Foundations: Stephen Lee (Part 1)
Memphis Jazz Artist Stephen Lee discusses building a career in music.
1. What is your main instrument?
Piano is home base for me. I came up on piano in church as a kid, and that’s still my main voice, even though I also played a lot of drums and percussion in school.
2. When did you start playing?
I really started around 10–11 years old. My family was at Wednesday night rehearsals at church, and I’d sit and watch the pianist, a man named Gary Melton. He showed me songs for the Sunday School choir, and I’d go back on Saturday mornings to practice. We didn’t even have a piano at home until I was in junior high, so I’d practice at the church.
3. Did you play in college?
Yeah. I went to the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. I got in because I had basically taught myself to play several instruments—admissions gave me a shot based on that, not my ACT score. Once I got there, I studied music, took jazz history, played in jazz combos, and studied privately with Donald Brown.
4. Did you grow up wanting to play music for a career?
By 12th grade, yes. I wrote in one of those senior books that I wanted to be a professional musician and that I wanted to work with Luther Vandross. Even before that, I was gigging—playing church and solo piano in restaurants for $50–75, so I knew it was possible to get paid.
5. Were you exposed to the idea of a music career growing up?
Not really in a formal way. My mother would rather I stayed in gospel. Like a lot of Black parents then, she was wary of jazz and club life. Most of the “career” picture came later, when I met people like Donald Brown, heard Cyrus Chestnut at a festival, and started seeing musicians who were clearly making a living playing.
6. How long have you been earning a living playing music, roughly?
I was already being paid to play in high school—church, solo piano gigs. After college, I went to Las Vegas, then Europe, then New York, always gigging. I’ve basically been earning from music since my teens, and as an adult I’ve always combined church work, jazz gigs, and later recording to make a living. 𝄂
Next issue, we’ll discuss what Stephen does now, the styles he plays, his dream gig, and the advice he wishes someone had given him in high school.