Ramsey Lewis (1935-2022)

Ramsey Lewis (27 May 1935–12 September 2022) was a marvelous jazz pianist who seamlessly infused gospel, rhythm and blues, and rock and roll into his playing. Yet his contributions to the jazz art form were often met by critics and “jazz purists” unenthusiastically. This cool reception was largely due to these hybridizations, which often maintained a gospel/blues feel no matter what the source material was. In contrast with the mainstream jazz practice in which many recorded and performed songs came from musicals from earlier decades, Lewis’s interpretations of contemporary pop songs hurt him in the eyes of many jazz gatekeepers, although not with the album-buying public. Rock and roll and rhythm and blues were often blamed for the so-called demise of jazz in the 1960s, but the truth was much more complex. It wasn’t until Lewis’s recognition as a Jazz Master by the National Endowment for the Arts in 2007 that a reassessment began of his place in the jazz world.

Ramsey Lewis began studying classical piano music in Chicago at the age of four and studied gospel organ, also at a young age. The Ramsey Lewis Trio was an extension of his first band, the Clefs, which he joined in high school. This began a life of musical contributions in which Lewis recorded 80 albums, three of which earned him Grammy Awards and five of which became gold records. Lewis honed his craft as a jazz musician in the bars and lounges of Chicago. He recalled, “It was great because it gave musicians coming up [in the ranks] the chance to get their act together, get their performance chops. It gave them the chance to try this musical style, that musical style” (Di Nunzio).

What is often described as a splintering of jazz styles in the 1960s occurred at the same time that jazz was being combined with a variety of other musical styles. Even though his particular brand of fusion wasn’t often labeled as such at the time, Lewis was a leading figure in the movement. It wasn’t until his 1965 recording of “The ‘In’ Crowd” broke into the Billboard top 10 that he gained a level of fame rarely bestowed upon a jazz musician of the time. In 1966, Lewis followed with another hit – a jazz/gospel rendition of the antebellum spiritual “Wade in the Water.” Lewis and similar artists were often criticized by the jazz press for eschewing some of the more complex harmonic progressions usually heard in jazz standards. “Wade in the Water,” a song that found a middle ground between gospel, blues, jazz, and Motown, relied on two chords for much of the cut. But what was lost on many of the critics was that Lewis was taking century-old art forms (gospel music and the blues) that comprised an important part of the root system of jazz and reuniting them with their offspring. That his music resonated so strongly with such a large segment of the public helped created an important cultural moment.

These and other crossover hits in the mid-1960s helped launch and sustain Lewis’s music-making career for more than fifty years. In 1974, Lewis collaborated with Maurice White – who later had an essential role in the creation and direction of the funk/soul group Earth, Wind and Fire – to create the album Sun Goddess, a foreshadowing of the smooth jazz genre. With the title track, Lewis continued his commercial success, and the album hit the number one spot on Billboard’s Soul Albums chart.

When asked about his musical influences, Lewis offered this insight: “That’s a hard one. I don’t know if there’s any one musician who I can say influenced me. I was impressed by the music of [jazz piano great] Art Tatum, but I cannot play like Art Tatum. Not many musicians can. I was impressed with the piano playing of Oscar Peterson, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Erroll Garner. … Did Vladimir Horowitz impress me? Yes. Rudolf Serkin? Yes. Any more than Art or Oscar? I don’t know” (Di Nunzio). Thus, the jazz artist who was strongly influenced by the pop music of his era lists jazz and classical virtuosi of the twentieth century as influences. I see it as a request by Ramsey Lewis to be wary of genre labels and to accept any given music on its own terms.

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