Jazz Articles about Eliane Elias

About Eliane Elias

Album Review

Two years ago, Eliane Elias released Made In Brazil (Concord, 2015) and all it did was win the 2016 Grammy for Best Latin Album. It's a great album and with Dance of Time, Elias hasn't repeated a successful formula; she's perfected it. This is an opulent recording, rich in its authenticity and lavish in its glorious accomplishments. As Elias has transitioned from a pianist/vocalist to a vocalist/pianist (there is a difference), some fans and certainly some critics have ...

Live Review

Eliane Elias at Dazzle

by Geoff Anderson
November 23, 2015

Eliane Elias Dazzle Denver, CO November 19, 2015 Eliane Elias' current album Made in Brazil (Concord Jazz, 2015) is a lush affair. An orchestra provides a luxurious atmosphere on over half the songs. Guest vocalists add further layers and Take 6 contributes its brand of vocal jazz. Guitarists, drummers, percussionists, bass players all chime in throughout; a cast of thousands! Well, maybe not quite that many. In contrast, Elias' performance Thursday evening a ...

Nite & Disk

Eliane Elias: Made in Brazil - Swung at Birdland

by Dr. Judith Schlesinger
April 30, 2015

Eliane Elias is a paradox. An artist of rare talent, experience, and range, she is a keyboard master with few peers whose deep musicality transcends genre. An astonishing singer, composer, arranger, and songwriter, her performances are celebrated for their swing, lyricism, and unique sound. Elias is also a beautiful woman with long blond hair who's been known to kick off her stiletto heels to play the piano barefoot. I expect some people will have difficulty reconciling the pin-up cover of ...

Live Review

Eliane Elias at Birdland Jazz Club

by Ernest Barteldes
April 15, 2015

Eliane Elias Birdland Jazz Club New York, NY April 11, 2015 On the last night of her residence at New York City's Birdland Jazz Club, pianist/vocalist Eliane Elias focused on Brazilian music and tunes from Made in Brazil (Concord, 2015), released earlier that week. The set opened with an instrumental take on “Ladeira da Preguiça," a Gilberto Gil composition popularized by Elis Regina in the early 1970s. Elias' take was fast-paced, with flurries of notes ...

Interview

Eliane Elias: The Authenticity of the Groove

by R.J. DeLuke
March 31, 2015

"I was 22 years old and I told Toots Thielemans that I had some tunes I'd like him to listen to," says Eliane Elias, the Brazilian-born pianist, a child prodigy who rose to the upper echelons of music during her time in the United States. The discussion with the famed harmonica player came during a rehearsal in the 1980s. Bassist Eddie Gomez and drummer Al Foster were there. They started in playing her tune “Moments." “We would get ...

Album Review

Eliane Elias: Made In Brazil

Read "Made In Brazil" reviewed by Jeff Winbush

by Jeff Winbush
March 31, 2015

If you've never been to Brazil, consider Eliane Elias as a goodwill ambassador with Made In Brazil. It is a triumphant return for the pianist/vocalist to her native land to record her first album there since relocating to the United States in 1981. There is a delicacy to how Elias chooses and approaches the material. There is no genuflecting to pop music as there was on Light My Fire (Concord, 2011). Here Elias is all about adult emotions ...

Live Review

Eliane Elias at Birdland

by Ernest Barteldes
June 13, 2013

Eliane EliasBirdland New York, NYMay 31, 2013 On the fourth night of her weeklong residence at Birdland, pianist Eliane Elias opened her set with an original number, its bluesy nature recalling the work of recently deceased pianist Dave Brubeck. The number gave her quartet--bassist Marc Johnson, guitarist Steve Cardenas and drummer Mauricio Zotarelli--plenty of opportunity to stretch out, with quite a few improvised moments. Elias' quartet continued with “There Will Never Be Another ...