Elew at Bird's Basement Jazz Club

Eric Lewis was an up-and-coming jazz pianist, a sideman for Wynton Marsalis, Elvin Jones, and recipient of the Thelonious Monk International Piano competition but he had an epiphany. The songs he was playing weren't speaking to him. On the other hand, there were contemporary rock songs that meant the world to him. Lewis re-emerged as ELEW, a revolutionary artist who combines virtuosic skill on the piano with an unprecedented openness to popular music.

Jazz pianists have always interpreted popular songs. But at some point, jazz detached from rock. ELEW has fused the two and created a new genre, rockjazz. ELEW has interpreted songs by Coldplay, Nirvana, Radiohead, the Foo Fighters, and Michael Jackson. ELEW plays the way a rock frontman treats the guitar, with a physical style that includes entering the instrument to pluck the strings directly....

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Eric Lewis was an up-and-coming jazz pianist, a sideman for Wynton Marsalis, Elvin Jones, and recipient of the Thelonious Monk International Piano competition but he had an epiphany. The songs he was playing weren't speaking to him. On the other hand, there were contemporary rock songs that meant the world to him. Lewis re-emerged as ELEW, a revolutionary artist who combines virtuosic skill on the piano with an unprecedented openness to popular music.

Jazz pianists have always interpreted popular songs. But at some point, jazz detached from rock. ELEW has fused the two and created a new genre, rockjazz. ELEW has interpreted songs by Coldplay, Nirvana, Radiohead, the Foo Fighters, and Michael Jackson. ELEW plays the way a rock frontman treats the guitar, with a physical style that includes entering the instrument to pluck the strings directly.

ELEW has collaborated with rapper, Lil Wayne and was Complexions Contemporary Ballet's Composer in Residence. ELEW's fans, include Josh Groban, Dave Matthews, Naomi Campbell, Forest Whitaker, Leonardo DiCaprio, Brooke Shields, and Woody Harrelson. He has performed for Google, Fendi, Disney, and Mercedes Benz. Donna Karan included his music on her app. ELEW has even taken rockjazz to the White House!

"This jazz rocks" - ALL About Jazz

​"powerful and passionate...dazzling" - Downbeat Magazine

​​"A hard-nosed, loose-limbed polyrhythmic swagger" - New York Times

​​"A highlight this year at Sundance Film Festival" - Forbes Magazine

Lineup:

ELEW - Piano
Tabari Lake - Bass
Lyndon Rochelle - Drums

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