LP-680

Ramsey Lewis Trio - More Music From The Soil

Released 1961

Recording and Session Information

Ramsey Lewis Trio
Ramsey Lewis, piano; Eldee Young, bass, cello; Redd Holt, drums
Chicago, February 16 & 17 1961

10699 Around the world in 80 days
10700 Since I fell for you
10701 Hello cello
10702 I'll wait for your love
10703 Volga boatmen
10704 Blues for the night owl
10705 Smoke gets in your eyes
10706 Autumn in New York
10707 Gonna set your soul on fire

Track Listing

Around The World In 80 Days	Adamson, Young	February 16 & 17 1961
Since I Fell For You	B. Johnson	February 16 & 17 1961
Hello, Cello!	Young, Lewis, Holt	February 16 & 17 1961
I'll Wait For Your Love	Davis, Head	February 16 & 17 1961
Volga Boatman	Arranged By – Young, Lewis, Holt	February 16 & 17 1961
Blues For The Night Owl	Bernard, Thompson	February 16 & 17 1961
Smoke Gets In Your Eyes	Kern, Harbach	February 16 & 17 1961
Autumn In New York	Vernon Duke	February 16 & 17 1961
Gonna Set Your Soul On Fire	Young, Lewis, Holt	February 16 & 17 1961

Liner Notes

THE seeds of this musical bumper crop were planted long ago when Ramsey Lewis, bassist Eldee Young, and drummer Red Holt played together in a teen-age band in high school days. They grew musically into manhood weed-fast and corn high, and, not long after their trio was formed in late 1956, Jack Tracy, then editor of Down Beat foresaw: "This group could hit the heights of acclaim achieved by such as Shearing, Brubeck, and Garner.

High and mighty, you will hear on this album the finest argument for such a reality and, if you're not careful, the glorious force of it will knock you down. Here is their musical philosophy, their product of maturity, the synthesis of their lives and loves and academic training, their hopes, dreams, and fears boldly stated by young giants at the top of their emotions; unashamed and unafraid to bare hearts as big as the Empire State building. It definitely establishes them as a major force in jazz.

I have been privileged to watch the growth of this trio from close vantage point. I have seen them in north side Chicago cellars when the trio was new and the crowds were small and their names unknown. And I have seen crowds four abreast and rounding a block to hear them at Detroit's Minor Key. I have seen big tears well in the eyes of Ramsey when he takes a little bit of melody up in his finger tips, caressing each note with heartbreaking tenderness. And I have seen Eldee so overcome with his bass that he had to go someplace and sit down. And I have seen Red go mad from the sheer joy of swinging. It is no wonder to that this musical trinity, each of them infused into each other, speaks so eloquently as single voice.

I was also at the birth of this album. Then Ramsey was seated at a big seven-foot Steinway, and five-foot-nothing Eldee, dwarfed by his bass, was made two inches higher because Ramsey had put a pillow under his right foot to muffle the sound of its tapping, They had put an enclosure around Red and sometimes you could see the flash of his teeth bctwccn the 22-inch and 15-inch cymbals. Ramsey had a chart of only 21 bars (some of the changes to Autumn In New York) for the entire session and it rested on the piano top along with Eldee's Austrian rosin, crushed pack of filter tip smokes, and the calling card of an optometrist who had repaired Ramsey's broken glasses that day.

In the control room, engineer Ron Malo mixed the sound from the three microphones and Jack Tracy called out the first tune on side one: "Take One, Around The World In 80 Days." Ramsey kicked it off up tempo. They did it six or seven times before they were satisfied with it and Eldee said quite frankly after it Was over: "I don't have anything to say about this one. It didn't offer much challenge except for the solo, because I hadn't prepared myself for it. I felt I met it, though. I felt it was a completely improvised solo, representing the best I could do at that time. But then I've never played any solo that I didn't think I could improve on." Put in Ramsey: "I found this one exciting but not the best on album." Red just smiled.

Ramsey had a special feeling about the blues ballad I Fell For You because it was written by Paul Gayten, former pianist and now Argo's west coast representative, who encouraged him throughout his career and was one of the first to champion his cause. Hello, Cello! was written by the trio and marked Eldee's recording debut on that instrument, which, with stand extended, was exactly his same height. What you hear on this is an excellent statement, but an earlier take might have been better. It was never completed, however, because in the middle of it Eldee became so emotionally involved he had to put his instrument down for a minute. Eldee liked it, but had little to say of the chosen take. Said Ramsey: "After Eldee irons out himself he will place second only to Oscar Pettiford if not extend him on that instrument." Red just smiled.

I'll Wait For Your Love is a ballad which Ramsey dedicated to the writers, Elizabeth Davis and Robert Head of Pittsburgh. "It's part of our book, one of our most popular tunes and the lyrics are just as effective as the music," Ramsey said, confessing: "I love to play ballads best of all. I'm an incurable romantic and I don't care who knows it." It shows through on this one. The side ends on The Song Of The Volga Boatmen, interesting and up-tempo.

Side 2 opens with Blues For The Night Owl. "I think this is one of the highlights of the album," Ramsey said. "I relate this to high school days. I would finish my homework and go to bed to that tune. It was disc jockey Sid McCoy's theme song. But then most of the things we did on this album have special meaning to us."

Perhaps of equal effect is Smoke Gets In Your Eyes, done here in 3/4 time. And after it was over Ramsey confided: "You know I gave Red a nickname that describes the way I feel about him, I call him Old Ironsides. I can be tired and don't feel like I have it during some sets and he'll come through with all the spark. We've never found his battery down." Eldee nodded his agreement. Red just smiled.

Autumn In New York was truly inspired. And Ramsey was feeling that way. The ending, heavy and dramatic, is all the more effective because of his insertion of a Manhattan phrase.

Gonna Set Your Soul On Fire, which completes the album, was in effect the Second Baptist church of their childhood revisited. Nobody can touch them on this one. It is fire and brimstone.

This album to me suggests jazz at its best. There is nearly a quartet of a century of conservatory training invested in this trio, but the academic devices serve only to facilitate the outpouring of soul. It is a perfect marriage. It is more music from the soil.

Marc Crawford