GRAND Magazine - Fall 2022 - 21
cover story
The life and times of Ramsey Lewis
A
BY CHRISTINE CROSBY
s his friend and former president, Barack
Obama said, " Ramsey Lewis is a man who has
touched all of our lives. Not everybody finds
their calling in life as a four-year-old boy sitting at a
piano in the living room, but ever since he did he's
filled our lives with music and with joy. "
Ramsey Emmanuel Lewis, Jr. was born on May 27,
1935, in Chicago. Growing up in the Cabrini-Green
housing project-home to other future musical greats
including Curtis Mayfield and Jerry Butler. He began
taking piano lessons at age four and played piano at
church, where his father was the choir director. A jazz
fan who played lots of Duke Ellington and Art Tatum
at home and took his son to jazz concerts, Ramsey
Lewis Sr. encouraged Ramsey to embrace that music.
But his son, who dreamed of playing classical music in
the great symphony halls while attending the Chicago
Music College Preparatory School (he later studied at
DePaul University), didn't get into jazz until his early
teens.
Lewis told a Chicago Sun-Times interviewer in 2018,
" I lucked out, because both my parents loved classical
and gospel music. My dad loved jazz as well. So, I was
hearing this music around the
house since I was born. "
Lewis recorded over 80
albums and received five gold
records and three Grammy
Awards in his career. His album
The In Crowd earned Lewis
critical praise and the 1965
Grammy Award for Best Jazz
Performance.
RAMSEY LEWIS was an
iconic leader in the contemporary
jazz movement for over
50 years with an unforgettable
sound and outgoing personality
that allowed him to crossover
to the pop and R&B charts.
21 GRAND Summer 2022
Click on the album
cover to enjoy hearing
the amazing
Ramsey Lewis Trio.
The Ramsey Lewis
Trio, with bassist Eldee
Young and percussionist
Redd Holt,
became a fixture
on the Chicago jazz
The Ramsey Lewis Trio with Eldee
Young and Isaac " Red " Holt
Ramsey Lewis and His Gentlemen of Jazz
(ital title of album). Recorded in Chicago 1958.
scene, releasing their debut album, Ramsey Lewis &
His Gentlemen of Jazz, back in 1956. Lewis earned
his first gold record, as well as
a Grammy award for Best Jazz
Performance, for their swinging
version of Dobie Gray's hit The
In Crowd. He returned to the
pop charts in 1966 with versions
of Hang On Sloopy and Wade In
The Water. After Young and Holt
left Lewis' trio to form their own
group, Lewis hired a new rhythm
section with Cleveland Eaton
on bass and Maurice White on
drums. When White left the
band to form Earth, Wind &
Fire, Morris Jennings signed on
as the trio's new percussionist.
White returned to produce Lewis'
Continued on next page
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GRAND Magazine - Fall 2022
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of GRAND Magazine - Fall 2022
Contents
GRAND Magazine - Fall 2022 - Cover1
GRAND Magazine - Fall 2022 - 2
GRAND Magazine - Fall 2022 - 3
GRAND Magazine - Fall 2022 - 3A
GRAND Magazine - Fall 2022 - Contents
GRAND Magazine - Fall 2022 - 5
GRAND Magazine - Fall 2022 - 6
GRAND Magazine - Fall 2022 - 7
GRAND Magazine - Fall 2022 - 8
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GRAND Magazine - Fall 2022 - 35
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