Ramsey Lewis, pianist and composer whose smoothly funky jazz covers of pop hits sold in their millions – obituary
14.09.2022 - 17:39
/ msn.com
Aretha Franklin and Tony Bennett, and performed at the 1995 state dinner that President Clinton hosted for President Fernando Henrique Cardoso of Brazil. Hard-nosed jazz fans might have shrugged him off as a pop-jazz quisling who spent much of his time on gospel-powered covers and catchy funk anthems. Yet he gracefully drew on all manner of influences, interweaving jazz, classical and pop with a sureness of touch that defied classification.
Speaking in 2011, Lewis described his approach to composing and performing. “Life is a solo, and it continues,” he said. “I just know that when I put my hands on the piano it’s going to flow.
”Ramsey Emmanuel Lewis was born in Chicago on May 27 1935, the son of Ramsey Lewis Snr, a maintenance man who introduced his son to the music of Duke Ellington and Art Tatum, and his wife Pauline, a cleaner. He had an older sister, Lucille, who was taken to piano lessons while he was left playing with toy soldiers on the living room floor until he insisted on being included. By the age of nine he was accompanying the gospel chorus at the local church.
Yet he was drawn to classical music, recalling being “flabbergasted” after hearing a rehearsal of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra while in Wells High School. “By the time I was 13 years old, I figured that I would tour the world playing classical music in all the orchestral halls,” he recalled. With race and class stacked against him, Lewis was instead invited at age 15 to join the Clefs, a local jazz band.
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