Today, the jazz world celebrates the birthday of one of its finest musicians ever, Mr. Ramsey Lewis. He turns 72, and to celebrate the occasion, WNUA is paying a special tribute to the man himself. A photo gallery of Mr. Lewis can be accessed at the following address:

http://www.wnua.com/cc-common/gallery/display.html?album_id=62597

Since I'm a Chicago native, I'm pleased to say that I first got to know Ramsey through listening to an old 45 RPM record that my father once bought. It contains an original recording of "The In Crowd" by the Ramsey Lewis Trio. Because of that record, I started taking up the piano, and I have been playing every day since then, LOL. I also have the newer version of "The In Crowd" by Ramsey Lewis, off his 2004 album, Time Flies.

I am an everyday listener of his morning show, and I make sure that I catch his weekend show, Legends of Jazz. Sure, I like all types of jazz, but most of my friends do not. If I can educate them through the wonderful music from the past 100 years, not to mention The Top 200 Jazz Artists of All-Time (www.jazz200.freeservers.com), a website that I put together with my brother Walter, then maybe they'll learn to appreciate it better. Of course, Ramsey is included in that list of 200! As the story goes, Walter and I have played in our own band since our childhood, and our friends are also members of the same band.

If you're ever in the Chicagoland area, and you love jazz, be sure to catch Ramsey every morning from 6-10 AM on WNUA 95.5. Once again, Happy Birthday, Ramsey Lewis, and here's to many more!