COMPOSERS: Ramsey Lewis
LABELS: Narada Jazz
ALBUM TITLE: With One Voice
WORKS: Ramsey Lewis
PERFORMER: Ramsey Lewis (piano), various musicians
CATALOGUE NO: 338 4712
Notwithstanding the gospel choir
this is the same old, same old. Lewis’s
music has always been steeped in
gospel feeling, and his harmonies,
voicing and phrasing clearly bespeak
the church’s influence. Although
he rarely plays classic ‘gospel piano’,
With One Voice comes closest here.
Like soul and R ‘n’ B, gospel has
lost its rawness over the last 25 years
and, for my taste, all three genres are
immeasurably the poorer for it. The
choir here is fairly smooth, though it
certainly gets the juices flowing on
‘God Can Work It Out’.
Lewis is a considerable talent
locked into an unchallenging
formula. His crisp, immaculate
playing can beguile you into
deriving guilty pleasure from the
most predictable fare, as on ‘Keep
the Spirit’. Unlikely to convert
unbelievers, but the Lewis faithful
will rejoice. Barry Witherden