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ight now.Alkyer: That’s one of the great traditions of Chicago music and Chicagomusicians. Think of how many [artists] came through those fantasticschool music programs [such as the one led by Walter Dyett, the legendaryband director from the 1930s to the 1960s at DuSable HighSchool]. The job that these folks [music educators] do out here is the jobthat we need to fight to put back into our schools, correct?Whalum: Absolutely. Just thinking about Chicago and Memphis, there’sthis natural connection there. For instance, Ramsey Lewis played with ayoung musician—actually, he kind of trained a young musician—by thename of Maurice White, who went on to make this group called Earth,Wind & Fire. He was a young kid who got part of his musical shaping inChicago and part in Memphis because he was there as a three-year-oldwith folks like David Porter and other great soul musicians. It’s somethingthat I don’t think Maurice White [forgot] after hanging out here inChicago with Ramsey and then studying the jazz masters, and then beingright there on Beale Street in Memphis, McLemore Avenue, making soulmusic. He had a big enough vision to incorporate a lot of those things.But it took those kind of mentoring relationships with Ramsey Lewis.It took those band directors struggling to get the resources and get the supportin the community and with the school organizations and the board ofeducation in order to provide the world with a Maurice White and anEarth, Wind & Fire.Lewis: Maurice White, you know him as the soul-pop-jazz guy. But myadvice to young people coming up today is to get a well-rounded education.Before Maurice played with me, he had played with Sonny Stitt,Gene Ammons and Johnny Griffin. Then, he played with Howlin’ Wolf.He played with the blues guys at Chess [Records]. Muddy Waters.Maurice was the house drummer for Chess. And before he came withme, he’d stop me in the hallway and say, “Ramsey, you’ve got a publishingcompany, right? What’s that?” “Hey Ramsey, you’ve got a manager,right?” He had all these questions. So finally, I said, “I need a drummer.Would you like to play with me?” Of course, he would. In the three orfour years that he played with me, he was always asking, “So what is this?What is that?”After three or four years, he said, “Ramsey, I’m going to be leaving inthe next few months because I’m going to be forming my own group.”Well, I knew he had been immersed in jazz, so I figured he was going todo a quintet or whatever. And he said, “No, we’re going to do some jazz,but we’re gonna do rock ’n’ roll, blues, r&b. We’re gonna dance. We’regonna do magic.”I told him, “Take a couple aspirin. Take a nap. And I’ll talk to youtomorrow.” [laughs] Well, as you know, the rest is history.What I’m trying to say is that fundamentals come first. Thank God myparents bought me up in such a way that I was more involved in fundamentalsthan I was in a record contract.Alkyer: Each of you are very gifted instrumentalists, and you have somethingin common that most instrumentalists never see: hit records.Ramsey, let’s start with you. A few years ago I sheepishly asked you aquestion about a little song you made in 1966 called “The In Crowd.”Can you tell the audience about your feelings toward “The In Crowd”?Lewis: I’m very blessed in that I have had several hit records, goldrecords, platinum and all that stuff. You won’t believe this, but none ofthem were planned. There was no time where we went into the studio andsaid, “This is going to be the single.”Eldee Young, Red Holt and I [the Ramsey Lewis Trio] were mostinterested in putting out a good, well-balanced album in those days. Afterdoing some Duke Ellington, a couple of originals, some blues and aCharlie Parker tune, we had what we called a fun song, something easy.We recorded it only because it fit the rest of the programming, just like weprogrammed our show. You end with something happy and up.We put the album out, and I think it came out in June. So, by August or34 DOWNBEAT May 2010