Roger “Ram” Ramirez was a Puerto Rican jazz pianist and composer who was born in 1913 in San Juan. He moved to New York as a child and began his professional music career in the early 1930s. Ramirez performed with numerous jazz luminaries, including Monette Moore, Rex Stewart, and Sid Catlett. In 1935, he joined the band of Willie Bryant, and he toured Europe with Bobby Martin in 1937. During the first half of the 1940s, he performed with Ella Fitzgerald, Frankie Newton, Charlie Barnet, and John Kirby, while also leading his own ensemble. Ramirez is best known as the co-composer of the jazz standard “Lover Man (Oh, Where Can You Be?)” in 1942, which became a staple of the genre after it was recorded by Billie Holiday. He added the electronic organ to his repertoire in the mid-1950s and performed as a substitute in one of Duke Ellington's small groups in 1953. He later toured Europe with T-Bone Walker in 1968 and became a member of the Harlem Blues and Jazz Band in 1979. Ramirez retired for health reasons in 1987 and died in 1994. A posthumous recording of his work, Live in Harlem, was released in 2008 on the Black & Blue label.
