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Ramsey Lewis - Songs From The Heart: Ramsey Plays Ramsey ****
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Wednesday, 31 March 2010 11:23
Concord Records 7231313 | Ramsey Lewis (p), Larry Gray (b) and Leon Joyce (d). Rec. date not stated

Ramsey Lewis’s first trio recording in five years, his debut for Concord Jazz, represents a game-changing milestone. Despite early hits such as ‘The In Crowd’, ‘Hang on Sloopy’ and ‘Wade in the Water’, Lewis had never previously thought of himself as a composer. That was until Welz Kauffman, President of the Ravinia Festival, suggested that he write some original music for the Joffrey Ballet. Songs From The Heart: Ramsey Plays Ramsey is Lewis’ first recording of all-original compositions, eight instrumentals composed for his 2007 ballet score To Know Her plus an additional four excerpted from the following year’s Muses and Amusements suite written for his trio and the Turtle Island Quartet. In a remarkable career that has produced over 80 albums, I can think of no other piece which Lewis has penned that possesses the same sublime understatement and emotional directness as ‘Touching, Feeling, Knowing’. Its gorgeous melody immediately works its way under your skin. Indeed all 12 of these ‘Songs without Words’ are vignettes of exceptional eloquence, drawing at will from influences that nod to Ravel on the one hand (‘Conversation’) and New Orleans on the other (‘The Way She Smiles’), by way of deeply grooving bass ostinatos (‘Sharing Her Journey’) and Lewis’ newly found, triple distilled lyricism (‘Clouds In Reverie’). Peter Quinn
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3.26 Copyright (C) 2008 Compojoom.com / Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."

 
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