Sun Goddess

by Ramsey Lewis

Product Description:

Personnel includes: Ramsey Lewis (piano, electric piano, ARP synthesizer, string synthesizer, electric guitar); Verdine White (vocals, bass); Maurice White (vocals, drums, timbales); Phillip Bailey (vocals, congas); Don Meyrick (tenor saxophone); Charles Stepney (Fender Rhodes piano, ARP synthesizer, electric guitar); Cleveland Eaton (acoustic & electric basses); Maurice Jennings (drums, percussion).

Producers include: Teo Macero, Ramsey Lewis, Maurice White.

Engineers include: Lester Smith, Dave Antler, Paul Serrano.

All tracks have been digitally remastered.

Pianist Ramsey Lewis first came to fame as the purveyor of swinging soul-jazz in the mid 1960s, but like a lot of musicians he underwent some major changes by the end of that decade. SUN GODDESS (1974), Lewis's biggest success of the decade, is miles away from the finger-snapping supper-club sounds of "The In Crowd." By this time, Lewis had transformed himself into a jazz fusion funkateer, riffing on electric piano and synthesizer amid arrangements that meld jazz with funk, R&B, and yes, even touches of progressive rock. SUN GODDESS is also something of a stealth Earth, Wind & Fire album, as it features most of the key players from that band, and bears echoes of EWF's jazzier, more atmospheric side.