Ravinia 2019, Issue 1, Week 1

7:00 PM FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2019 PAVILION RAMSEYFEST JOHN PIZZARELLI TRIO with ANN HAMPTON CALLAWAY –Intermission– PHILIP BAILEY –Intermission– RAMSEY LEWIS & URBAN KNIGHTS with ANN HAMPTON CALLAWAY RAMSEY LEWIS Lifelong Chicagoan Ramsey Lewis began tak- ing piano lessons at age 4, and by age 15 he had joined a fellow church musician’s band and began to learn the language of jazz. That seven-piece group, called The Cleffs, provided the roots for his first trio, which would include bassist Eldee Young and percussionist Redd Holt. The Ramsey Lewis Trio became a fixture on the burgeoning Chicago jazz scene and was soon signed to Chess Records, which issued the group’s debut album, Ramsey Lewis and the Gentlemen of Swing , in 1956. Lewis earned his first Grammy Award in 1965 for his rendition of Dobie Gray’s “The ‘In’ Crowd,” and continued to top the charts with his versions of “Hang on Sloopy” and “Wade in the Water.” He teamed with Earth, Wind & Fire for the 1974 crossover hit Sun Goddess , on which he first experiment- ed with electric instruments. Lewis has since joined forces with such artists as Nancy Wilson for The Two of Us (1984) and London’s Philhar- monia Orchestra for A Classic Encounter (1988). Between 1997 and 2009 he hosted WNUA’s The Ramsey Lewis Morning Show , which spawned the nationally syndicated radio show Legends of Jazz with Ramsey Lewis in 2006. Currently ar- tistic director of jazz at Ravinia, Lewis has had a long partnership with the festival that includes the formation of the Jazz Scholars and Mentors program and several commissioned works, from solo pieces to the symphonic poem Proc- lamation of Hope for Lincoln’s Bicentennial and his first concerto for jazz trio and orchestra. At the concerto’s premiere, Lewis was presented Ravinia’s Ed Gordon Award. His 2010 album, Songs from the Heart: Ramsey Lewis Plays Ram- sey , featured a collection of songs that received their premiere at or were commissioned for Ra- vinia by Welz Kauffman, the festival’s president and CEO. Lewis’s latest album, titled Ramsey, Taking Another Look , was released in 2011. In 2007 he received the National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Award. Tonight marks Ramsey Lewis’s 33rd season at Ravinia, where he first appeared in 1966 and made his Chica- go Symphony Orchestra debut as a soloist and composer in 2015. RAVINIA MAGAZINE | MAY 31 – JUNE 9, 2019 90