The Barzillai Lew Project - A Concert Of Revolutionary Music at Richard And Nancy Donahue Family Academic Arts Center Middlesex Community College

Barzillai Lew (1743–1822) was an African American soldier, fifer, and drummer who served with distinction during the American Revolutionary War. Born in Groton, Massachusetts, he spent most of his life in the greater Lowell area—Pepperell, Chelmsford, Dracut, and Pawtucketville—and is buried in Lowell’s Clay Pit Cemetery. Lew fought at the Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775, and stands as one of the earliest documented Black American musicians in military history.

In 1943, Duke Ellington composed a piano piece in Lew’s honor, likely inspired by stories Ellington encountered while studying with the pioneering historian Carter G. Woodson at Washington, D.C.’s Armstrong Manual Training School. Only a handful of recordings of Ellington’s band performing this work survive, mostly captured during radio broadcasts from 1942–43....

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Barzillai Lew (1743–1822) was an African American soldier, fifer, and drummer who served with distinction during the American Revolutionary War. Born in Groton, Massachusetts, he spent most of his life in the greater Lowell area—Pepperell, Chelmsford, Dracut, and Pawtucketville—and is buried in Lowell’s Clay Pit Cemetery. Lew fought at the Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775, and stands as one of the earliest documented Black American musicians in military history.

In 1943, Duke Ellington composed a piano piece in Lew’s honor, likely inspired by stories Ellington encountered while studying with the pioneering historian Carter G. Woodson at Washington, D.C.’s Armstrong Manual Training School. Only a handful of recordings of Ellington’s band performing this work survive, mostly captured during radio broadcasts from 1942–43.

For this concert, we present a reconstructed portion of Ellington’s arrangement, assembled from original parts preserved in the Smithsonian archives. Framing this rare work are compositions by fellow musical revolutionaries—Thelonious Monk, Sun Ra, Eric Dolphy, and Billy Strayhorn.

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