Overview: Ramsey Lewis is a man who has touched all of our lives. Not everybody finds their calling in life as a four-year-old boy sitting at a piano in the living room, but ever since he did he’s filled our lives with music and with joy. -- President Barack Obama.

Gentleman of Jazz: A Life in Music is an immersive new autobiography provides insight into the early life and illustrious career of the late great Ramsey Lewis, one of the most popular jazz pianists of all time.

Verdict: Beginning with his childhood growing up in Chicago’s Cabrini-Green neighborhood, a new public housing complex, Ramsey Emmanuel Lewis (who sadly passed away on September 12th, 2022) recounts his memories of the music in his parents’ church and his early piano lessons.

One of three children of Pauline and Ramsey Lewis, his father worked as a maintenance man and it was his mother who encouraged him to learn the piano from the age of four. Thus, and with his family, he attended Zion Hill baptist church where the gospel music he experienced there would, Lewis later noted, never leave him. Furthermore, his father was the choir director and encouraged his son to accompany the singers.

Lewis graduated from Edward Jenner elementary school in 1948 and enrolled at Chicago music college with the idea of becoming a concert pianist, soon leaving to marry Geraldine Taylor, taking a job in a record shop and joining the Clefs, a seven-piece dance band.

As he learned classical technique, Lewis also absorbed countless jazz records and heard gospel music weekly, finally becoming a performer himself in his teenage years. With his coauthor and collaborator, Aaron Cohen, Lewis describes his early steps in jazz from joining The Clefs in the ‘50s, to eventually establishing The Ramsey Lewis Trio.

In 1956 he formed the Ramsey Lewis Trio with the Clefs’ rhythm section bassist Eldee Young and the drummer Isaac “Redd” Holt. The trio signed to Argo – a subsidiary of Chess Records, Chicago’s foremost independent label.

That year saw the release of their debut album, Ramsey Lewis and His Gentle-men of Swing. In it, Lewis largely interpreted standards with a jazz flavour. He continued this formula – at least one album a year (including live, bossa nova and Christman albums) – into the 60s, attracting solid sales if little recognition.

The In Crowd album was the trio’s 17th LP and third live album. Its title track, when issued as a single, was picked up by US radio, soaring to No 1 in the R&B charts and No 5 in Pop while the album reached No 2 in the US charts.

The band’s dynamic performance, recreating effectively the excitement and joy Lewis recalled from church, connected with listeners and Lewis found himself famous. Later that same year they released another live album, Hang on Ramsey!, providing another hit single with their interpretation of the 60s pop hit Hang on Sloopy.

Tensions between Lewis and his rhythm section saw Young and Holt leaving to form Redd Holt Unlimited. The 1966 album Wade in the Water gave Lewis his third US hit single and was his first recording to feature the Memphis native Maurice White on drums. White left Lewis in 1969 to lead the hugely popular Earth, Wind & Fire.

In 1974, White produced his former employer’s Sun Goddess, giving Lewis his most successful album and ensuring his sound was suitably keyed into a contemporary jazz-funk aesthetic.

Lewis continued to tour and to record regularly – including sessions with Minnie Riperton, Stevie Wonder and Nancy Wilson – alongside appearing on the rapper Guru’s Jazzmatazz Vol 2 album.

Everyone from Mariah Carey to the Geto Boys would sample Lewis’s recordings. He reunited his original trio for one album in 1983, joined the all-star jazz fusion group Urban Knights for eight albums between 1995 and 2019, hosted the Legends of Jazz TV series and, during the Covid-19 pandemic, produced a monthly Saturday Salon livestream series.

This beautifully sculptured, complete with ornate lines of gossamer prose book lovingly provides an evocative tour of Lewis’s life from the club circuit of the early 1960s and recording with Chess Records to working with producer Maurice White and musicians such as Stevie Wonder.

In this deep dive into an exceptional life and expansive career, Lewis takes us through the artistic challenges, offers insight and perspective on his own musical growth and the creative process, and describes his eventual foray into symphonic composition and performance.

Gentleman of Jazz: A Life in Music serves as both an inspiration to young musicians eager to follow in his footsteps and a tribute to the legacy of Ramsey Lewis and is sure to excite longtime fans as well as those new to the jazz scene.

About The Authors:
RAMSEY LEWIS (1935-2022) was one of the most popular jazz pianists of all time, with more than eighty albums to his name. A National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master, Top 10 hitmaker, and winner of three Grammys, Lewis also hosted popular television and radio shows that honored the history of jazz music.

He was not only influential for many modern jazz artists but beats he created decades ago can be heard across R&B and hip hop. Through it all, Lewis remained grounded, never leaving behind his roots in Chicago, IL.

AARON COHEN teaches humanities at City Colleges of Chicago and writes for numerous publications, including the Chicago Tribune, DownBeat, and Chicago Reader. He is the author of Move on Up: Chicago Soul Music and Black Cultural Power and Amazing Grace.

Cohen has been a National Endowment for the Humanities Public Scholar and is a two-time recipient of the Deems Taylor Award for outstanding music writing from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP).

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