Redondo Beach resident Mauricio “Fritz” Lewak has played drums for Jackson Browne since 1993. They make their BeachLife Festival debut Sunday evening
by Garth Meyer
On April 6, Mauricio “Fritz” Lewak played drums with the Brent George Band for Opening Day at King Harbor Yacht Club. This weekend he has another gig he can walk to – BeachLife Festival, playing with Jackson Browne, as he has for 32 years.
He moved to Redondo Beach after meeting his wife, a flight attendant, while playing at Baxter’s in Manhattan Beach in 1984. It was early in his drumming career, which Lewak has made a living at since he was just out of high school in North Hollywood.
Playing for Melissa Etheridge, Julia Fordham, The Motels and Browne, among others, his homebase became the South Bay.
For the past three years, his wife, Barbara, has sent BeachLife Festival flyers to Jackson Browne’s management. They eventually took notice and for BeachLife 2025, Browne, Lewak and the rest of the eight-piece band have a Sunday evening slot on the Lowtide Stage.
To gear up, Browne held rehearsals this week on a soundstage in North Hollywood.
On the first day, the band worked up “World in Motion” and “Cut it Away,” the latter song from the “Lawyers In Love” album.
“Shake the cobwebs off, add a new song or two, create a specific show,” Lewak said of the rehearsals. “Although Jackson’s not the biggest fan of setlists. Somebody yells out a song, there goes the setlist. It happens a lot, more than you know. He’ll remember all of (the song).”
Lewak has recorded five albums with Brown, beginning after he played with Melissa Etheridge from 1984-92, culminating with the recording of her breakthrough album, “Yes I Am.”
“At the time, I was playing with a bass player in (Etheridge’s) band, who played with Jackson,” Lewak said. “We were in an original band called The Uninvited. We were recording a Melissa Etheridge song (at the end of the “Yes I Am” sessions) when we got invited to record a song with Jackson.”
So they did. Etheridge would soon hit it big with the singles “Come to My Window” and “I’m the Only One.” Before this, Lewak was asked to tour with Browne.
“No one knew ‘Yes I Am’ was going to be as big as it was. Jackson Browne was established and he offered a longer package of work,” said Lewak.
He had played for Etheridge from “little clubs out of a van in Europe, then opening for Huey Lewis at an ice hockey arena,” later reuniting with her for an Oscar-winning song from the 2006 documentary “An Inconvenient Truth.” He also performed the song with her on the Academy Awards broadcast.
Lewak played with the Motels in the late 2000s.
“Playing live. There’s nothing like it. Music doesn’t connect until you play it live. It’s such an emotional impact,” he said.
Lewak was born in Brazil, the son of a piano player, and came to America at age 11. At 17, he was playing drums in club bands, and graduated from North Hollywood High in 1977.
“I’ve been very fortunate to do this all my life,” he said.
Lewak is now 65.
“You used to go to drum stores to check out the instruments; Professional Drum Shop in Hollywood. Now, it’s all done online, which is kind of a drag.”
His first instrument was piano.
“I just didn’t take to it. I took to the drums,” he said. “I started playing by ear and took some lessons for technique.”
Lewak now plays a Q drums, five-piece “standard kit” – a kick (bass) drum, a rack tom-tom and two floor tom-toms.
“I’ve always been as simple as possible,” he said. “What I love about music, it’s the power of the members in the band. I’ve been in the studio with Jackson as a song comes together, and watched it develop. As a drummer, you try not to step in the way.”
In recent years, touring with Browne has meant three weeks on the road, then home for a few weeks or a few months, then another three-week stretch, one or two days at the same place, or a 7-day run.
“He’s the sweetest man, a caring person, heart of gold,” Lewak said of Browne.
On breaks, at home in Redondo Beach, the drummer often spends time on his powerboat, a twin-engine 36-foot Benetteau Antares 11, he and Barbara’s third boat. The couple are also 16-year members of Port Royal Yacht Club in Redondo Beach.
Lewak first came to the South Bay with a band called Riz Kidz.
“Playing in cover bands, you learned how different drummers play. And hopefully form your own identity,” Lewak said. “You learn some others’ and create your own. I’m never done learning.”
The Riz Kidz lead singer, Kelly Hansen, later joined Foreigner after Lou Gramm left the band.
Lewak built his career from opportunity to opportunity, never knowing what the next might be.
“It was always, Oh my God, I’m not working next week,” he said of the early years. “I would just not worry about it and things would work out. You play, things happen. People remember you when they need you for something. I’ve been very blessed.”
Mainstays of Jackson Browne’s set list expected to be heard Sunday include “These Days,” “Running On Empty,” “Doctor My Eyes,” “The Loadout/Stay,” “Somebody’s Baby” and “Take it Easy” – the Eagles’ song which Brown started writing when he was 23, played part of it for Glenn Frey then didn’t finish it. A few weeks later Frey asked him if he’d finished it. Browne said no, and Frey asked if he could do it for him.
Sunday’s BeachLife slot starts a new run of shows for Browne. In June, he and the band play a benefit in New Jersey; in July they rehearse for four nights at New York’s Beacon Theater in August. Then Seattle and San Diego in September, and five nights at the Venetian Theater in Las Vegas in November.
Browne plays piano and guitar. After Thursday’s rehearsal, he and the band will be ready to go, again, Lewak said.
They’ll need to be, at festivals like BeachLife, acts are not afforded a sound check.
“At sound check we hone in, but there is no time for that this time,” Lewak said.
He has never attended BeachLife.
“Never been able to go,” he said, citing scheduling and timing. “I’m looking forward to it.”
The Brent George Band, including Lewak, just wrote a song called “It’s the South Bay,” recorded with 12 local musicians. The song was released on all platforms April 27. ER
