Hammond Organ Master Vel Lewis Teams With Acclaimed Saxophonist Marion Meadows for “Smoovee,” Already Climbing Smooth Jazz Radio Charts Worldwide
Hammond organ master Vel Lewis returns with “Smoovee,” a lush, groove driven single featuring soprano and tenor saxophonist Marion Meadows that has already debuted as the #1 Most Added recording at smooth jazz radio. The track continues to build momentum across formats, appearing on the Smooth Jazz Network Top 100, Mediabase Smooth Jazz, RadioWave Monitor Groove Jazz 100, and the Top 30 Weekend Radio chart in Madrid, Spain, while reaching listeners on every major streaming platform. Built around a soulful Hammond bed and Meadows’ unmistakable saxophone lines, “Smoovee” distills the sound Lewis has spent a lifetime refining: groove jazz, smooth jazz, soul, funk, and rhythm and blues, folded into one infectious recording.
The song’s roots trace back decades, to an evening in Lewis’s living room in the late 1990s, where he wrote “Smoovee” on a home workstation as a smooth, melodically simple groove tailor made for a soprano saxophone lead. Lewis had long admired Meadows’ tone and phrasing from his RCA Records days, and the two struck up a friendship after meeting at a Houston jazz club. That connection eventually led Lewis to pitch the song directly to Meadows, who agreed on the spot. The resulting collaboration became the centrepiece of an unexpected international production: Lewis recorded the rhythm section during an extended stay in Brazil, tracking keys, bass, and drums with musicians Adalberto Miranda and Dede Silva at a studio in Rio de Janeiro, with percussionist Cassio Duarte overdubbing a Brazilian pandeiro from Texas. Guitarist and mixer Paul Brown, who Lewis met the same night Meadows performed at Houston’s House of Blues, shaped the final mix, with mastering by Steve Hall of Future Disc Systems.
Born Velbert Lewis Jr. on November 30, 1954, in Philadelphia, Lewis began his musical life in 1965 as a first soprano vocalist with the Philadelphia All Boys Choir, eventually touring internationally as a featured soloist with the choir’s Small Ensemble, including a performance at Expo ’67 in Montreal. He studied voice and piano at Philadelphia’s Settlement Music School before turning to the organ, the instrument that would define his sound, training under Milton Myers and Dr. E. Woodley Kalehoff, a former White House pianist during the Truman administration. While still a teenager, Lewis was already moving between worlds, performing jazz on television alongside drummer Gerry Brown and bassist John Lee while recording as a Hammond organist for ABC/Peacock Records gospel sessions produced by Ira Tucker Sr., working alongside The Sensational Nightingales, The Gospelaires, and The Dixie Hummingbirds.
By 1972, Lewis had entered Philadelphia’s flourishing soul scene, signing to Philadelphia International Records as a member of The Futures and later performing with The Delfonics during the Major Harris era. He shared stages with Earth, Wind and Fire, Parliament Funkadelic, Al Green, The Stylistics, and Frankie Beverly and Maze, and co-wrote and sang lead on “Tell Me Why” with The Life Group, a 1974 Warner Bros. and Reprise release that has since become recognised as one of the Top 100 Northern Soul classics within the genre’s devoted international community, a detail that continues to intrigue soul historians and crate diggers alike.
Lewis’s reach extended well beyond the stage in the years that followed. Beginning in 1995, he composed for Los Angeles Post Music, scoring a series of national Chrysler Plymouth television commercials featuring Tina Turner, while his compositions found their way into ‘Sex and the City,’ ‘Friends,’ ‘Mad About You,’ and ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel Air.’ In 2003, he joined Dionne Warwick’s touring ensemble, performing internationally for three years and drawing on the full range of pop, soul, gospel, and orchestral sophistication her repertoire demanded. Two years later, Lewis released his debut solo album, ‘All Wound Up,’ under the name Shady Grady, writing or co-writing every track.
The years since have brought a steady run of chart activity and recognition, including the internationally charting singles “PlayTyme” and “Bossaflowz” with guitarist Michael Garvin, and 2021’s “Forever More” featuring vocalist Larry Braggs. In June 2024, Lewis received the Houston Black Music Award for Best Jazz Male Performer from the Black Music Association and Academy of America, a milestone that reflects a catalogue built one genre bending record at a time.
With “Smoovee,” Lewis is opening a new chapter that draws every strand of his musical history into a single sound rather than confining it to one format. The grooves of funk, the emotional depth of soul and blues, the rhythmic pulse of rhythm and blues, the improvisational spirit of jazz, and the spiritual foundation of gospel all converge behind the Hammond organ that has remained his signature for 60 years. That same breadth is shaping the next phase of his live performances, as Lewis brings groove jazz, smooth jazz, soul, funk, blues, gospel, and rhythm and blues together on stage with the Hammond at the centre of it all.
More than 60 years after he first stepped in front of a microphone as a teenage vocalist in Philadelphia, Vel Lewis continues to write, record, produce, and perform with the same curiosity that has carried him from gospel pews and soul revues to international stages, television scoring rooms, and now, a Rio de Janeiro studio session that became “Smoovee.”
Vel Lewis Upcoming Appearances:
November 8, 2026, Sugar Land Arts Fest, Sugar Land, TX
November 28, 2026, SoHo Restaurant & Music Club, Santa Barbara, CA
Connect with Vel Lewis:
Website
Bandcamp
Facebook
Instagram
TikTok