Since the late 1950s pianist and composer Ramsey Lewis has ranked among the leading voices in contemporary jazz, bringing a warm and inviting approach that helped him reach listeners on the pop and R&B charts. He first gained notice leading a jazz trio and achieved wider recognition with the Grammy-winning 1965 album The In Crowd. Over time he expanded his palette, incorporating synthesizers and funk grooves on releases such as the 1974 album Sun Goddess. He has continued to thrive as a crossover figure, presenting his own radio and television programs while releasing projects including 2002’s Meant to Be with Nancy Wilson, 2011’s Taking Another Look, and 2019’s VII alongside his long-running contemporary jazz collective Urban Knights.
Chicago-born on May 27, 1935, Lewis was guided into music by his father, who led the choir at a neighborhood church and favored the work of Duke Ellington and Art Tatum. He started piano lessons at age four and soon played for the congregation during Sunday services. At fifteen he joined the Cleffs, a jazz combo that performed at parties and dances. Drawn to a leaner, bebop-centered style, he formed the Ramsey Lewis Trio with bassist Eldee Young and percussionist Redd Holt after several Cleffs members entered the military. The group quickly became a steady presence on the Chicago jazz circuit and secured a contract with Chess Records, issuing its debut album, Ramsey Lewis & His Gentlemen of Jazz, in 1956.
The trio maintained a steady schedule of recordings and performances that built a loyal jazz following, yet its profile surged in 1965 after capturing a swinging rendition of Dobie Gray’s hit “The In Crowd” during a Washington, D.C. engagement. Chess issued the performance as a single, which climbed the pop charts, earned Lewis his first gold record, and brought a Grammy Award for Best Jazz Performance. Capitalizing on the momentum, he returned to the pop charts in 1966 with treatments of “Hang on Sloopy” and “Wade in the Water.” When Young and Holt departed to establish Young-Holt Unlimited, Lewis recruited bassist Cleveland Eaton and drummer Maurice White.
White exited in 1970 to launch his own band, prompting Morris Jennings to join as the new percussionist. Lewis remained with Chess until 1972, then moved to Columbia, where his evolving contemporary sound coincided with the rising success of White’s Earth, Wind & Fire on the same label. White produced the 1974 album Sun Goddess, on which Lewis first explored electronic keyboards and several Earth, Wind & Fire members contributed; the record became a major crossover success and elevated Lewis within the smooth jazz and fusion community. Throughout the 1970s he continued blending R&B elements while also revisiting traditional jazz and Latin rhythms. In 1983 he reunited with Young and Holt for the album Reunion; in 1984 he joined Nancy Wilson for The Two of Us; in 1988 he recorded A Classic Encounter with London’s Philharmonia Orchestra; and in 1989 he and Dr. Billy Taylor created the piano-duet set We Meet Again.
Lewis joined GRP Records in 1992 and formed the side project Urban Knights in 1995, enlisting crossover jazz artists such as Grover Washington, Jr., Earl Klugh, and Dave Koz. He added disc jockey to his credits in 1997 by hosting a popular program on Chicago’s WNUA-FM that continued until 2009; the show entered syndication in 2006 as Legends of Jazz with Ramsey Lewis and remains on the air. Returning to his gospel roots, he released With One Voice in 2005, which earned the Stellar Gospel Music Award for Best Gospel Instrumental Album. In 2007 he composed the jazz ballet “To Know Her…,” which premiered at Highland Park, Illinois’ Ravinia Music Festival, where he serves as artistic director of the jazz series and helped establish the Jazz Mentor Program.
Several of his string-ensemble and orchestral compositions have also debuted at Ravinia; selections appeared on the 2009 album Songs from the Heart: Ramsey Plays Ramsey, his first Concord Records release. Beyond performing, composing, teaching, and broadcasting, Lewis has accepted five honorary doctorates, received the National Endowment for the Arts’ Jazz Master Award in 2007, and carried the Olympic Torch through Chicago on its way to the 2002 Winter Games. He revisited his 1974 electric jazz-funk album Sun Goddess with the 2011 release Taking Another Look, which was reissued in a deluxe edition with bonus tracks in 2015. Two years later he appeared as a featured guest on pianist Alan Storeygard’s trio album New Directions. In 2019 he returned to Urban Knights for VII, which included new material alongside interpretations of works by John Coltrane, Chick Corea, and the Beatles. Ramsey Lewis died at his Chicago, Illinois home on September 12, 2022, at the age of 87.
