There’s been lots of derisive tweeting about pianist Eric Lewis, now known as ELEW, and his self-coined “Rockjazz.” I’m in agreement with Peter Hum. Lewis is hiding behind the specious argument that jazzers playing rock is new and controversial, something critics can’t handle. The truth is that the music stands or falls on its merits, and ELEW’s music falls hard.
In my view, the following two performances belong in the same aesthetic category.
10 Comments
I like Liberace better.
Amen. The man has every right to make his (banal) music, but it's sad that so much of his blatant self-promotion is rooted in exploiting mainstream disdain for/misunderstanding of the jazz community. His TED performance, and the pseudo-savvy, Malcolm Gladwell-esque blogging surrounding it (ELEW, groundbreaking entrepreneur!), is a travesty. It's hard to respond to this stuff judiciously.
LoL. He just found a way to penetrate the mainstream press and music school type jazzers can't cope or compete. Simple genius. Media technique plus weak competition.
You're hardly the first to be taken in by a gimmick, terminator. Gimmicks are one good way to penetrate the mainstream press, as you put it, but there are jazz artists with integrity – Pat Metheny, Jason Moran, Bad Plus come to mind – who are every bit as media-savvy as ELEW and haven't felt the need to dumb down their work.
Well good for them I guess! Haven't you guys read ELEW's TED interview? He couldn't even get a record deal in jazz, unlike artists who didn't even WIN that big jazz competition.Integrity? Nah he was the best and got dissed so now he just rocks out with celebs and CNN with a hot new style. Simple.
By "got dissed," surely you mean he got hired by the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and toured and recorded with Wynton Marsalis, probably the highest-profile gig available to a jazz musician. The injustice of it.
Career conditions are tough, no doubt, but Lewis had many roads to choose from. He chose the low road.
Anyway, what you call a "hot new style" I call awful, but we'll never agree on that.
Umm. Did A little research.Got a little help from ELEW's press person. Just for you "critics"
Mistake 1- Eric Lewis was already a member of the Wynton's band BEFORE he won the Monk competition.
Mistake 2- Ben Ratliff's NYT article states that ELEW's band performed at the TED conference.WRONG. It was just E SOLO piano.
Mistake 3- in the Peter Hum article, Youtube videos of ELEW playing SOLO SLTS are compared to a band version, conviently ignoring and belittling ELEW's obviously more difficult method of SOLO playing and NOW he stands and does it( which is so OBVIOUSLY pianistically harder and visually cooler. NOBODY DOES IT)And HUM describes ELEW as "showboating" – so Eric Lewis sucked even before Rockjazz huh?-with Elvin Jones..HMMMM..( THAT was who ELEW played with directly following the competition btw. 2 years)
SO now ELEW has DISSED the Jazz guys by singlehandedly, under everyone's nose, through powerful relationships and SUPERIOR TALENT got all the way to CNN and got CREDIT for Rockjazz.
This information was easily found
KING OF SWING-Benny Goodman
KING OF ROCKJAZZ- ELEW
Now that you've stated your case with full caps for emphasis, I'm much more convinced.
The entire point we critics are trying to make is precisely that Eric Lewis does *not* suck – indeed, his accomplishments with Wynton and Elvin are well known. We're saying that his current schtick is unworthy of his considerable talent. I don't care if he plays standing up, upside down or underwater. It's the music that counts, as Peter Hum and I have said. You're free to like it, but if you claim that ELEW's presence on CNN means he's superior, that's where you'll get an argument.
Fair enough.
This is a cool blog. Jazz Is something I never checked out but ELEW's controversial approach has me and i think others more interested in this music style. Will check out a Miles Davis record called Kinda Blue on the recommendation of some friends.
Yep – Kind of Blue, it's called – if ELEW is leading some more folks to jazz, all to the good, but I would argue his current work is not very representative. My personal favorite is anything by Miles Davis from 1965-1968. There's a boxed set from those years.