Zoe Lewis

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).

ZOË'S 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 is soon to tour with JUDY COLLINS and NANCI GRIFFITH.

Originally from England, she now resides in Provincetown, MA, U.S.A. where she performs every summer to the Cape Cod tourists. Her music's 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. While at once setting listeners off balance with her quirky spin on things she sneaks in simple, potent messages, leaving audiences worn out and inspired.

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!