LP-723

Ramsey Lewis Trio - Barefoot Sunday Blues

Released 1963

Recording and Session Information

Ramsey Lewis, piano; Eldee Young, bass, cello; Chris White, bass; Redd Holt, drums
RVG, Englewood, New York, August 20 1963

12559 Lonely Avenue
12560 Act like you mean it
12561 Don't even kick it around
12562 Barefoot Sunday blues
12563 Salute to Ray Charles
12564 Li'l mama please don't start
12565 Come on baby
12566 Island blues
12567 I spend my life
12568 Sarah Jane
12569 This 'n that
The train won't wait

Track Listing

Lonely Avenue	Doc Pomus	August 20 1963
Don't Even Kick It Around	R. Lewis	August 20 1963
Salute To Ray Charles	R. Lewis	August 20 1963
Barefoot Sunday Blues	Jullian Adderly	August 20 1963
Island Blues	Charles Lloyd	August 20 1963
I Spend My Life	Eldee Young	August 20 1963
Act Like You Mean It	Eldee Young	August 20 1963
Sarah Jane	Dave Grusin	August 20 1963
The Train Won't Wait	R. Lewis	August 20 1963
Come On Baby	Holt & Lewis	August 20 1963

Liner Notes

JAZZ is such a large and beautiful thing; and part of its beauty is the space and the freedom it allows for development of many diverse and dissimilar styles, which can still properly be called jazz. (Although, no one has yet come up with a definition of exactly what jazz is, for which we should all be extremely thankful). Another marvelous aspect of the music, is that even when one style or persuasion of it becomes outrageously popular, you will still be able to find some very gifted performers working in completely alien areas. So that no matter how ubiquitous Bossa Nova or Soul-Funk-Groove ideas become throughout the music, there will be other serious workmen who will not be very interested in getting on that particular bandwagon.

This is true with Ramsey Lewis and his group, to a large extent. Lewis, Eldee Young and Red Holt have been content for a long time now, to go pretty much their own way, playing music they feel moved to play, without much concern for who else is doing what. Lewis has been playing the music he wants to play, in a style that is by now readily identifiable as his own.

Lewis' playing, as well as his music does not follow in fthe most familiar tradition of Negro piano music. There is little of the percussiveness and tension that characterizes the most famous jazz piano styles, from Montana Taylor to Horace Silver. Instead, Lewis has been interested in developing a more "pianistic" technique on the instrument, utilizing a touch and attack that rely very directly on under-statement and the subtle exploitation of the melody. And there have been quite a few outstanding jazz pianists that thought along these same lines, e.g., Teddy Wilson, John Lewis, Hank Jones and some others; preferring a light swinging facility to the heavier rhythm inspired piano, that I suppose can be called Classic. But even so, like these other pianists who have thought in similarly pianistic terms, Lewis is still very conscious that jazz is a blues based music, as almost any tune on this album will readily attest (but especially on tunes like Lonely Avenue, Don't Kick It Around, Train Won't Wait). In fact, there is a bluesy exterior to all of Lewis' efforts, even on latin flavored numbers like Come On Baby, with its anonymous soul sister whispering her sensous refrain. In fact, there is a bluesy exterior to all of Lewis' efforts, even on latin flavored numbers like Come On Baby, with its anonymous soul sister whispering her sensous refrain.

The gospel influence is also very apparent in the Lewis style, for instance, on tunes like Salute To Ray Charles, which sounds like incidental music at a prayer meeting, or on the slow, gauzy ballad, Sarah Jane, which still has very clear echoes of a kind of popular "gospel" music, without losing its essentially fleshy nuances.

The point is that Lewis is able to come on a lot of different ways and still maintain his essential musical character. That is, whether he is playing a neo-gospel piece, a latin-blues production number or a dreamy ballad, Lewis and his trio are still able to keep their familiar musical identity intact, creating a music that is light and breezy or gayly introspective, but always with continous reference to the most classic of Negro music, the blues.

And Mr. Lewis' blues references are usually made in the most polished and sophisticated terms imaginable, combining the natural facility I have already mentioned with the lilting urbanity that is his trademark. No matter what the tempo, he is aided and abetted at every step by a very sympathetic rhythm section, Eldee Young and Red Holt (and on this album, by Chris White on two of the tunes). But this trio has been together long enough to get a closeness and musical rapport that many groups in jazz lack merely because they can't play together long enough to really find a common groove.

But Ramsey Lewis' music does not need long explanations, nor windy advertisements. It has a straightforward uncomplicated excitement that cancommunicate without any trouble at all. And one need only play this record to find that out. Your ears will help you.

LeRoi Jones