RAMSEY LEWIS
Crossover jazz pianist (1935-2022)
FTER hearing Dobie Gray’s “The ‘In’ Crowd” on the radio in May 1965, jazz pianist Ramsey Lewis opted to lead his trio through an instrumental version of the song that evening in Washington DC. The response from the audience at the Bohemian Caverns nightspot was overwhelming. Lewis and bandmates Eldee Young (bass) and Issac “Red” Holt (drums) injected it with a cool soul-jazz swing, setting a precedent for their recordings that followed. Their live version of “The ‘In’ Crowd” duly went Top 5 in the US, shifting over a million copies and winning a Grammy. The Ramsey Lewis Trio consolidated their crossover success with another couple of hits: a funky reworking of
