RAMSEY LEWIS
Ramsey Lewis is a Chicago jazz pianist and a living legend, but younger poseurs may not be aware of the time the man spent atop the R&B, jazz and pop charts. Here are a few facts with which to arm yourself prior to his Calgary performance.
Barriers to Entry As a kid, Lewis aspired to be a classical pianist. “By the time I was 13 years old, I figured that I would tour the world playing classical music in all the Orchestra Halls and Carnegie Halls in the world,” he told the Chicago Tribune in 1996. But he couldn’t break into the white-dominated world of classical music and turned to jazz. Poseurs can note his career has come full circle: in 2015 at age 80, he premiered his Concerto for Jazz Trio and Orchestra with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Landing in Jazz He debuted his trio on the 1956 album Ramsey Lewis and
his Gentle-men of Swing, the first of a string of 19 albums on Argo. A poseur should definitely know that his last album for the label changed the trajectory of his career: 1965’s The ‘In’ Crowd was his first gold record, and shifted his focus to more popular music. His 1976 album collaboration with Earth Wind and Fire, Sun Goddess, hit number one on the Billboard R&B and Jazz charts.
Radio Run Lewis found plenty of success and sold plenty of albums after his collaboration with Earth Wind and Fire, but his music was labelled smooth jazz in the 1980s, which has become a pejorative among serious jazz heads. He believes the label gave rise to a host of imitators, ruining the genre, as he told All About Jazz in 2011: “They watered it down, they took what we were doing and they watered it down, and many of them just couldn’t play.”
Homework Lewis’s performance at the Jack Singer Concert Hall, billed A Night of Chicago Jazz, will span his career. The ‘In’ Crowd and Sun Goddess are must pre-concert listens for the studious poseur; Taking Another Look, Lewis’s most recent album, offers insight into how Lewis is interpreting his classic material today and also deserves a spin. —