Magazine

ELEW TRIO

SMALLS / FEBRUARY 17

Camden native Eric Lewis won The Thelonious Monk International Piano Competition in 1999, played with Wynton Marsalis, Cassandra Wilson, and Elvin Jones and recorded his debut album. Ignored by the critics, he rebranded himself as ELEW: a flamboyant pianist and DJ who created a pianistic mix of boogie-woogie, ragtime and Afro-Latin rhythms he called RockJazz. As ELEW, he worked with The Roots, Lil Wayne and Sting, recorded RockJazz, Vols 1 & 2 (Ninjazz Entertainment) And To the Republic (Sunnyside) and a solo piano recording ELEW Plays Rosenwinkel - Cubism (Heartcore). But at his core, ELEW is still a straight-ahead jazz pianist. When you see him at Smalls with drummer David Hawkins and bassist Bar Filipowicz, you’ll encounter an Art Tatum-level pianism that astonishes and astounds. E.H.

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