And they said it a lot, releasing 20 albums by the end of 1965, including three each in 1960, 1961, 1962, and 1963. Many are noteworthy for the unusual, wide-ranging choice of songs. The group liberally mixed together folk melodies, gospel songs, nursery rhymes, soundtracks, current Broadway and pop hits, Bossa Nova, soul, and even some country western.
The trio's style was generally mainstream, with some cool poly-rhythmical bass and drums. The majority of the tracks clock in at only three to four minutes; there isn't much stretching out on these early albums. But even if nothing like a hot jam session ever threatened to break out, Lewis and his band mates were clearly talented jazz musicians who could swing. They competed for record sales with piano trios like Oscar Peterson and (fellow Chicagoan and ARGO label-mate) Ahmad Jamal. In short, their jazz bona fides were solid.
After a decade together, the group had a loyal fan base and steady albums sales. They were a popular fixture at Chicago clubs and also toured and played at venues like Birdland and the Village Vanguard in New York. But their big commercial break came with their 17nd (!) album, the 1965 release called The In Crowd. The record was recorded live during a three-night stand at the Bohemian Cavern club in Washington, D.C. The instrumental version of the title track (which had been a big hit for singer Dobie Gray earlier in 1965) made it to number five on the Hot 200 Chart, and all the way to number two on the R&B chart. The album won a Grammy for Best Instrumental Jazz Performance. And more importantly, the light jazz treatment of current pop hits that made The In Crowd such a hit proved to be the winning formula to propel Ramsey Lewis to a string of chart-topping albums and a massive new audience. As Lewis noted in an interview years later: "All of a sudden this huge hit was on the chart, and we were up there in the Top Five with Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Barbra Streisand . . . So of course our money just sky-rocketed. And suddenly we were making five to ten times more than we had been. So I guess, while it did take time to get used to that, those are certainly days that I'll always remember."From bottom: Ramsey Lewis, Eldee Young, and Red Holt |
Lewis and his label wasted no time getting the new trio into the studio to take advantage of the chart-topping success of The In Crowd. The newly-formed group released five albums in the next two years, and a total of 10 albums before the end of the decade. It is worth noting that following The In Crowd, Lewis no longer billed his group as the Ramsey Lewis Trio. From now on, it was just Ramsey Lewis.
In retrospect, I feel certain that Swingin' -- the album I picked up recently -- was reissued by the label in 1966 to cash in on the popularity of The In Crowd. No doubt they were counting on the fact that lots of new fans wouldn't notice that Swingin' was a reissue of the group's first album. However, I have to assume that most fans of The In Crowd were disappointed if they expected Swingin' to be a follow-up album.
1975's Sun Goddess |
Back at the ranch, things were going great for Lewis. He was now a huge popular success, selling more albums than ever, and, by his own admission, making lots more money than ever. In the 70s, Lewis expanded his group to a septet and began to experiment with fusion, electronic, and soul jazz. Many of his 70s releases, including the 1975 hit album, Sun Goddess, went gold. (Not my favorite musically, but one of the all-time great album covers, at left.) Lewis continued recording well into the 2000s and also devoted considerable time and energy into teaching and promoting jazz education. In 2007, he was named a Jazz Master by the National Endowment for the Arts. However, if you're thinking there must be a fly somewhere in the ointment, you'd be right.
Despite his growing popularity, after The In Crowd, Lewis lost nearly all of his street cred. Fellow jazz musicians and critics viewed Lewis as a sellout with his shift to a watered-down jazz/pop style. In a 1982 review, critic Brian Harrigan wrote that Lewis's once brilliant technique was "totally submerged by the presence of horn sections, additional keyboards, backing singers and - although I didn't actually hear it - probably someone taping on the side of a kitchen sink." In a 1993 review, Down Beat magazine said "[His] acoustic piano breezes blandly through a set of diluted pop tunes and insipid originals, lightly scattering bluesy signature riffs upon the tepid waters." Ouch.
Lewis mostly shrugged off the negative press, saying that he had been mixing jazz and pop from the start. In a 2013 interview, he says that after The In Crowd, "The jazz police disowned us. But at the same time, people like Duke Ellington and Oscar Peterson would come by and put their arms around us and say you guys have something unique, stick with what you have." Presumably the ever-increasing royalty checks helped assuage any remaining hurt feelings.
Ramsey Lewis in 2020 |
After playing my newly-acquired copy of Swingin' (which, by the way, wasn't a total loss since the reissue is a stereo version to go with my original mono copy of Gentle-Men Of Swing), I pulled out a few more of Lewis's early albums, including Down To Earth from 1959 (maybe my favorite album by Lewis) and Barefoot Sunday Blues from 1963. I hadn't listened to these LPs in a while, and I was struck by how Lewis, Young, and Holt had carved out a really interesting niche with their jazz treatment of folk, blues, and gospel.
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