The Leon Lewis Band

Book excerpt: The Leon Lewis Band is the story of a rock band in the sixties and seventies. It traces the lives of the fascinating characters who comprise the band—the musicians as well as family, friends, and other unique characters they meet along the way. The story is narrated by Jackie Klein, the childhood friend of Leon Lewis. It begins in the working-class Brooklyn neighborhood of the fifties and sixties, which binds the two Jewish boys together as they navigate the anti-Semitism and racist battleground of their inner-city environment. Leon Lewis’s life is deeply impacted by his family—an emotionally disturbed mother, a high-achieving younger sister, and a father who blames his wife for preventing him from achieving his dream of becoming a professional jazz musician. Lee’s family struggles drive him to leave the city as soon as he finishes high school. He takes to the road with his acoustic guitar and musical ability. While Lee is gone, Jackie hooks up with three amazing musicians at Café Flo in Greenwich Village. When Lee returns, now a seasoned troubadour and accomplished musician, he reconnects with Jackie, and the Leon Lewis Band is formed. Along the way, they find a flamboyant country boy, a hippie manager, a smooth café manager, an eccentric concert promotor and recording engineer, and the loves of their lives. Catalina Blake is a sensuous young Latina and a budding, progressive journalist. When she falls in love with Lee, the band’s surprising events ensue. On the behalf of her estranged father, a talented artist, she finds herself on a dangerous mission to Central America, where her family secrets intersect with Lee and the band and with the ghosts from Lee’s old neighborhood.