Barzillai Lew (1743–1822) was an African American soldier, fifer, and drummer who served with great distinction during the American Revolutionary War.
On Friday, February 20, a concert celebrating music composed and performed in his honor by the legendary Duke Ellington will take place at the Richard and Nancy Donahue Performing Arts Center in Downtown Lowell.
Born in Groton, Massachusetts, Lew spent most of his life in the greater Lowell area — Pepperell, Chelmsford, and Dracut.
In May of 1775, he enlisted in Captain John Ford’s Company, the 27th Regiment, out of Chelmsford. Lew, along with about 3 dozen other ethnic Africans, fought at the Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775. He is buried in Lowell’s Clay Pit Cemetery, just off Pawtucket Boulevard.
A musician of great talent, he stands out as one of the earliest documented Black American musicians in U.S. military history.
In 1942, the renowned 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.
The February concert will 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.
The Lew family contributions to our local history did not end with his passing. His daughter was a famous abolitionist and his son owned a house in Lowell/Dracut that was part of the underground railroad.
His great grandson, Bucky Lew, was the first African American Basketball player in 1902. His story has been chronicled extensively here at InsideLowell and in the book The Original Bucky Lew: Basketball’s First Black Professional by local author Chris Boucher.
Boucher recently released a second book on the groundbreaking athlete, titled Harry “Bucky” Lew: A Biography of Basketball’s First Black Professional.
Tickets for the concert are available at https://tinyurl.com/barzillailew.
