Ramsey Lewis
The In Crowd’s pianist BORN 1935
RAISED IN Chicago’s Cabrini-Green housing project, Ramsey Lewis studied piano and absorbed classical, gospel and jazz influences from a young age. In 1965, he’d already played on 20-plus LPs, wherein classical pieces, standards, Christmas songs, folk, country, bossa nova and movie themes were variously interpreted by a sharp yet accessible jazz trio. His eclectic approach was also in evidence when, while playing a gig in Washington DC that May, the group threw in a groovy version of Dobie Gray’s hit The ‘In’ Crowd. They set no great store by it – Lewis had reputedly first heard the song at breakfast earlier that day – but released on 45, it reached US Number 5 later that year and won a Grammy. While Lewis observed, “for several years… the jazz police disowned us,” five more Top 30 singles followed, including hip takes on Hang On Sloopy, Wade In The Water and A Hard Day’s Night, the latter with future Earth, Wind & Fire visionary Maurice White on drums, after Lewis’s Trio bandmates had split to find success with YoungHolt Unlimited. Though his hit run was over by 1966, Lewis continued to record, with 1974’s fusion album
Sun Goddess (recorded with the help of Earth, Wind & Fire) finding him back in the US Top 20. He’d also work with smooth jazz supergroup Urban Knights, Billy Taylor and Nancy Wilson, among others, while in 2010, his Proclamation Of Hope: A Symphonic Poem paid tribute to Abraham Lincoln. In later life Lewis also worked as a radio broadcaster, hosting the syndicated Legends Of Jazz and his own morning show, was artistic director for jazz at Illinois’ Ravinia festival, and ran his own educational youth foundation. He was made an NEA Jazz Master in 2007.