Quote:
The difference between the pros and everybody else is their ability to make simplicity sound awesome.


Love that Pat!

KKJZ here in LA has been playing a lot of classic Ramsey Lewis lately, The In Crowd, Wade On The Water, Hang On Sloopy, etc. I tried to do those years ago and just couldn't make it work because they're so "simple" it was totally boring to me. Listening to them again now I really hear what he's doing. Basically it's standard R&B piano licks but every single time through those changes he does something just a little bit different and it grooves it's butt off. He throws in little licks at just the perfect time too. That takes an absolute master player to pull that off on those very simple tunes.

I saw him do all those tunes live around 1969 and he tore up the place. Simple stuff, not particularly jazzy, not too technical. Too simple. It fools regular players like me into thinking that we can pull that off too. Yeah, good luck with that. In fact, here's The In Crowd:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c40gly7OG20

Listen to this carefully, hear how he builds it up, takes it down, messes with the crowd all on one stinkin chord then finally comes back to the bridge then does it again but builds it to a bigger climax before taking it out.

Bob

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