BIOGRAPHY AND DISCOGRAPHY Pianist and occasional vocalist who was a regular presence on the Los Angeles rock scene from the very start but whose recording opportunities over the next decade were sporadic and often uncredited behind others. Richard Lewis was born in either 1929 or 1931 (sources vary) and at 16 (or 18) was the first artist signed to Imperial Records upon their starting a “race line” in 1947. He cut one extended session in June of that year and had the first four releases in the 5000 series starting in August, flooding the market with no promotion and little in the way of national distribution, before the label tried the same misguided tactics with the next few artists it signed. The remaining material on Lewis was released over the next two years but by then he’d found a steady job in the band of The Great Gates, playing on his hit “Late After Hours”. It was during his four year stint (1949-1952) with Gates where he met saxophonist and future vocalist Marvin Phillips wit...