Lewis Barry Tabackin was born March 26, 1940, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, taking up flute at twelve and tenor saxophone at fifteen. He studied flute at the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music under composer Vincent Persichetti, graduating in 1962, and moved to New York in 1965, where he played in big bands led by Cab Calloway, Maynard Ferguson, and Joe Henderson, whose own career is covered in full in his JazzProfiles.com profile, while also working with Donald Byrd, Roland Hanna, and Elvin Jones.

In 1968 he met pianist Toshiko Akiyoshi in a quartet setting; the two married and relocated to Los Angeles, where in 1973 they formed the Toshiko Akiyoshi–Lew Tabackin Big Band, an award-winning sixteen-piece ensemble that released acclaimed albums including Kogun (1974), Long Yellow Road (1975), and Insights (1976), and that Tabackin remained central to for several decades until the band disbanded in 2003. During the 1980s he gained long-overdue recognition as a flutist, winning numerous Down Beat critics' and readers' polls.

As a leader, Tabackin released Desert Lady for Concord in 1990, featuring Hank Jones, Dave Holland, and Victor Lewis, followed by I'll Be Seeing You with Benny Green, Peter Washington, and Lewis Nash, and 1996's Tenority, his first recording focused solely on tenor saxophone.

Tabackin's dual mastery of tenor saxophone and flute, unusual among jazz musicians of his generation, combined with three decades leading a major big band alongside Toshiko Akiyoshi, made him one of the more distinctive instrumental voices to emerge from the postwar American jazz scene.