Ramsey Lewis – Songs From The Heart: Ramsey Plays Ramsey – Concord Jazz CJA-31313-02 *****:
(Ramsey Lewis, piano; Larry Gray, bass; Leon Joyce, drums)
Ramsey Lewis is an important American jazz pianist, composer, and radio and TV personality. He began with both gospel and classical training, and his love of music isn’t limited to jazz. Among his big hits were The In Crowd, and Wade in the Water. Having recorded over 80 albums in his career, with three Grammies, Lewis is now perhaps best known for his hosting of the Legends of Jazz PBS-TV series in 2006.
Songs From The Heart is Ramsey’s first album in five years, and differs from his previous efforts by all dozen tracks being his original compositions. It’s also his first for Concord Records, and his wife suggested he send their A&R people a reference disc of various songs he had recently composed. He did so and they decided to devote the entire album to some of them. Many come from music he wrote for a Joffrey Ballet Company production titled To Know Her… Others came from a suite of selections he wrote for a performance with the Turtle Island Quartet.
The great tune To Know Her Is to Love Her starts things off with a lightly swinging and sophisticated tone. A standout in the nine-minute introductory track is a lovely cello-like bowed solo by Larry Gray. Touching, Feeling, Knowing is another tune from the To Know Her… production, with a slow rocking rhythm which brings out varied, subtle and tasteful work on the traps by Leon Joyce. The track Splash strikes me as having a slight Brazilian slant to its melodic leadings. Ramsey’s chordal support for the melody is all over the keyboard but not the least bit excessive. Another of the longish tracks is the penultimate Sharing Her Journey, whose melody has a slight Arabic tinge, and is accompanied by a bass and drums ostinato that reminds one of Caravan. Again bassist Gray has another fine bowed solo on this one. Excellent sonics distinguish this album which stands apart from many of the piano trio efforts being released today.
TrackList: To Know Her is to Love Her; Touching, Feeling, Knowing; Clouds in Reverie; The Spark; Conversation; The Way She Smiles Exhilaration; The Clow of Her Charm, Rendezvous; Long Before She Knew; Sharing Her Journey; Watercolors.
– John Henry
