Celebrating MLK Day with music

By Ward Goolsby
Monday, January 18, 2010
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At age 74, jazz legend Ramsey Lewis has still got his piano chops, a rockin’ band, and a faithful fanbase.

In fact, sisters Cheryl and Natalie Nesbitt and their friend Sheila Talton drove from downtown Chicago and were an hour and a half early for the concert. Instead of waiting out in the cold, they stepped inside the Norris Student Center for a warm cup of coffee.

They say music is an integral part of celebrating the life of Dr. Martin Luther King.

“Music is the way tradition and history have been shared from one generation to the next,” Cheryl Nesbitt said.

“The other reason the concert is important is that younger people could possibly relate to it and therefore involve themselves in it,” her sister Natalie added. “Today young people on this campus would have no recollection of anything to do with Dr. Martin Luther King.”

And Lewis did draw a large crowd from longtime fans to younger listeners.

Many performers took the stage, but Dr. King’s legacy of service was always in the forefront.

“I think we should all do a little service. The rich and the poor should do a little service,” concertgoer Dolly Maupin said. “Whatever they can do, they should do it.”

At the end of the concert, Northwestern musicians teamed up with Lewis for an original arrangement of America the Beautiful.

Trombonist Brett Johnson says it was a great way to close the concert.

“It features a fantastic soloist in Cameron Jones, who just sounds phenomenal on it,” said Johnson, a senior in Jazz Studies. “And really we just add to the texture and the choir is just in the background adding different colors.”

And in the end, this celebration seemed well worth the trip.