Three-time Grammy Award-winning pianist Ramsay Lewis dies at 87

Washington, September 13 (EFE). – American pianist and jazz teacher Ramsay Lewis died Monday at his home in Chicago at the age of 87, his manager confirmed in a statement published by local media this Tuesday.

Three-time Grammy winner, co-writer (with Dobby Gray) for the hit song “The Crowd,” “Die in Peace” on the morning of September 12.

In the words of his manager, Brett Steele, Lewis “successfully moved from the jazz charts to the pop charts” and became one of the icons of jazz in the final decades of his seven-decade career.

Born in Chicago on May 27, 1935, Ramsay E. Lewis Jr. began taking piano lessons at the age of four and played piano in church, where his father was a choir director.

His father was a fan of jazz music and had a huge influence on his career, playing many Duke Ellington and Art Tatum songs at home and taking his son to jazz concerts.

When Ramsey was a freshman at Wells High School, saxophonist and pianist Wallace Burton asked him to join his band, the Cliffs, a college band that mixed jazz and R&B.

After the outbreak of the Korean War, military conscription claimed that many members of the Clefs and the three members who were not enlisted, including Lewis, made up what became known as the classic Ramsey Lewis Trio.

In 1956 they released their first album, Ramsay Lewis and His Men of Jazz.

A few years later, came his first big hit, “The in Crd,” a Grammy-winning song, followed by two more songs, “Hang on Sloopy” and “Wade in the Water.”

Over the years, Lewis has played and recorded in an impressive variety of musical settings. Embrace R&B and Latin music without giving up mainstream jazz.

Among his many awards are five honorary doctorates and an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Jazz Artist.

The single “The Crowd” was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, and his personal memorabilia are at the Smithsonian Institution.

Lewis received the 2007 National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master Award, which placed him among such holy piano legends as Ahmed Jamal, Cheek Correa, McCoy Tyner, Dr. Billy Taylor and Cecil Taylor. EFE

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