Nancy Wilson and Ramsey Lewis tell why good music stands the test of time

Jet, July 15, 2002

Songstylist Nancy Wilson and pianist Ramsey Lewis believe that good music stands the test of time.

And they perform that special kind of music that never goes out of style on their new album, Meant To Be.

"Good music stands the test of time because it is good," says Wilson during an interview.

"Not just jazz, but standards just never go away because their content is so good. As my daughter Samantha says, `There will always be people falling in love.' And these songs .are often about love. Basically, as people mature they come to the good music as they get older."

The legendary songstylist points out, "Good music has a story, has a melody. It usually touches you somewhere in your heart."

Lewis agrees that standards and jazz music represent quality. "Trends come and trends go and jazz and music by such composers as George Gershwin and Duke Ellington is quality music, harmonically speaking, melodically speaking and the lyric is meaningful. So the music is always there, it has never left, but sometimes trendy musical styles or the so-called flavor of the month gets most of the publicity, but when the smoke clears, jazz is still there."

Both entertainers aren't finding much quality in most of the music they hear today. "I find too many lyrics having to do with out and out sex, too many lyrics having to do with out and out violence," observes Lewis. "Nobody wants violence, but when you sit down to dinner or at a party where you just sit down to listen, generally you want a lyric that will spark your imagination and send you to some place pleasant."

Wilson points out, "I just don't understand half the things that I listen to. I don't hear the lyric, I don't hear what they are saying; that's what disturbs me. I hear the beat, I don't hear too much melody-but I hear this beat-but I don't have a clue about what they are saying."

Fans of Wilson and Lewis have a lot to enjoy on Meant To Be. Wilson sings while Lewis tickles the ivories on such stand-out tunes as Moondance, Peel Me A Grape, Brenda Russell's pop classic Piano in the Dark, Patti Austin-penned First Time Love and Did I Ever Really Live, a tune often performed by the late jazz and blues great Joe Williams.

The album was produced by Lewis and the Ramsey Lewis Trio members Larry Gray, who plays acoustic bass, and Ernie Adams and Leon Joyce, both of whom play drums on the album.

The album, on the Narada Jazz label, marks the first time Wilson and Lewis recorded together since their 1984 collaboration The Two Of Us, produced by Stanley Clarke. They recorded their tracks separately for that album, but recorded together in the same studio in Chicago for Meant To Be.

They reveal the recording session almost didn't happen. They were set to record on September 11, the day of the terrorist attacks. They decided however to meet the next day and try to move forward with the recording. The first tune they recorded was Did I Ever Really Live, which took on a new meaning that day.

Wilson has been in show business for 50 years and an internationally acclaimed recording star for more than 40 years. A native of Chillicothe, OH, she had her own local TV show ("Skyline Melodies") in Columbus, OH, at age 15. "People would call in and write in and ask for requests for anniversaries and birthdays and I would sing them, they were basically standards. It was great."

The Grammy Award-winning performer released her first album Like in Love in 1960 and has gone on to record more than 60 albums. Her four decades of recording is celebrated in the new best selling four CD-box set, The Essence Of Nancy Wilson: Four Decades Of Music, featuring live concert versions of her signature tune, Guess Who I Saw Today, The Greatest Performance of My Life and When Did You Leave Heaven?

Lewis, a three-time Grammy award winner, is loved for his keyboard virtuosity and stylist artistry. Throughout his legendary career, he has experimented with a variety of musical styles. By the mid '60s, Lewis was one of the most successful jazz pianists in the country, hitting the charts with The In Crowd, Hang On Sloopy, A Hard Day's Night and Wade in the Water. He serves as the artistic director of Jazz at the Ravinia Festival in Chicago, hosts a jazz show on Chicago's WNUA Radio and is involved with several community programs including Ravinia's Jazz In the School Mentor Program.

The two performers agree that the kind of music they record is here to stay.

Says Lewis," No matter what it is if it is quality it will always be there. That's why to this day, Mozart, Beethoven, Ellington, Gershwin is here and will always be appreciated because it's quality."

Wilson notes, "People always like and appreciate good music."