Ramsey Lewis

Jazz pianist and composer Ramsey Lewis was born on May 27, 1935, in Chicago, Illinois. At the age of four, he began taking piano lessons. His first band was The Clefs but he would eventually leave the group and form the Ramsey Lewis Trio. Throughout his 80+ album career, he played with revolving cast of trio members as well as collaborating with larger group formations. His debut with his trio was Ramsey Lewis and His Gentlemen of Swing (1956). Lewis became one of the most popular pianists in the U.S. when his 1965 album The ‘In’ Crowd hit Number 2 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart and the title track reached Number 5 on the Hot 100 Singles chart. The album won Ramsey Lewis his first Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Jazz Performance by an Individual or Group. Moving slightly away from jazz, the Ramsey Lewis Trio began to concentrate on more pop-oriented material. Their next album, also released in ’65, was Hang On Ramsey!, which found the trio tackling “Hang On Sloopy” plus tracks by The Beatles and other pop, rock, and jazz artists. His vast catalog also includes Wade in the Water (1966), Mother Nature’s Son (1968), Them Changes (1970), The Groover (1972), the Grammy-winning Ramsey Lewis’ Newly Recorded All-Time Non-Stop Golden Hits (1973). Tequila Mockingbird (1977), Les Fleurs (1983), The Two of Us (1984/with Nancy Wilson), Urban Knights 1, the first in a series of Urban Knights releases (1995), Time Flies (2004), Urban Knights VII (2019), and the Latin-influenced Manha de Carnival (2021). Between touring and recording, Lewis hosted his own syndicated radio show, Legends of Jazz, between 1990 and 2009. Ramsey Lewis died on September 12, 2022, at the age of 87.