Posted by chicagomedia.org on January 22, 2009 at 12:09:07:
Ramsey Lewis the Living Legend
January 21, 8:15 PM
by Tim Faulkner, Chicago Music Examiner
Jazz pianist Ramsey Lewis is a living legend. I'm not being hyperbolic; in 2007 he was given the Legendary Landmark Award, honored as a living treasure for being "testimony to the greatness of our cultural integrity". His resume` is filled with such distinctions. In 1998 the city of Chicago named the week of May 22nd - 29th Ramsey Lewis Week. In 2002 he carried the Olympic Torch, he performed at the White House for President Clinton. He has been given 5 honorary degrees, won 3 Grammy Awards, and been named a Jazz Master by the National Endowment for the Arts. So really, even putting his 80+ albums (7 went gold) aside, the man is legendary.
During his childhood in Cabrini Green, Lewis began playing piano at age 4, and was in a band (The Cleffs) by 15. Eventually he formed the Ramsey Lewis Trio with childhood friends Isaac "Redd" Holt playing bass and Eldee Young on drums. The trio's debut record "Ramsey Lewis and the Gentlemen of Swing" was released in 1956 but went largely unnoticed (it was a skillful but unremarkable collection of standard jazz tracks). When he began combing jazz with a more pop oriented sound he scored a major hit with "The In Crowd", earning his first Grammy. The group's sound was simultaneously both breezy and heavy; the tracks had enough bounce and rhythm to make you dance but remained lighthearted and fun. Snobby jazz purists derided this transition, referring to it as "easy listening pop music", but the fans loved it. His string of hits continued with songs like "Wade in the Water", "Hang on Sloopy", and "Hold it Right There". The Ramsey Lewis Trio eventually disbanded and his original sidemen went on to form Young-Holt Unlimited, and racked up a few hits of their own, like "Soulful Strut". When they did, Lewis recruited drummer Maurice White and bassist Cleveland Eaton to replace them (White went on to form Earth, Wind, and Fire). As the 1970s progressed he began playing an electric piano (much like fellow Chicagoan Herbie Hancock) and his sound gradually evolved into a more contemplative soul-jazz. Lewis continues to perform live; he's got shows booked all the way through October of this year. Jazz is still central to Ramsey's life in a variety of ways.
True to his nickname - The Great Performer - Ramsey Lewis continually finds new ways to entertain. In 2006 he began hosting a television series called "Legends of Jazz with Ramsey Lewis" on WTTW, (where each week he'll highlight a particular instrument, performer, or style of jazz, and have guest artists perform with him and discuss the show's theme) and BET's "Jazz Central". Not limited to TV, you can catch him on "The Ramsey Lewis Morning Show" on WNUA (Monday through Friday, 5 - 9 a.m.) and at 10 p.m. Sundays he does a radio version of "Legends of Jazz". Oh, he's also a professor of Jazz Studies at Roosevelt University and the artistic director of the Ravinia Festival, America's oldest outdoor music festival.
It may sound like an exaggeration to call Ramsey Lewis a living legend, but the man has clearly earned the reputation, and continues to.