However Ramsey Lewis, an creative jazz pianist and one of many nation’s most revered artists within the style, continued to seek out novel methods to maintain the style alive and evolving and, crucially, develop new generations of jazz listeners.
Lewis spent practically 60 years recording and performing authentic jazz music, putting gold in 1965 with the crossover hit “The ‘In’ Crowd.” He gained three Grammys, scored seven gold information and in 2007 was named a Nationwide Endowment of the Arts Jazz Grasp, the very best honor bestowed upon jazz musicians within the US.
Lewis died Monday at his house in his native Chicago, his supervisor Brett Steele confirmed. He was 87.
A lifelong Chicagoan, Lewis grew up within the Cabrini-Inexperienced housing venture within the metropolis’s Close to North Facet. Although he performed piano all through his childhood, his publicity to jazz got here solely at house, when his father would play information from Duke Ellington and Artwork Tatum (certainly one of Lewis’ all-time favourite artists). He did not try to study to play jazz himself till one other musician at his church approached him to start out a band when he was 15, in accordance with the Nationwide Endowment for the Arts’ biography of Lewis.
After honing his jazz piano abilities with that band, the Clefs, he shaped the Ramsey Lewis Trio with bassist Eddie Younger and Redd Holt on percussion, per his web site. Their debut album was launched in 1956, but it surely wasn’t till nearly 10 years later that they grew to become nationwide stars: The trio’s instrumental cowl of “The ‘In’ Crowd” grew to become successful upon its 1965 launch and gained Lewis his first of three Grammys.
The mid-Nineteen Sixties additionally noticed the discharge of crossover hits like “Cling on Sloopy” and “Wade within the Water,” two songs that resonated with listeners from all backgrounds, not simply jazz aficionados.
The trio’s line-up shuffled over time — different members included Maurice White on drums (he ultimately departed the trio to start out Earth, Wind & Hearth however returned to provide Lewis’ 1974 album “Solar Goddess”). Lewis collaborated with different artists in his style, too, together with the late jazz vocalist Nancy Wilson on a number of albums, together with 1984’s “The Two of Us.”
Lewis melded the gospel music and blues he’d grown up taking part in with the jazz his father cherished and the favored sounds of the time to create what grew to become up to date jazz music. His jazz compositions had funk and soul (a mode he perfected on “Solar Goddess” and
showcased on packages like “Soul Prepare”), although he may play classical compositions with ease and panache, too (he as soon as counted Bach as certainly one of his favourite sources of “mind meals”).
Lewis left a legacy in Chicago and past
Lewis had a prolific output, releasing two to a few albums a yr for a number of years after the success of “The ‘In’ Crowd.” In all, he recorded greater than 80 albums, together with final yr’s “Maha de Carnaval.”
He retired in suits and begins. In 2018, he advised Chicago station WGN that he took off a number of days in a row from performing and training piano and shortly grew to become bored. In 2019, he opened the Chicago-based Ravinia Competition and advised the Chicago Tribune that yr that he was “90-some % retired” — he’d nonetheless carry out regionally, however he was totally retired from touring throughout the US.
When he wasn’t performing, Lewis was nonetheless introducing listeners to new artists and replaying previous favorites: He hosted a number of jazz packages on public radio and TV stations in Chicago all through his life.
He was additionally an ideal proponent of arts schooling and uplifting musically gifted younger individuals. He based the Ramsey Lewis Basis in 2005, which introduced music packages to at-risk youth. He recalled his personal foundational arts schooling at his Chicago public faculty, which he mentioned supplied numerous bands and musical electives. He lamented the defunding of public faculty arts courses.
“Once they knocked that out of the general public faculty system, we misplaced lots of youngsters who may most likely have contributed to the scene as we all know it,” he advised WGN.
Music was oxygen to Lewis; he could not give up composing authentic songs even after he “retired.” Within the 2018 interview with WGN, he shared that he was nonetheless tinkering with a music he began writing 15 years earlier. He spent a lot of his time at house at his beloved Steinway piano, which he mentioned he purchased in 1962. An everlasting pupil wanting to sharpen his abilities, he listened to all the pieces, throughout genres, that may match on his iPod.
When requested in 2009 what he thought of the best album ever, he replied, “There isn’t a such animal.”
“What feels satisfying to me in the present day may not tomorrow or subsequent week,” he advised Pop Issues in 2009. “The most effective album I ever heard was the one I simply listened to, except I am spending time researching different cultures or auditioning new music/artists. So then … you by no means know!”
Lewis was remembered by his associates and admirers for his progressive type and inquisitive spirit. The Rev. Jesse Jackson
recalled dwelling close to Lewis for greater than 40 years, watching their youngsters develop up collectively.
“Ramsey had beautiful style and was formally skilled and disciplined,” Jackson
tweeted. “I’ll miss him as a good friend and a neighbor.”
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot
said the town of Chicago was grateful to have Lewis as a “native son.” Primarily based on his lifetime of taking part in in his beloved Chicago, he felt the identical pleasure representing his metropolis. As he put it succinctly in a 2011 interview: “Chicago is house.”
Lewis is survived by his spouse and 5 of his youngsters.
