Michigan Avenue - Niche Media - Michigan Avenue magazine is a luxury lifestyle magazine centered around Chicago’s finest people, events, fashion, health & beauty, fine dining & more!
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MAJOR PLAYERS AS MUSIC LOVERS PREPARE TO CELEBRATE THE CITY'S 35TH ANNUAL JAZZ FESTIVAL, WE MEET THE ARTISTS WHO MAKE THE CHICAGO SCENE ONE OF THE MOST JAMMING IN THE WORLD. BY JOHN DUGAN PHOTOGRAPHY BY JEFF SCIORTINO RAMSEY LEWIS Chicago's gentleman of jazz, always learning. At 78, Ramsey Lewis, NEA Jazz Master and Illinois "Living Landmark" (2007) as well as artistic director for jazz at Ravinia, is Chicago's best-known jazz pianist. But up until his late teens, his musical diet was strictly classical and gospel. That is, until he met the slightly older Wallace Burton, who asked him to jam at a dance. "Burton said, 'Gee, I'd love to have you play in our band,'" Lewis recalls. "He told me, 'Show up Friday night, and we'll play.'" Lewis arrived, realized he didn't know the blues or jazz standards that the other guys did, and got a ride home while thinking, "That was nice, the end of my jazz career." Eventually, Burton took him under his wing (Burton "saw something in me that I didn't see"), and Lewis became the piano player for the seven-piece band that would condense into the Ramsey Lewis Trio. He played Chicago clubs, corner taverns, and coffeehouses and became the house band at London House at Wacker and Michigan. There, he learned from 116 greats Erroll Garner and Oscar Peterson, finding them after sets and asking, "How'd you do that?" and sometimes picking up a lesson. The Ramsey Lewis Trio's "The In Crowd" single and album were crossover chart hits in 1965. And his 1974 record Sun Goddess (featuring Earth, Wind & Fire) is among his five gold albums. Today Lewis dismisses the emphasis on hit-making, savoring the fact that the music business has returned to touring as its bread-and-butter, the modus operandi of the jazz musician in the preBeatles era. Lewis, who has released more than 70 albums, continues to play 30 to 45 dates a year—including an August 28 date at Ravinia with Natalie Cole— but he is equally well-known as a presenter of jazz on radio and television. His transition to radio and TV via WTTW's Legends of Jazz series he credits to advice from Billy Taylor. Lewis was a guest on Taylor's Bravo show, and the duo toured on two pianos for years, often improvising. "Quite the dapper gentleman," Lewis says of Taylor, "he really influenced me as a musician and as a human being." Chicago, Lewis contends, has lent its jazz a distinctive "earthy blues, gospel influence." And if there's anything the city could use more of these days, he says, it's venues, even coffeehouses, where young music school graduates could gig. Lewis isn't blowing smoke—he's actually called up Starbucks' CEO ("How bold I am, I got as far as Schultz's office") to suggest he create jazz spaces at stores for live shows. Likewise, Lewis commits himself to visiting schools, speaking engagements, performing master classes, and encouraging jazz education. "Mentoring was waiting for Miles Davis or whomever to come off the bandstand and say, 'Excuse me, how did you do that?' And they say, 'Come on, sit in with me.' They pass the word along. That's how jazz evolves. Jazz is about passing it on." ramseylewis.com MICHIGANAVEMAG.COM 116-121_MA_FEAT_Jazz_SUMMER13.indd 116 6/18/13 12:44 PM