Rinder & Lewis -

Rinder & Lewis was the American musical/production team of percussionist Laurin Rinder and keyboardist W. Michael Lewis. Between 1975 and 1982, they arranged a string of AVI Records releases for the dance-funk/vocal projects El Coco and Le Pamplemousse. The pair also issued four AVI albums as a duo, starting with Seven Deadly Sins in 1977. Around this time, they provided theme music for the paranormal series In Search of…. The project yielded a namesake orchestral album of discofied themes from the show. Concurrently, the pair produced albums for the orchestral-pop/vocal acts Saint Tropez and Tuxedo Junction, both on Butterfly Records.

Members: Laurin Rinder, W. Michael Lewis

Background

Rinder & Lewis formed as a production partnership in 1974 in Los Angeles when keyboardist W. Michael Lewis reunited with drummer Laurin Rinder for the AVI Records rock opera Amrakus: Chronicle of the Starship Trinity.

William Michael Lewis was born in 1948 in San Diego, California. His civil-engineer father moved the family through the South, where Lewis learned clarinet on medical advice for childhood asthma. Lewis enrolled at the University of Alabama, where he majored in music theory and pursued classical clarinet. Lewis also played keyboards on Muscle Shoals demos by Wilson Pickett, Percy Sledge, and Dinah Washington while still in high school.

The Seeds of Time featured Lewis on guitar around Monroeville, Alabama, and recorded two singles of Lewis compositions. Lewis formed Brick Wall in Atlanta for the Capitol single “Poor Mary Has Drowned.” Lewis reached Los Angeles with the Devil’s Brigade and found work with former Standells singer Dick Dodd. Dodd recruited Lewis for Joshua and asked Rinder to play drums, which brought the two musicians into the same band.

Laurin Rinder was born in 1943 in Los Angeles and grew up in Hollywood. Rinder learned trumpet and saxophone with support from his father. Rinder switched to drums at fourteen years of age. Rinder left Hollywood High School at fifteen and toured with Tommy Sands. Rinder built a session and touring career that included Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Fontella Bass, and James Brown. Rinder played the Four Sounds with guitarist Deke Richards on the mid-1960s Sunset Boulevard club circuit.

Joshua spent several years on the Los Angeles club circuit. Lewis moved into We Five and Quicksilver Messenger Service, while Rinder continued as a session drummer. The pair spent six months rehearsing Amrakus under the AVI contract at Producers Workshop. AVI co-founder Ray Harris redirected the pair when the project stalled and assigned them to study disco at Studio One in West Hollywood. Rinder and Lewis returned to Producers Workshop the next day and composed “Let’s Get It Together.”

The pair used the El Coco name for the 1975 albums Mondo Disco and Brazil, then added Le Pamplemousse to the AVI studio roster. Rinder and Lewis played most of the instruments themselves and brought singers or solo specialists into individual projects. Rinder and Lewis chose their own names for a seven-part instrumental concept in 1977 and brought the project to AVI as Seven Deadly Sins.

Discography: