Jamie Lewis

Some electronic producers spend their entire careers building up a roster of instruments, legions of samples, and more gear than any bedroom studio could possibly fit. Jamie Lidell has apparently been reducing not only his equipment list to its basics, but his production style, so it includes a minimum of things that you need to program (much less plug in). Of course, that jives with his gradual blossoming as an unhinged soul singer on 2005's Multiply, which has only blossomed further for 2008's Jim, a neo-soul record that sounds like it was recorded live, in the kind of studio that each of the album's seven to eight musicians actually could fit into. Part of this is the result of Lidell and co-producer Mocky's ability to record so well that the production doesn't stand out by itself, but simply works as a vehicle for the songs…

Its hard to think of another jazz musician, outside of George Benson, who has released as many high level pop jazz recordings as Ramsey Lewis. Ramsey is probably one of the top pianists of the modern jazz era, but he has always been more of a crowd pleaser than an adventurer, but that doesn’t mean his playing is light weight at all. “Ivory Pyramid”, released in 1992, is typical of Lewis’ repertoire with masterful renditions of tunes he wrote plus a few covers.