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Ramsey Lewis Interview Page 2
Smitty: Yes, that's so true. It's a very fitting title and you have some excellent songs here that has to reach the heart of those who share those sentiments, that's for sure; songs such as "Thoughts and Reflections", and "Pass Me Not". These are words and phrases that we hear in the religious circle on a regular basis, but to put that to music is one other thing. Wouldn't you agree?
RL: I would, and you know the inspiration I got from playing in our church and still a member of not the same church, but the church that my sister Reverend Lucille Jackson, who is co-pastor of our church. And the music stays with me, the scriptures, the lessons that I learned when I was young and of course I’m older now, I understand much better now what they all mean and they are food, they are food for life, food for sustenance. And when I play the piano, quite often I understand that it’s the spirit moving, it’s the spirit moving in me. These phrases, these words, these scriptures are always there. So when I started writing this music and putting the album together, these things just came to me, the words just came.
Smitty:
When you were recording this record, did you reflect back to some of the memories with the Cleff’s, and those times?
RL: Well, when I was doing “Time Flies” I reflected back to the Cleff’s. But when I was doing this album we were live at church .
Smitty: Yeah.
RL: Smokie Norful was there, Darius Brooks, Donald Lawrence, and the congregation, and the pastors were all there. And the spirit was moving through the building and I think I was just right there with it. I wasn’t reflecting on anything from the past at that moment .
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Smitty: Yeah, that’s had to be quite an experience .
RL: Yes indeed.
Smitty: When you first developed the concept and the songs, what were your thoughts at that time when you were putting that together? I know you mentioned a little bit about the message of the album title, but what overall message were you trying to convey other than those things?
RL: Well it was really easy putting it together, because, I for the last, oh, for the last forty years, began closing my concerts with a medley of spirituals, gospels songs, hymns, and I would vary them from time to time, just playing different one’s, and they’ve always been with me. So when it came time to put this album together, I kinda knew what songs I wanted to be on it. Of course Smokie wrote his own song (God Can Work It Out) which of course was apropos, and Darius Brooks wrote his own song (Healed Heart) which was apropos. Donald Lawrence we chose, we just told him we were going to do “Prayer Of Jabez” of his (both laughing), and “Pass Me Not” has always been one of my favorite songs going back to when I was a kid, because we used to do it almost every Sunday morning when daddy (Ramsey Emmanuel Lewis Sr.) was the choir director. “Oh Happy Day”; when that song came out in the sixties, it was one of the songs I dearly loved and it was on an “LP” and I must have worn out two or three “LP’s”, that whole LP, but especially “Oh Happy Day”.
Smitty: Yes, a very familiar song after all these years. Talk about how you came up with the melody for “With One Voice”?
RL: Yes, the song “With One Voice”, I was finished practicing one day or at least I thought I was finished, and that little simple eight bar melody came to me and I found myself just playing those eight bars over and over and over again. And each time I played it I was waiting for something to say, well you know it’s a simple song and it doesn’t feel good anymore. However, seems like the more I would play it, the better it felt. So I just played it for a couple people and said, ‘what do you think of it this’? They said “Yeah you should put that on the album”. It was a moment of inspiration that the song “With One Voice” came to me. So it was just a love affair, a love of God, a love of all that abound, a love of the spiritual life that brought this album together finally, and all the wonderful people. I mean if you listen to the album, this is the first album out of the eighty that I have done that I have played many times for my family and friends. It’s not so much that I’m on it, but, you know there are sixty-five people in the choir and there are ten musicians including my trio and the gospel musicians, and Smokie, and Darius and Donald, and the parishioners. And the theme that we captured, the spirit that was in the church that night, and when I play it, it all just comes back to me. So if nobody buys it (laughing)……….
Smitty: (Both Laughing) Oh I think you’ll have several buying this record that’s for sure. Because it’s a great record and it’s something that is so common to the masses of people.
RL: Well that’s true, when you speak of gospel music, I don’t know how many people realize it, but it is very, very popular in Europe. The European people, although I don’t think there’s any A.M.E. or Baptist over there, but you go over there and we play this music and of course I’ve never taken the choir over, but as I said, as I end my concerts, I end them with a series of hymns and they all LOVE the music. It’s amazing when we play concerts, there’s any mix of religions, creeds and colors, but there’s something about gospel music that has a common language about it, of course we know what that is.
Smitty: Yes of course, and isn’t that a beautiful thing that music has such a commonality among such a variety of humans.
RL: That’s true, that’s true, and especially gospel music, there’s something about the sound, the feel, and the words. Of course I don’t sing, I’m just playing the chords, the melodies. And I notice how it feels when I’m playing it, much less how it affects the audience; I can feel the audience coming on in with me. Yes it’s a wonderful thing .
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