Ramsey Lewis
@ LSO St. Lukes, London
16 July 2010
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Biography
Pianist and composer Ramsey Lewis has been referred
to as “The Great Performer,” a title reflecting his
performance style and musical selections that display his early
gospel roots and classical training. They are coupled with his love
of jazz and other musical forms. A native Chicagoan, Mr. Lewis began
taking piano lessons at the age of four, studying the basics. He
is quoted as saying, “It wasn’t until I started studying
with the late Dorothy Mendelson that I responded to some of the
startling things she was teaching me, such as ‘Listen with
your inner ear,’ and ‘Make the piano sing.’ These
concepts were revelations!” Except for records his father
played around the house – Duke Ellington, Art Tatum, Mead
Lux Lewis and others – young Ramsey had no experience playing
jazz. He was 15 years old when a fellow church musician, Wallace
Burton, asked him to join his jazz band and took the time to coach
and help the young musician learn the language of jazz.
Ramsey Lewis captivated fans with his first album
“Ramsey Lewis and the Gentlemen of Swing” by the Ramsey
Lewis Trio in 1956. By 1965, he was one of the nation’s most
successful jazz pianists, topping the charts with “The In
Crowd,” “Hang On Sloopy” and "Wade In The
Water." He has three Grammy Awards and seven gold records to
his credit and he has been honoured with three honorary doctorate
degrees. He was "Person of the Week" on ABC Nightly News
in February 1995.
In 1996 Mr. Lewis performed at a State Dinner
at the White House honouring the President of Brazil and was awarded
the prestigious Lincoln Academy of Illinois "Laureate"
Award in Springfield, IL in April 1997. He carried the Olympic torch,
kicking off the Winter Olympics, on its route through Chicago in
January 2002. Lewis received the NARAS Recording Governor's Award
in 2000, along with more recent awards include the National Endowment
for the Arts highest award in the field of music in the jazz category,
the Jazz Master Award in January 2007 along with the Illinois honor
of “Living Landmark” award in March 2007. Often called
legendary, he concedes, “It’s a high honor when
someone says so, but I don’t see myself that way. What keeps
me enthusiastic and energizes me, is the realization that the more
I learn, the more I find there is to know.”
In addition to recording albums and performing
live, Mr. Lewis hosts WNUA-FM Chicago’s weekday morning drive-time
radio show, “The Ramsey Lewis Morning Show,” for which
he has been awarded R&R’s (Radio&Records) 1999 and
2000 Personality of the Year Award. “The Ramsey Lewis Morning
Show” will also begin syndication nationwide in January 2007.
He also hosts the syndicated “Legends of Jazz with Ramsey
Lewis,” a two-hour radio program that airs in over 75 cities
throughout the U.S and also airs in London. In 2003, Mr. Lewis along
with Larry Rosen (founder and former president of GRP Records) and
Lee Rosenberg formed LRSmedia, the company that produced for the
first time in forty years a series of thirteen one-half hour television
programs. This acclaimed series "Legends of Jazz with Ramsey
Lewis" has aired on PBS featuring emerging and established
jazz musicians. He is currently collaborating with the Joffrey Ballet
Company, choreographer Donald Byrd and the Ravinia Festival to produce
a ballet of original music that will premiere in June 2007 at the
Ravinia Festival.
Active in community affairs, especially on behalf
of youth, he helped organise the Ravinia Festival’s Jazz Mentor
Program. Serving not only as the Artistic Director for that festival’s
jazz series, he was also elected Trustee in 2002. Mr. Lewis serves
on the Board of Trustees of the Merit School of Music in Chicago
as well. Early 2005 saw the formation of the Ramsey Lewis Foundation
that will help provide youth with the opportunity to play musical
instruments and develop those and other skills to enhance self-confidence
and a sense of personal accomplishment.
Although Mr. Lewis tours nationally and internationally
with over 25 symphony orchestras in the U.S. and Canada and has
performed in concert and at festivals throughout Europe, Japan,
Mexico and the Caribbean, he primarily performs with his trio composed
of Larry Gray on bass and Leon Joyce on drums.
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