The Ramsey Lewis trio swings standards and pop hits

When this 1961 album was recorded, the classic lineup of the Ramsey Lewis Trio (featuring bassist Eldee Young and drummer Red Holt, who later formed Young-Holt Unlimited) was still developing the highly accessible jazz style they’d created in the late ‘50s. More importantly, the trio was still a few years shy of their 1965 breakthrough with “The In Crowd.” Here they combine pop hits, such as the title track, with tin-pan alley standards (the Gershwins’ “I Got Plenty O’ Nuttin’”), folk tunes (“Water Boy”) and the Academy Award winning (and Bob Hope theme song) “Thanks for the Memory.” The playing is soulful, with Lewis fingering his usual bluesy twists, Young playing wonderfully musical solos on bass, and Holt complementing the beat with terrific accents. It’s a brief album, but the trio’s style is buoyant and refreshing. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]