tyrrel. It was the first show for the Nimrod Theatre Company
Nimrod Theatre Company
The Nimrod Theatre Company, in Nimrod Street, Kings Cross, Sydney, Australia, was founded by in 1970 by John Bell, Richard Wherrett and Ken Horler, and gained a reputation for producing more "good new Australian drama" from 1970 to 1985 than any other Australian theatre company...
in their new location at Belvoir St in Surry Hills
Surry Hills, New South Wales
Surry Hills is an inner-city suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Surry Hills is located immediately south-east of the Sydney central business district in the local government area of the City of Sydney...
.
In 1974 Looking Backwards To Tomorrow, In and Out of Concert was released and also performed on stage at the State Theatre
State Theatre (Sydney)
The State Theatre is a heritage-listed theatre, located in Market Street, in the city centre of Sydney, Australia.The Sydney Film Festival is hosted there for two weeks each June, and has been there since 1974.-Description and history:...
in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, and Tears Of Steel & The Clowning Cavaleras was released in 1975 to go with a multi media production featuring song, theatre, dance and visuals. In 1975 Lewis was awarded a grant from the Australia Council for the Arts to study overseas and spent 2 years in Central
Central America
Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. When considered part of the unified continental model, it is considered a subcontinent...
and South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
. In 1979, with her band Jeannie Lewis and the Company She Keeps she created and performed a series of shows titled From Maroubra to Mexico. Later that year she supported John McLaughlin on his Australian tour. Krazy For You was the cabaret Jeannie devised and performed in 1979-80.
1980s
Till Time Brings Change came out in 1980, and Lewis appeared in the leading role of Piaf at the Comedy Theatre in MelbourneMelbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
. 1981 saw Lewis perform in a stage production of the Threepenny Opera as a world weary hooker with the South Australian Theatre Company. She also created and starred in Piaf, The Songs and the Story which included 4 national tours, with an album of 15 songs from the show being released in 1982. Also in 1982 Lewis created and performed For a Dancer about her mothers life. This premiered at the Adelaide Festival
Adelaide Festival of Arts
The Adelaide Festival of Arts is an arts festival held biennially in the South Australian capital of Adelaide. Although locally considered to be one of the world's greatest celebrations of the arts, that is internationally renowned and the pre-eminent cultural event in Australia, it is actually...
.
In 1982 Lewis was supporting and performing at the Honeymoon Uranium mine rally at Broken Hill. 1983 saw Lewis presenting her new show So You Want Blood and releasing the album of the same name in September, and in 1984 she appeared in Ta Paratragouda in Melbourne and at the Athens Festival
Athens Festival
Athens - Epidaurus Festival is an annual arts festival that takes place in Athens and Epidaurus, from May to October. It is one of the most famous festivals in Greece. The festival includes musical, theatrical and other cultural events....
. Also in 1984 Lewis appeared in Carmen, Another Perspective with the Melbourne Theatre Company
Melbourne Theatre Company
The Melbourne Theatre Company is a theatre company based in Melbourne. Founded in 1953, it is the oldest professional theatre company in Australia, and has its own theatre, The MTC Theatre – which houses the 500-seat Sumner Theatre and the 150-seat Lawler Studio – located in Melbourne's Arts...
. In 1984 Lewis performed Ta Paratragouda in Melbourne. This was recorded for SBS and Greek TV.
Lewis travelled overseas in 1987, representing Australia on a tour of Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
with The Necks for the Cervantes International Arts Festival with later became a one hour SBS TV documentary called Maroubra to Mexico. She also sang in the Paul Robeson
Paul Robeson
Paul Leroy Robeson was an American concert singer , recording artist, actor, athlete, scholar who was an advocate for the Civil Rights Movement in the first half of the twentieth century...
stage show Deep Bells Ring and performed Pilgrimages, for which she wrote the text and Jim Cotter
Jim Cotter
Clive James Cotter is an Australian composer currently based in Canberra, Australia. His career has largely been in music for theater, film, and radio...
wrote the music, dedicated to a friend with AIDS.
1990s
Lewis had a new show, Voxy Lady at the Adelaide FestivalAdelaide Festival of Arts
The Adelaide Festival of Arts is an arts festival held biennially in the South Australian capital of Adelaide. Although locally considered to be one of the world's greatest celebrations of the arts, that is internationally renowned and the pre-eminent cultural event in Australia, it is actually...
in 1990. This was directed by Llew Kiek and Jeannie wrote most of the show herself. One of the songs from this show, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow later appeared on her 2003 CD Southheart. "A female quintet which includes Margret RoadKnight
Margret RoadKnight
Margret RoadKnight is an Australian singer. In a career spanning more than four decades, she has sung in a wide variety of styles including blues, jazz, gospel, and folk....
and Jeannie Lewis provides an aural chorus drawing upon a history of music ranging from Hildegard Von Bingen to Cambodian folk songs". This was the description in the Green Left Weekly
Green Left Weekly
Green Left Weekly is an Australian radical left-wing newspaper, written by progressive activists to "present the views excluded by the big business media". It was published by the Democratic Socialist Perspective from its inception in 1990 until January 2010, when the DSP merged into the Socialist...
of part of People Like Us at the Seymour Centre in March 1991. Directed by Mara Kiek.
In 1992 Lewis devised her own cabaret of contemporary love songs named Dangerous Lovers and in 1993 she sang The Plains Of Emu on the album of Australian songs and Australian artists, Going Home. Also in 1993 she received an Australia Council for the Arts Grant for study Of Extended Voice Techniques at Roy Hart International Theatre Centre in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and the tango in its sung form in Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
.
Lewis performed in the Sydney Opera House
Sydney Opera House
The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in the Australian city of Sydney. It was conceived and largely built by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, finally opening in 1973 after a long gestation starting with his competition-winning design in 1957...
1994 season of Cinderella Acappella, a collection of amusing children's songs written by John Shortis. It was recorded as a CD which was released and shortlisted for an ARIA
Australian Recording Industry Association
The Australian Recording Industry Association is a trade group representing the Australian recording industry which was established in 1983 by six major record companies, EMI, Festival, CBS, RCA, WEA and Universal replacing the Association of Australian Record Manufacturers which was formed in 1956...
music award in 1995. Also in 1995 Lewis performed in "Viva Diva, a series of concerts featuring original work and music from around the world (Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
, Tibet
Tibet
Tibet is a plateau region in Asia, north-east of the Himalayas. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpas, Qiang, and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han and Hui people...
, Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
, South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
, Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, Holland, Corsica
Corsica
Corsica is an island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is located west of Italy, southeast of the French mainland, and north of the island of Sardinia....
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
). Lead to the formation of Tango Australis –the group formed following the concerts and 1998 CD of the same name."
In 1997 Lewis was awarded a fellowship at the Varuna Writer's Centre, and performed with Women in Voice 7 in Brisbane
Brisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
. In 1998 Jeannie performed at the Homeless Women's Speakout at the YWCA, and in the Port Fairy Folk Festival, and in "Life, Love, Death and the Weather – a collaboration with dancers Chrissie Koltai, Anka Frankenhauser, Patrick Harding-Irmer, musician Steve Blau, performed at the Performance Space as part of Dance Week." Tango Australia formed and the CD of the same name was released. Architect's Desk and The Wig Of Larks - The Bag Lady Calls The Tune were performances from 1999 and "In November 1999 Lewis collaborated with flamenco dancer Veronica Gillmer on the production Camerino, at Sydney's Tom Mann Theatre."
2000s
One Word We was staged for a second time, opening on 8 January 2000, with Lewis as one of the seven singers. It was originally performed in 1995. By Maurie Mulheron, covering the songs and life of Pete SeegerPete Seeger
Peter "Pete" Seeger is an American folk singer and was an iconic figure in the mid-twentieth century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of The Weavers, most notably their recording of Lead...
. It was performed at the New Theatre
New Theatre (Newtown)
The New Theatre is an independent theatre company in the inner western Sydney suburb of Newtown, Australia. Established in October 1932, it is the oldest theatre company in continuous production in New South Wales...
at Newtown
Newtown, New South Wales
Newtown, a suburb of Sydney's inner west is located approximately four kilometres south-west of the Sydney central business district, straddling the local government areas of the City of Sydney and Marrickville Council in the state of New South Wales, Australia....
and later, in 2001 at the Woodford Folk Festival. A CD with the same name has been produced and it is said that the show was being editied for a documentary.
The Palais, a building sings of lives lived in music was at the Parramatta
Parramatta, New South Wales
Parramatta is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located in Greater Western Sydney west of the Sydney central business district on the banks of the Parramatta River. Parramatta is the administrative seat of the Local Government Area of the City of Parramatta...
Town Hall, 27-30 July 2000. The show involved more than fifty performers in more than 20 acts and was spread through most of the building. Urban Theatre Projects produced the show. Lewis also performed in the East Timor
East Timor
The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, commonly known as East Timor , is a state in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the nearby islands of Atauro and Jaco, and Oecusse, an exclave on the northwestern side of the island, within Indonesian West Timor...
Year One Celebration to mark and celebrate the first anniversary of East Timor
East Timor
The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, commonly known as East Timor , is a state in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the nearby islands of Atauro and Jaco, and Oecusse, an exclave on the northwestern side of the island, within Indonesian West Timor...
's historic U.N. Referendum on self-determination at Leichhardt
Leichhardt, New South Wales
Leichhardt is a suburb in the inner-west of Sydney in New South Wales, Australia. Leichhardt is located 5 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative centre for the local government area of the Municipality of Leichhardt...
on 30 August 2000.
In May 2001 she received an $80,000 Fellowship grant from the Australia Council, which she used to create Southheart. "All this SOUThHEART thing began with me wondering why the lyrics of so many tangos refer to the south. The tango
Tango music
Tango is a style of ballroom dance music in 2/4 or 4/4 time that originated among European immigrant populations of Argentina and Uruguay . It is traditionally played by a sextet, known as the orquesta típica, which includes two violins, piano, double bass, and two bandoneons...
which inspired it, this delving into the bottom of my heart, was Corazon al Sur - Heart to the South. --That song from the south of Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, that south talks to me so much of this south and the shadow of my mother in the garden in Maroubra
Maroubra, New South Wales
Maroubra is a beachside suburb in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Maroubra is located 10 kilometres south-east of the Sydney central business district in the local government area of the City of Randwick. Maroubra is the largest suburb in the area governed...
." Lewis was a part of the East Timor Independence Day Celebrations in 2002. Performing in the Trade Union Concert in 2003. Performing in a tribute to Timorese women concert in 2004. Also in 2004 being part of the May Day music festival in South Australia.
Discography
- Free Fall Through Featherless Flight, 1973
- Looking Backwards To Tomorrow, In and Out of Concert, 1974
- Tears Of Steel & The Clowning Cavaleras, 1975
- Till Time Brings Change, 1980
- Piaf, the Songs and the Story, 1982
- So You Want Blood, 1983
- Tango Australis, 1998
- SOUThHEART, 2003
Compilations and Appearances
- Spectrum, Ray Price Jazz Quintet, 1971
- Three Floors Down, 1972
- Gallery Concerts, The Alan Lee Quartet & Friends, 1973
- Going Home : Australian artists, Australian songs, 1993
- Cinderella Acappella, 1994
- One Word ... WE! The Songs and Story of Pete Seeger and Friends, 2000
- Green Songs, 2001
- The Good Old Bad Old Days, Sydney Jazz Club Golden Jubilee 1953-2003, 2003
- Women 'n Blues, 2003
- Azadi : Songs of Liberation, 2005
External links
- Official Jeannie Lewis Website
- Jeanie Lewis on the Net
- Music Australia (online service of National Library of AustraliaNational Library of AustraliaThe National Library of Australia is the largest reference library of Australia, responsible under the terms of the National Library Act for "maintaining and developing a national collection of library material, including a comprehensive collection of library material relating to Australia and the...
- various resources re Jeannie Lewis) - Middle Eight Music (Available recordings of Jeannie Lewis)
- Milesago entry for Jeannie
- Musicmoz entry for Jeannie