ELEW does not have a release date yet for his next album — a collection of songs by Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Sting — but he’ll be giving listeners a preview during the Detroit Institute of Arts’ Friday Night Live! program this week.
“I just opened for him for 30 performances last year, and it really was a monumental experience on multiple levels,” explains the pianist, who was born Eric Lewis in New Jersey. He also opened shows for Sting in 2024, including a pair of tour-opening dates at the Fillmore Detroit.
“His music really crystallizes harmonic movement and rhythmic quirkiness and subversiveness, combined with virtuosity and virtuosity-adjacent material,” ELEW said of Sting. “It’s very romantic, too, and there’s a lot of sharp, psychological undertones and implications in the lyrics…