Looking largely untouched by the passage of time, Jazz pianist Ramsey Lewis led his trio on stage at the Ruth Seaton James Performing Arts Center on Friday night.

With bassist Larry Gray and drummer Leon Joyce he began with a rendition of one of his signature tunes, the Negro Spiritual ?Wade in the Water?. Afterwards he spoke, saying how really happy he was to be here, given the temperatures in Chicago.

Then he introduced his sidemen before launching into ?Close your Eyes?, a pop song written by a Minnie Ripperton associate who like the singer, is no longer living. There was an interesting bass solo that drew hearty applause. There followed a John Coltrane ballad,? Dear Lord? which Lewis presented solo. He played with clean articulation and restrained emotionality, reflectively; beautiful rendition. Lewis said afterwards that Coltrane was evolving spiritually at the time of his relatively early death, and offered this song as an example of where he was going musically at the time. Lewis then gave a resume of jazz piano styles with his superb rendition of ?Body and Soul?. In this, as indeed throughout the entire short evening, Lewis, despite the sounds emanation from the piano, always seemed to be playing well within himself, constitutionally unable to break a sweat.

It was Leon Joyce who broke sweat though in the delightful ?Rumba? that followed. The head was a duet with the piano and bass playing in thirds. Actually playing was the operative word, the evident delight with which they threw ideas at each other.

Bassist Larry Neal exploited his instrument?s sliding chromatic ability to trump Ramsey?s piano when they began exchanging phrases in a game ?play that?. But it was drummer Joyce who stole the song with an extended solo that recapitulated several drumming styles that seemed to move on an axis from New Orleans, to Rio de Janeiro via La Habana, touching down briefly in a Gombey workshop somewhere back o? town, Hamilton, Bermuda, replete with a shining whistle and all! And so to the intermission, the first set having lasted little more than half an hour. We they returned, it was ?Church.? The trio opened the second half with a gospel rendition of ?Amazing Grace?. This song was actually composed by a white reformed slaver; that is, a long way from gospel, although many would know it only as a gospel song. No matter. The whole concert in a sense was signifying musically about the African-American experience.

This became clearer as the second set developed.

For example, when the segued into a medley that opened with ?Drown in My Own Tears?, it was impossible not to remember the furore Ray Charles caused with this secular song the appropriated ?gospel? from his own widening suite of styles. And then there followed ?Precious Lord, Take My Hand?.

Black gospel composer Tommy A. Dorsey composed this anthem when his wife died in childbirth, to be followed soon after by the infant son she bore.

This was followed by ?Motherless Child?, another iconic black spiritual, composer unknown; Larry Neal chose to use his bow to play the haunting melody on the bass.

By now the canny pianist knew that we were ?in Church?. Already there had been vocal responses emanating from the delighted audience. So we then had a rousing gospel version of ?Pass Me Not O Loving Saviour?.

?This little Light of Mine? and an abbreviated reference to ?Lift Every Voice? closed out the set. The trio was called back for an encore, and the offered ?The In Crowd?. If you had been there you might have felt that you too were in with the in crowd. A short concert, but good.