The Barzillai Lew Project: A Concert of Modern Revolutionary Music
Friday, February 20 | 7:30 PM
Richard and Nancy Donahue Family Academic Arts Center
240 Central Street, Lowell, MA
This February, history and music come together in The Barzillai Lew Project: A Concert of Modern Revolutionary Music, a powerful evening honoring one of the region’s most remarkable — and often overlooked — Revolutionary-era figures.
Presented by the Karayorgis Ensemble, the concert reimagines the legacy of Barzillai Lew (1743–1822) through modern jazz and improvised music, connecting Revolutionary history to 20th-century musical innovators and beyond.
Who Was Barzillai Lew?
Barzillai Lew was a free Black man born in Groton, Massachusetts, who became a celebrated fifer and drummer during the American Revolutionary War. He enlisted in May 1775 with Captain John Ford’s Company of the 27th Regiment out of Chelmsford and fought at the Battle of Bunker Hill alongside roughly three dozen other soldiers of African descent.
Lew spent much of his life in what is now the Greater Lowell area, including Pepperell, Chelmsford, and Dracut. After the war, he purchased farmland in Dracut (now part of Lowell), raised a family of 13 children, and became a respected member of the community. He is buried at the Clay Pit Cemetery in Lowell, just off Pawtucket Boulevard.
As a musician of exceptional talent, Lew is considered one of the earliest documented Black American musicians in U.S. military history.
The Music That Carried His Story Forward
In 1942, Duke Ellington composed a piano piece in Lew’s honor, likely inspired by stories he encountered while studying with historian Carter G. Woodson. Only a handful of recordings of Ellington’s band performing the work survive, most captured during radio broadcasts from 1942–43.
For this concert, the Karayorgis Ensemble presents a reconstructed portion of Ellington’s original arrangement, assembled from surviving parts preserved in the Smithsonian archives. The program frames this rare work alongside compositions by other musical revolutionaries, including Thelonious Monk, Sun Ra, Eric Dolphy, and Billy Strayhorn.
About the Ensemble
The Karayorgis Ensemble is led by pianist and composer Pandelis Karayorgis, a Boston-based jazz and improvised music artist known for his deep engagement with modern and avant-garde jazz traditions.
Ensemble members include:
- Taylor Ho Bynum, cornet
- Noah Campbell, saxophones
- Bill Lowe, trombone
- Pandelis Karayorgis, piano
- Nate McBride, bass
- Luther Gray, drums
Event Details & Tickets
- Date: Friday, February 20
- Time: 7:30 PM
- Location: Richard and Nancy Donahue Family Academic Arts Center, Middlesex Community College, 240 Central Street, Lowell
- Tickets: $10 suggested donation (no one turned away for lack of funds)
🎟️ Tickets are available via Eventbrite:
https://tinyurl.com/barzillailew
For more information, email info@wavelength.media.
Public-domain images related to the concert include a portrait of Duke Ellington, a portrait of Barzillai Lew attributed to the school of Gilbert Stuart, and Lew’s gravestone at the Clay Pit Cemetery.