Ramsey Lewis, a three-time Grammy award winner and acclaimed jazz musician of over 60 years, has died. He died at his home in Chicago on the morning of Sept. 12, according to a statement released from his family. He was 87 years old.
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“He was just at peace,” Bobby Lewis told the Associated Press on Monday night.
“Most people say when they met dad that he was a class act. He was that way even through his last breath.”
Ramsey was born on May 27, 1935 to parents Ramsey Lewis Sr. and Pauline Lewis.
Lewis began taking piano lessons at the age of four and as a young man, he played with a number of local ensembles, such as Edward Virgil Abner’s Knights of Music.
Lewis eventually joined a jazz group called the clefs and later formed the Ramsey Lewis Trio with drummer Isaac “Red” Holt and bassist Eldee Young.
Lewis recorded over 80 albums and received five gold records and three Grammy Awards in his career.
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In addition to recording and performing, Lewis hosted the weekly syndicated radio program Legends of Jazz, created in 1990, syndicated by United Stations Radio Networks.
He also hosted the Ramsey Lewis Morning Show on Chicago “smooth jazz” radio station WNUA (95.5 FM).
Lewis was artistic director of Jazz at Ravinia (an annual feature at the Ravinia Festival in Highland Park, Illinois) and helped organize Ravinia’s Jazz Mentor Program.
He also served on the board of trustees for the Merit School of Music, a Chicago inner-city music program and The Chicago High School for the Arts, the public arts high school in Chicago established in 2009.
In addition to his son, Lewis is survived by his wife, Janet; daughters Denise Jeffries and Dawn Allain; two other sons Kendall Kelly Lewis and Frayne Lewis; and a number of grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
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