Artist.......: Eliane Elias
Album........: Festival Jazz α Vienne
Label........: n/a
Genre........: Jazz
Catnr........: n/a
Source.......: DVBS
Rip.date.....: 2015-07-25
Str.date.....: 2014-07-00
Quality......: 235kbps/48.0kHz/Joint Stereo
Url..........: http://elianeelias.com/
track title time
1. Festival Jazz α Vienne 50:58
Runtime 50:58
Size 85.71
Release Notes:
The classical tradition meets the spontaneity of jazz through the virtuosic
playing of Brazil-born and New York-based pianist Eliane Elias. A former member
of jazz ensemble Steps Ahead, Elias has continued to explore two distinct
musical streams through her solo recordings and her performances since the
mid-'80s. In 1993, she became one of the few artists to release jazz and
classical albums simultaneously. In a review of a concert in her homeland,
Brazil magazine praised Elias for "her dazzling right-hand runs, executed often
at frightening speeds. Her command of the keyboard was total. Her harmonic
sensibility caused a sense of wonderment."
Elias may have inherited at least some of her musical talents from her mother,
Lucy, a classical pianist who often played jazz records in the family home.
After studying for six years at the Free Center of Music Apprenticeship in Sπo
Paulo, she continued to study classical technique with Amilton Godoy and Amaral
Vieira. By her teens, Elias was composing her own pieces and performing in jazz
clubs. While touring in Europe in 1981, she met jazz bassist Eddie Gomez and was
encouraged to travel to New York. Arriving in the Big Apple the following year,
she studied privately with Olegna Fuschi at the Juilliard School of Music.
Elias' professional career received a boost when she was invited to join Steps
Ahead, a jazz "supergroup" featuring Michael Brecker, Peter Erskine, Mike
Manieri, and Eddie Gomez. She recorded one album with the group -- Steps Ahead
-- in 1983. Shortly after leaving Steps Ahead, Elias began collaborating with
trumpet player Randy Brecker, whom she subsequently married but later divorced.
Their sole duo album, released in 1985, was named after their daughter Amanda.
The following year, Elias launched her career as a bandleader. Since then, she's
alternated tours with two different trios, one featuring drummer Jack DeJohnette
and bassist Gomez and the other featuring drummer Erskine and her current
husband, bassist Marc Johnson. Elias has also performed with a third trio,
featuring Johnson on bass and Satoshi Takeishi on drums.
She signed with Blue Note in 1989, and released her debut for the label, So Far
So Close, the same year with a slew of guests. While most of her recordings have
been instrumental, Elias introduced her soft but coarse vocals on her 1990 album
Eliane Elias Plays Jobim, and has employed vocals on occasion ever since. Her
1995 album Solos and Duets featured a brilliantly executed duet with Herbie
Hancock. In addition to working periodically with Toots Thielemans' Brasil
Project, Elias has served as musical director for Gilberto Gil's group. While
she continued to record for the rest of the '90s, it was 2000's Impulsive! that
proved one of the largest surprises in her career as she collaborated with
conductor and arranger Bob Brookmeyer leading the Danish Radio Jazz Orchestra.
In 2002 she left Blue Note for RCA's Bluebird label, where she debuted with
Kissed by Nature, a primarily vocal album, and followed it up with the lovely
Dreamer in 2004. Elias released Around the City in 2006, a collection of
primarily vocal tracks that moved ever further into pop territory, covering
music by Santana, Bob Marley, and even Beck. It was her final album for
Bluebird.
She returned to Blue Note for 2007's Something for You: Elaine Elias Sings &
Plays Bill Evans, fronting a trio with Johnson (who played with Evans) and
drummer Joey Baron. In 2009, she issued what many have argued is her finest
recording, Bossa Nova Stories, fully engaging her Brazilian heritage in bossa
and samba and illustrating her singular jazz instincts as a pianist. In 2010,
Savoy Records issued Timeless Eliane Elias, a compilation of tracks culled from
her mid-'80s recordings Illusions and Cross Currents. In late 2010, Elias signed
with Concord; in the late spring of 2011 she released Light My Fire, her debut
set on the label. A year later, Elias paired with bassist and husband Johnson
for the instrumental ECM date Swept Away. In 2013, Elias paid homage to
trumpeter/vocalist Chet Baker with I Thought About You: A Tribute to Chet Baker.
Two years later, she delivered the lush homage to her Brazilian roots with Made
in Brasil
RLS-Crc: 42424C5F2D5F4D5033:EE