"It takes all of us to continually nurture, cultivate, and sing the praises of this great music called jazz, whenever and in whatever way we can. I am honored and humbled to be recognized by the National Endowment for the Arts for my contribution to the ongoing evolution of this great art form. The NEA has taken on no small task in supporting the arts in general and I proudly accept this award, America’s highest honor in jazz.”

With a style that springs from his early gospel experi-ence, his classical training, and a deep love of jazz, pianist and composer Ramsey Lewis has built a decades-long career as one of America's most popular performers. Born in Chicago, where he continues to make his home, he began taking piano lessons at the age of four and credits his teacher Dorothy Mendelsohn with awakening him to the communicative power of music. He recalls her telling him to "'Listen with your inner ear,' and 'Make the piano sing.' These concepts were revelations!"

During these early years, though, Lewis had no experience with jazz, except for the records his father would play at home from artists such as Duke Ellington, Art Tatum, and Meade "Lux" Lewis. He was already 15, and an accomplished gospel pianist, when a fellow church musician, Wallace Burton, asked him to join his band and helped Lewis learn the fundamentals of jazz. With his very first trio album, Ramsey Lewis and the Gentlemen of Swing, Lewis captivated a large and diverse jazz audience. By 1965, he was one of the nation's most successful jazz pianists, topping the charts with "The 'In' Crowd," "Hang On Sloopy," and "Wade in the Water." Since then, he has won three Grammy Awards and the Recording Academy Governor's Award (2000), and earned seven gold records and three honorary doctorates.

Expanding his career through teaching, programming, and work in radio and television, he also has become an ambassador for jazz. Lewis has served as Art Tatum Professor in Jazz Studies at Roosevelt University; as artistic director of the Jazz at Ravinia series of the Ravinia Festival; and as host of a weekday morning drivetime radio show on Chicago's WNUA-FM, for which he has been awarded R&R's 1999 and 2000 Personality of the Year Award.

He hosts the syndicated Legends of Jazz with Ramsey Lewis, a two-hour radio program that airs throughout the United States, and was the co-producer (with PBS television station WTTW-Chicago) and host of a television series of the same name, which featured emerging and established jazz musicians.

Active in community affairs, especially on behalf of youth, Lewis helped organize the Ravinia Festival's Jazz Mentor Program. In recognition of his activities, he was featured as the "Person of the Week" on ABC Nightly News in February 1995 and received the prestigious Lincoln Academy of Illinois Laureate Award in Springfield, Illinois, in April 1997. He currently tours and performs with his own trio.

Selected Discography

The In Crowd, Chess, 1965
Sun Goddess, Columbia, 1974
Ramsey Lewis/Billy Taylor, We Meet Again, Columbia, 1988-89
Appassionata, Narada, 1999
Taking Another Look, Hidden Beach Records, 2011

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