The righteous soul-jazz piano wizard Ramsey Lewis has something to say about the music business and the problems associated with selling jazz.
“The American marketplace wants instant gratification,” says Lewis, who brings his trio to Jazz Aspen Snowmass on Wednesday to kick off this year’s series of June Festival performances. “Companies put out a product, and if it doesn’t sell within a number of weeks, they take it off the market.”
But Lewis doesn’t believe jazz and other complex music should be disregarded just because it doesn’t fly out of the warehouse like standard pop fare.
“Jazz and classical music need nurturing and care, and in the long run, they have staying power,” he says. “(Director) Ken Burns’ 2001 PBS series on jazz proved that recordings from the ’40s through the ’60s can still sell. It’s quality music.” (The boxed set that was marketed in conjunction with Burns’ series was the first multi-disc jazz collection to be awarded gold status by the Recording Industry Association of America for sales of more than 100,000 copies.)
That resurgence in interest in jazz and its history, spurred by Burns’ series, has helped provide Lewis with the opportunity to host a new PBS series, “Legends of Jazz With Ramsey Lewis.” It debuts at 7 p.m. Sunday on PBS affiliate KBDI-Channel 12.
With years of experience as a syndicated radio host, Lewis makes for an affable television personality. He performs the show’s upbeat theme live with his trio (top that, Letterman, Leno or Stewart) before launching into a spirited chat with a panel of music experts, including frequent Lewis collaborator and vocalist Nancy Wilson as well as singer Jon Hendricks and saxophonists James Moody and Paquito D’Rivera.
“Legends” will return after the premiere hour with 13 new episodes in early 2006, making it the first regular network series dedicated to jazz and its creators in 40 years.
Lewis wants to entice the viewing audience into enjoying the virtues of the music instead of preaching about its importance.
“I look at the show as more conversational and entertaining than necessarily ‘Music 101,’ ” he says. He thinks of the series as a “wise investment in jazz.”
Lewis, who turned 70 in May, plays with as much animation and conviction as he did when he made the Top 40 with such hits as his cover of Dobie Gray’s “The In Crowd” in 1965, for the Chicago-based (Lewis’ home town) Cadet record label. His gospel-tinged, slightly funky interpretations of the pop smashes of the day (like “Hang On Sloopy,” “A Hard Day’s Night” and “Soul Man”) propelled his trio up the charts on several occasions in the ’60s.
Lewis says there was “no secret formula” to the trio’s success 40 years ago.
“If I had one, I would have bottled it and sold it,” he says with a laugh. “We were encouraged to follow our own hearts. That was true of a lot of artists during that time. The industry turned from trying to encourage their artists to thinking about making hit singles.
“That pressure changes what an artist has in mind. That’s why so many artists have turned to independent labels,” Lewis says. Many influential jazz performers have sought more creative freedom with smaller record companies.
Lewis records for the Narada label. After a career of making recordings for the majors, he is once again enjoying the opportunity to follow his heart. He has spent a good deal of time in the studio lately, immersed in an upcoming gospel project with a choir.
But he looks forward to playing the music he’s best identified with at Jazz Aspen, with drummer Leon Joyce and bassist Larry Gray.
“That’s a beautiful part of the world, with beautiful people,” Lewis says of Aspen.
Bret Saunders writes about jazz for The Denver Post. Saunders is host of the “KBCO Morning Show,” 5:30-10 a.m. weekdays at 97.3-FM. His e-mail address is bret_saunders@hotmail.com
Ramsey Lewis Trio
JAZZ ASPEN SNOWMASS|The trio performs at Jazz Aspen’s 15th annual Kickoff Party; 8:30 p.m. Wednesday at Belly Up, 450 S. Galena St., Aspen. | 970-544-9800 for information and 1-800-SNOWMASS for ticket and lodging packages for the June 23-26 June Festival at Jazz Aspen Snowmass, featuring Isaac Hayes, Dianne Reeves, Bobby McFerrin, Marcus Miller, Boz Scaggs and more at Aspen’s Rio Grande Park.
