Pianist Eric Lewis Paying Dues, But Thinking Big

[DudeAsInCool]

Paying His Dues, Thinking Big

By ANDREW JACOBS

Published: January 25, 2005

Jazz musicians are born to be broke.

It is a paradigm that Eric Lewis, a 31-year-old pianist and most recently a member of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, thinks he can change. He may live in a single-room-occupancy hotel near Riverside Park with shared bathrooms, and his bank account may be nearly barren, but Mr. Lewis has a coterie of big-name boosters cheering for his success, among them Lee Iacocca, Jamie Foxx and his former boss and mentor, Wynton Marsalis.

After nearly a decade as Lincoln Center's pianist, Mr. Lewis quit last month, saying it was time to find a spotlight of his own...

Will he succeed? Read more here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/25/arts/mus...lewi.html?8hpib