CBS 2 Vault: The Ramsey Lewis Trio reunites for 1982 concert series after 14 years
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Chicago jazz legend Ramsey Lewis died Monday at the age of 87.
The composer and pianist first rose to fame more than 60 years ago with the Ramsey Lewis Trio – Lewis himself, bassist Eldee Young, and drummer Redd Holt.
In 1956, their first album, "Ramsey Lewis and His Gentlemen of Jazz" was released on the Chess label and shortly afterwards, Lewis performed with his trio at Birdland in New York. That three-week stint led to performances at the Newport Jazz Festival and the Village Vanguard.
They broke through in 1965 with the crossover hit, "The In Crowd."
In 1966, the trio broke up and went their separate ways, formed new groups, and went on to new things. But for five days in December 1982, the trio got back together for a series of reunion concerts in Chicago. CBS 2's Harry Porterfield talked with them all for the old CBS 2 Sunday evening news magazine show "Two on Two."
At the time, Young had his own group, Holt was running a performance center for developing artists on the city's South Side, and Lewis was cutting a couple of albums a year with a new trio.
Ramsey said George Badonsky – owner of George's Supper Club at 230 W. Kinzie St. in River North – suggested a reunion of the trio a couple of years before it happened.
"I think one of the things that happened since the first time he mentioned it was there's been so many reunions – Peter, Paul and Mary; I don't know how many others that I've noticed; The Temptations – and so it was kind of in the back of my mind anyway," Lewis said. "So when he suggested it this time, it felt good – so I called Eldee and Redd, and they said, 'Why not?'"
Porterfield asked Lewis why the trio had broken up in the first place.
"We fell out of love. We started playing together in high school, so we were 15, 16, 17 years old – and it was about music at the time. We were in school – no money, except the little coins that we got on the weekend – and as long as that was true, it seemed to keep us together – all for one, one for all – and it got to the point where I think success coming as it did, it was overwhelming," Lewis said. "We went from comparatively making $5 a week to making $5,000 a week – in a matter of weeks – and I don't think we were really prepared."
But 16 whole years later, the reunion concerts at George's went off without a hitch for an enrapt audience that included Porterfield himself. The trio played the old songs, including "The In Crowd" and "Hang on Sloopy."
One of the reunion concerts was released as the album "Reunion" in 1983.
Eldee Young died in 2007. Redd Holt turned 90 in May. George's Supper Club went out of business in 1991; its old location is now occupied by Gilt Bar.