One of his more memorable GRP dates of the 1990s, Dance of the Soul finds Ramsey Lewis playing mostly acoustic piano on a variety of material.
The CD's main focus is accessible, yet creative, jazz-pop, though Lewis detours into gospel on "Mercy and Grace," classical on the acoustic solo piano piece "Cante Hondo (Deep Song)," and jazzy R&B on a remake of Teena Marie's 1981 gem "Portuguese Love" (which features the big-voiced singer Donica Henderson).
The Chicagoan has some nice solos on melodic instrumentals like "Sub Dude," "Cancion," and the Joe Sample-ish "Love's Serenade," all of which demonstrate that commercial jazz-pop can be creative as well as highly accessible.
In fact, these are the sorts of instrumentals one should use to turn pop and R&B fans on to jazz -- they're easy to absorb, but have a lot more substance than the type of mindless "elevator Muzak" that many pop instrumentalists favored in the 1990s.
Although not a masterpiece, Dance of the Soul is a decent effort that has more ups than downs.
| Title/Composers | Performer | Listen | Time | Size | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Baile del Alma (Dance of the Soul)Ryan Cohan | Ramsey Lewis | Play | 06:36 | 15 MB | 44 MB |
| 2 | FragileSting | Ramsey Lewis | Play | 04:09 | 9 MB | 24 MB |
| 3 | Sub DudeRamsey Lewis, Kevin Randolph | Ramsey Lewis | Play | 04:22 | 10 MB | 25 MB |
| 4 | LullabyRyan Cohan | Ramsey Lewis | Play | 05:30 | 12 MB | 36 MB |
| 5 | Portuguese LoveTeena Marie | Ramsey Lewis | Play | 03:56 | 9 MB | 26 MB |
| 6 | Fire and RainFrayne Lewis, Ramsey Lewis, Kevin Randolph, Lambert Waldrip | Ramsey Lewis | Play | 04:30 | 10 MB | 28 MB |
| 7 | CancionRyan Cohan | Ramsey Lewis | Play | 05:55 | 13 MB | 30 MB |
| 8 | Love's SerenadeFrayne Lewis, Ramsey Lewis, Kevin Randolph | Ramsey Lewis | Play | 04:31 | 10 MB | 24 MB |
| 9 | Mercy and GraceFrayne Lewis, Ramsey Lewis, Kevin Randolph | Ramsey Lewis | Play | 04:04 | 9 MB | 26 MB |
| 10 | Cante Hondo (Deep Song)Ryan Cohan | Ramsey Lewis | Play | 07:34 | 17 MB | 24 MB |
| 51 mins | 117 MB | |||||
| 51 mins | 291 MB | |||||
| Artist | Job | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Harry Brotman | Engineer |
| 2 | Ryan Cohan | Composer |
| 3 | Orbert Davis | Flugelhorn, Guest Artist, Trumpet |
| 4 | Maurice Fitzgerald | Bass |
| 5 | Fareed Haque | Guest Artist, Guitar |
| 6 | Steve Hardeman | Guest Artist |
| 7 | Donica Henderson | Guest Artist |
| 8 | Ted Jensen | Mastering |
| 9 | Hollis King | Art Direction |
| 10 | Danny Leake | Engineer, Mixing |
| 11 | Frayne Lewis | Composer, Producer |
| 12 | Ramsey Lewis | Composer, Fender Rhodes, Piano, Piano (Electric), Primary Artist |
| 13 | Michael Logan | Keyboards |
| 14 | Teena Marie | Composer |
| 15 | Alejo Poveda | Percussion |
| 16 | Matt Prock | Mixing Assistant |
| 17 | Kevin Randolph | Composer, Guest Artist, Keyboards |
| 18 | Oscar Seaton | Drums |
| 19 | Sting | Composer |
| 20 | Lambert Waldrip | Composer, Guest Artist |
| 21 | Charles Webb | Bass |
| 22 | Isabelle Wong | Graphic Design |
| Quality | Format | Encoding | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | MP3 | 320kps 44.1kHz | MP3 is an audio coding format which uses a form of lossy data compression. The highest bitrate of this format is 320kbps (kbit/s). MP3 Digital audio takes less amount of space (up to 90% reduction in size) and the quality is not as good as the original one. |
| CD Quality | FLAC | 16bit 44.1kHz | FLAC is an audio coding format which uses lossless compression. Digital audio in FLAC format has a smaller size and retains the same quality of the original Compact Disc (CD). |