Ramsey Lewis Plays the Beatles Songbook

Image for Ramsey Lewis Plays the Beatles Songbook, July 25, 2020.

The amazing cover of Ramsey's album Mother Nature's Son, on which he plays 10 songs from the White Album.

On Saturday, July 25, 2020, Ramsey Lewis played a Stageit show of the Beatles’ music. Titled “Ramsey Lewis Plays the Beatles Songbook,” it was a terrific hour of solo jazz piano from a master. I tuned into to Lewis’ May Stageit show, celebrating his 85^th birthday. That show had some technical difficulties, including about 20 minutes or so where there wasn’t any sound or video. Fortunately, the technical side was much better this time around. I still had to refresh the screen a few times when the sound dropped out, and there was a lot of chatter on the Stageit chat about technical issues.

There’s an intimacy to the Stageit shows that is very appealing. You’re getting to see Ramsey Lewis in his living room, playing the grand piano that he practices on every day. That’s very cool. Lewis played about 10 Beatles songs during Saturday’s show. He opened with “Here, There and Everywhere” and “And I Love Her,” which were given extended treatments. Other songs, like “Lady Madonna” and “Rocky Raccoon,” Lewis just played through once and didn’t really solo on. He was laughing as he made his way through those songs, as though he was surprised by the melodic twists and turns they were taking. That, combined with the fact that Lewis had sheet music in front of him, made me wonder how many times he'd played these songs before. Lewis did record “Lady Madonna” on his 1968 album Maiden Voyage, and he also recorded “Rocky Raccoon” on his excellent Mother Nature’s Son album, on which he played 10 tracks from the White Album, recorded just weeks after the White Album was released. I assume that Lewis is a brilliant enough pianist to play a song through while just glancing at the sheet music, but I’d be interested to know how much he had played some of these songs before Saturday.

Lewis’ song selection was heavily skewed towards songs that were predominately written by Paul McCartney. The only song that was predominately written by John Lennon was “In My Life.” I didn’t take the song selection to be a slight on John Lennon, rather, I think it’s an indication of what a rare melodic genius Paul McCartney is. In addition to the songs I’ve already mentioned above, Lewis played “Hey Jude,” “Let it Be,” “The Fool on the Hill,” “The Long and Winding Road,” and “Michelle.”

The afternoon concluded with Lewis playing a medley of his biggest hits: “Sun Goddess,” “Hang On, Sloopy,” “Wade in the Water,” and “The In Crowd.” It was a fun afternoon spent with a master of the piano.