I didn’t know quite what to expect on Wednesday when I went to watch Eric Lewis, a.k.a Elew, play at the Bush Hall in London.
Suffice to say I was blown away.
With raw talent that is bound to leave a solid impression on any music lover, Elew took a rapt audience into his world of music – a world filled with passion, anger, chaos, and wonder. Watching the man’s face as he plays is an event in itself – he has scored the music for horror movies, which apparently are the kind of films he really likes, and as his face contorts and his eyebrows raise in the imagined horror of something that is not quite there, his music and his fingers bring those emotions to life. Nancy Hirsch, his manager, spoke to us before the performance and said that it sometimes feels like he has six hands – which it really did to me. Elew’s fingers fly across the piano with a rapidity and technique that is impressive, and his stance – during this performance he didn’t sit down once – added to the performance.
His style of playing may not quite be up everyone’s alley, indeed it may seem a bit too mad – too unorganized – at certain points. Who reaches inside a piano and pulls its strings to make music? He’s unconventional, for sure. But then he segues into another melodious sequence, and somehow it seems justified. Watching a live performance is the only way you can really understand this.
Elew was part of the Lincoln Center’s Jazz Orchestra and toured with jazz greats like Wynton Marsalis andCassandra Wilson after he studied piano at the Manhattan School of Music, later breaking away to play on his own. Featured by the New York Times way back in 2005 and the Guardian more recently, 36-year-old Elew played at TED in Long Beach, California, earlier this year, an original composition that was intended to be ‘a tribute to ocean and sky and the vision of the TED Prize winners’, as well as a rendition of Evanescence’s ‘Going Under’. He received a standing ovation for both. He is also scheduled to play at TED Global in Oxford, UK, on July 22nd. In the meantime, people in London would do well to catch a performance of his at the Jazz Cafe today or tomorrow. To be honest, his style isn’t pure jazz, or pure rock (‘rock-jazz is what he calls it himself) – bits of rock and pop and jazz all filter in at different points, but that is his selling point. From an interview with NPR last month, he said:
“The idea is that, you know, I’m taking a piece from the pop culture much the same way that Louis Armstrong played ‘Hello, Dolly’ with Barbra Streisand. You know, just interfacing in a certain kind of way that allows me to express my ingenuity, versatility, virtuosity without hijacking the sound of the genre and at the same time, preserving the elements of jazz, which are central and beloved.”
Elew can’t – doesn’t want to be – put in a box, and if you go to see him play live, you will leave with one thought in your mind, as a friend of mine and I both did – that you haven’t seen a performance like this before. And really, unless you watch him play repeatedly, you may be unlikely to see a performer, and a performance, like his ever again.
Here is one of my favourite pieces from Wednesday’s performance, Typical by Mute Math. Pay attention to what happens 2:45 onwards.
And here is a performance of his from TED in February.
One Size Fits One 