Song 61: Ramsey Lewis – How Beautiful Is Spring
Ramsey Lewis is an American jazz composer and pianist, born in Chicago, Illinois, having awarded three Grammy Awards in his career. He has provided a huge amount of music for more than half a century. His first album, Ramsey Lewis and his Gentle-men of Swing, was released in 1957 (recorded a year earlier) and up to 2011 he releases albums.
He was first introduced to me through a great album, possibly the best I have up to now, by Verve: Verve Unmixed 2 and his song Do What You Wanna. I have also featured an article about Nina Simone’s song Black Is The Color Of My True Love’s Hair some time ago, again, from this album.
The song ‘How Beautiful Is Spring’ was first featured in the album Another Voyage. It was written by Eddie Harris, “an eclectic and imaginative saxophonist whose career was marked by a hearty appetite for experimentation“. The song is beautiful. Starts with 70-80 seconds just playing piano and then the drums and the bass accompany Lewis. It is a slow song, with distinct sound from each organ and some parts of it are exceptional. I hope you enjoy as much as I do.
