Ramsey Lewis: 27/05/1935 – 12/09/2022

Described by Duke Ellington as “a bouquet of tonal delight”, Ramsey Lewis was one of the most accomplished pianists in jazz, who incorporated the classics and gospel into his highly individual approach. While the 1950s and 60s audiences thought of him as leader of an acoustic trio, typified by his million-seller ‘The In Crowd’, his 1970s listeners knew him as a fusioneer, following his next big success ‘Sun Goddess’. That decade, he worked alongside members of Earth, Wind and Fire as producers and fellow musicians. At his best, such as on ‘Slick’, from Sãlongo, he combined both worlds: his acoustic piano introducing a heavyweight jazz-rock backdrop, before opening up for Oscar Brashear’s trumpet and Ernie Watts’ tenor. Thereafter his work moved between genres, with frequent returns to trio playing such as 1982’s Chance Encounter, or 2009’s Songs From The Heart.

Born in Chicago, Lewis started piano at four, but up to his teens his main playing was in church, until a fellow gospel musician asked him to sub on piano in a band called the Clefs. He’d never played jazz, and embarrassed himself by playing boogie on a Charlie Parker blues and not knowing the simplest of standards. But his technical keyboard skills impressed the Clefs’ saxophonist Wallace Burton, who took the teenager under his wing. Ramsey recalled, “he showed me a few things”, and his jazz playing developed rapidly. With bassist Eldee Young and drummer Red Holt, Lewis joined Burton’s quartet, until Burton was drafted. The trio continued under Lewis’s leadership, securing a residency at Chicago’s downtown SRO club, and recording for Chess. The recent Acrobat anthology The Early Years 1956-59 charts their progress.

Some critics thought Lewis to be repetitive and commercial. This did not worry him one jot, believing that every album needed a ‘fun time’ track to create a talking point and radio play. An early success was the Habañera from Bizet’s Carmen, but this was eclipsed by ‘The In Crowd’, recorded at Washington’s Bohemian Caverns. Ramsey told me they were somewhat daunted, as they’d recently been preceded there by Monk, Coltrane and Johnny Griffin. They knew their 17th album would be recorded during the residency, and were searching for their ‘fun time’ piece. Then at the coffee shop opposite, a waitress overheard their discussion and asked if they’d heard Dobie Gray’s ‘In Crowd’ on the jukebox. It was what they were searching for, and Red suggested they close their first set with it. “What you hear on that record,” Ramsey said, “is the audience itself becoming the fourth member of the trio. They were dancing in the aisles.”

In recent years Lewis produced several large-scale orchestral classical compositions, and he was also a fine broadcaster, his weekly Jazz Legends programme went out nationally for almost 20 years. He directed the Ravinia Festival in Illinois, and his Ivory Pyramid studio fostered young talent. He won three Grammys and seven gold discs. In 2007 he was elected an NEA Jazz Master.