LP-701

The Ramsey Lewis Trio – Country Meets The Blues

Released 1962

Recording and Session Information

Ramsey Lewis, piano; Eldee Young, bass, cello; Redd Holt, drums; Lew Douglas (dir, strings), Oliver Nelson (dir, reeds)
Bell Sounds Studios, New York, August 2+3 1962

11808 Your cheatin' heart
11809 St. Louis blues
11810 Memphis in June
11811 Country meets the blues
11812 Blueberry Hill
11813 High noon
11814 I need you so
11815 I just want to make love to you
11816 Tangleweed 'round my heart
11817 Bucket's got a hole in it

Track Listing

Your Cheatin' Heart	H. Williams	August 2+3 1962
St. Louis Blues	W. C. Handy	August 2+3 1962
Blueberry Hill	Lewis, Stock, Rose	August 2+3 1962
Country Meets The Blues	R. Lewis	August 2+3 1962
Memphis In June	Carmichael	August 2+3 1962
High Noon	Tiomkine, Washington	August 2+3 1962
I Need You So	Hunter	August 2+3 1962
I Just Want To Make Love To You	W. Dixon	August 2+3 1962
Tangleweed 'Round My Heart	Wyatt, Kelley	August 2+3 1962
My Bucket's Got A Hole In It	C. Williams	August 2+3 1962

Liner Notes

JAZZ is a feeling rather than statement. An unmistakable feeling of self expression, of independence, of the individual speaking and living in harmony with his fellow men. This is a feeling which can be communicated.

Jazz appreciation is not limited to social or economic groups. Jazz is for everybody, for everyone who will listen.

The scope of jazz has widened as it has spontaneously developed contrapuntal melodies. Jazz has an important story to tell; as such innovators as 'John Lewis, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk and John "Dizzy" Gillespie'' have all given to its telling — a structure, an intellectual appeal rivaling its emotional impact. Their contributions have made jazz a rich and fertile music, exciting, alive and stimulating, to the mind as well as to the heart. The contributions to jazz did not stop With the aforementioned, but you Will find it to be ever increasing.

Young men and women are improvising, drawing from many sources, blending and putting into jazz something that was not there before...but never losing the source, the blues.

The young man today most qualified of the above mention is...Ramsey E. Lewis Jr. who was born in Chicago just 26 years ago. Ramsey has a background most musicians envy.

His studies started at the tender age of six. He continued to equip himself at De Paul University where he also became a student of the classics and thus the leader of the Ramsey Lewis Trio was born.

This trio (and I might add, is the most popular in the country today) consists of bass and cello player extraordinary, Eldee Young, who is also from Chicago.

The brilliant drummer, from Rosedale, Mississippi, raised in Chicago, is Isaac "Red" Holt. Three of the most brilliant minds ever applied to jazz.

The Ramsey Lewis Trio find themselves in a setting not familiar to some but one which find the group right at home, with the blues — and a little country feeling added for flavor.

Here, Ramsey has the assistance of strings and voices, under the leadership of Lew Douglas, and a very unique brass section lead by none other than Oliver Nelson. The "treatments" you will find to be indescribably beautiful. String and voices may lead you to believe that the group doesn't swing...quite the contrary...Ramsey is in full charge all the way and SWINGS. The group swings extra hard on "My Bucket's Got A Hole In It", making for smooth dancing and very commercial. Another highlight of the set is the trio's confession of "I Just Want To Make Love To You." The trio is into a great groove with Eldee on Cello and out front all the way.

This is Ramsey Louis utilizing Country and Blues, as a truly soulful music to underline a variety of musical situations as only Ramsey Lewis can do it, BEAUTIFUL.

Al Clarke
House Of Jazz
Radio WJMO
Cleveland, Ohio