|
QUOTES: What Are People Saying? | VENUES: Where Has She Performed?
ZOË LEWIS … Who Is She? A worldbeat-vaudeville extravaganza!
ZOË LEWIS is a band in a body! She plays jazz, jump
jive, latin grooves, swing, international folk, funk
originals on anything from the piano to the spoons!
Troubadour/vaudevillian/storyteller/singer-songwriter/piece
of work!
WINNER of the Colorado Rocky Mountain Folks Festival
Troubadour Award in 2003, NEW FOLK WINNER 2002 at the
Kerrville Folk Festival in Texas and 2001 Falconridge
Folk Festival AUDIENCE FAVORITE and now she's getting
booked to play many of the main stages with virtuoso
jazz recorder player ROXANNE LAYTON (from Mannheim
Steamroller).
Her song SMALL IS TREMENDOUS received much commercial
success and can be heard on ads for MINI PRINGLES and
TJ MAAX. Another of her songs: SHEEP was part of a
PUTUMAYO compilation and became #1 in the children's
satellite radio charts. She's also written the
soundtrack for a new documentary on the VAGINA
MONOLGUES.
ZOË has performed with a whole host of incredible
musicians including JULIE WOLF (Ani DiFranco, Bruce
Cockburn), GAIL ANN DORSEY (David Bowie), PAUL PIERCY
(Dixie Chicks), FREEBO (Bonnie Raitt) and has toured
with JUDY COLLINS and NANCI GRIFFITH.
Originally from England, she now resides in
Provincetown on Cape Cod, MA, where she performs every
summer. Her music is upbeat, amusing and perfect for
young and old alike. She's traveled all over the globe
picking up worldbeat grooves and stories on the way;
jumping box cars, riding on freight boats and has even
played music with an elephant orchestra in Thailand.
She's a mixture of swing, acoustic funk, latin jazz
and folk. Her fast-paced lyrics poke fun at modern
society and praise the rambling delights of childhood,
secret worlds, and wandering love.
ZOË started studying music (piano) in England at the
age of seven in her little village on the south coast
of England, Rottingdean. She began performing
professionally playing the Hammond organ, piano and
synthesizer for London Latin jazz ten-piece band
AVANTI in 1986. The band toured the UK and cut a
record. She went solo in 1988, performed piano / vocal
jazz standards from the '30s and '40s in London pubs
and later worked in South America and in the
Caribbean.
In 1990, she arrived in the United States and began
performing originals on guitar, piano, harmonica,
ukulele, penny whistle, accordion, and human trumpet
and has since then toured extensively, performing at
numerous folk clubs, coffee houses, colleges, music
festivals and pride marches. She has taught workshops
in schools and has written a musical for children
entitled PESTS! Her workshop "Music in our Pockets"
encourages people to redefine their meaning of music;
there's music on the streets, on our bodies, in
nature, even in our pockets if only we open up our
ears. Loose change, a set of keys can be used to make
wonderful noise. With the help of African calabash,
Jamaican steel pans, gourds, coconuts, trash cans,
thumb pianos, conch shells and musical saws she
demonstrates the point!
In 1992 she began to perform in a variety of different
acts in Provincetown on Cape Cod for the summer
season. She became a local favourite and won
Provincetown Paper's "About Town Awards" for best
piano player and best comedy duo. She's toured all
over the Unites States, has performed in England,
Germany, Australia and aboard OLIVIA cruises. As well
as continuing her solo career she is receiving much
acclaim for her quartet ZOË LEWIS and her RUBBER BAND
with Seattle bassist KATE WOLF, Quebec City
percussionist SYLVIE RICHARD and ROXANNE LAYTON, on
recorder. Performing upbeat and edgy tunes on a
variety of weird instruments, telling traveling tales
that'll take you from England to New Orleans by way of
Bangkok and Guatemala, they bend the notes and stretch
your imagination!
ZoË has released 7 recordings:
ROTARY PHONE (2011)(CD)
A CURE FOR THE HICCUPS (2008)(CD)
SMALL IS TREMENDOUS (2005)(CD)
FISHBONE, WISHBONE, FUNNYBONE (2001)(CD)
SHEEP (1998)(CD),
FULL OF FARAWAY (1996)(CD and cassette)
LITTLE PIECE OF SKY (1994) (cassette)
Next > Quotes: What Are People Saying?
Want to know more about me... please join the Mailing list!
|