He passed yesterday. He was my intro to jazz. I caught him on one of those afternoon talks shows in the early 1960s and went wow, what is this, as he and his trio swung through some numbers. This was before he scored his first major hit, The In Crowd. I have a few of his albums and love his "Ramsey Lewis Trio Sound Of Christmas" which swings like crazy and doesn't need to be saved for Christmas time listening. Check him out if you haven't.

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He also put out a "More Sounds of Christmas" album which is very good. Both get a lot of spins here in December. (I'll play "The In Crowd", etc., all year long, but I reserve Christmas albums for Christmas time--starting the day after Thanksgiving--but that's just me!)


Great artist. Huge loss. Rest in Peace.

He did a fine version of "A Hard Day's Night," a song that must already have seemed like a bit of an "oldie" when he recorded it in October 1965.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2022-09-14 14:37 by tatters.

His 1970's 'Sun Goddess' period was massively popular - and musically influential - on the west coast where I was living and recording. He got major airplay on the east coast with the soul-rock fusion tune 'This Ain't No Fantasy' around the late 1980's. As recently as 2008 or so he had a notable hit on modern jazz stations with an instrumental remake of 'Oh Happy Day;' it's truly inspirational and elevating.

A hitmaker over at least SIX decades. Wow; congrats to Ramsey Lewis for a life so well lived!

The Ramsey Lewis Trio - more music from the soil, 1961 Chicago on vinyl sounds great RIP

i had several of the Ramsey Lewis Trio albums .. once I got into that instrumental piano trio stuff, I found what he does to be a lot of fun to listen to. Saw him several times. Most enjoyable to listen to. A gentleman..
maybe my favorite album of his is ‘Funky Serenity’

Did he play with Mick on one of his solo albums