“The beautiful, Brazilian-born, New York-based pianist vocalist Eliane Elias is still delivering soft and swinging music hip and hot enough for North and South America. Whether the groove is acoustic or electronic, jazz or samba, it’s all Eliane Elias, and it’s all good.”  --Eugene Holley, Amazon.com

Jazz and concert venues from Chicago and Minneapolis to Cleveland and Fayetteville will be hosting one of the most prized Brazilian exports since coffee, Eliane Elias. Widely acclaimed as a pianist, vocalist, and composer, Elias blurs the boundaries between Brazilian, jazz, and classical styles. On her current “Night in Rio” tour, she is joined by husband/bassist Marc Johnson, drummer Mark Walker, and fellow Brazilian, guitarist Rubens de la Corte.

Born in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Eliane Elias began piano studies at 7, and by age 12 was transcribing legendary jazz solos. By age 15 she was teaching piano and improvisation, and by 17 she was working with Brazilian singer/songwriter Toquinho and the great poet, Vinicius de Moraes (Antonio Carlos Jobim's co-writer/lyricist). Moving to New York, she landed a spot in the acclaimed group Steps Ahead in 1982.

Eliane Elias’ first recording, Amanda (Passport, 1984), was a collaboration with trumpeter Randy Brecker, and her career took off from there. To date she has released over fifteen albums on Blue Note Records (all topping Billboard and other charts), documenting dozens of her own compositions, her playing and arranging, and beautiful vocals. She was voted Best New Talent by the jazz critics poll of JAZZIZ magazine in 1988; and was nominated for a Grammy in the "Best Jazz Solo Performance" category for her 1995 Blue Note release, Solos and Duets (with Herbie Hancock), which Musician Magazine referred to  as "a landmark in piano duo history." In the 1997 Downbeat Readers Poll, she received the “Best Jazz Album” award for her recording, The Three Americas (Blue Note), and was named in five other categories: Beyond Musician, Best Composer, Jazz Pianist, Female Vocalist, and Musician of the Year. Eliane Elias Sings Jobim topped the charts in Japan for over three months and was awarded the Best Brazilian Album in Jazziz Critics Poll of 1999. 

In addition to her own recordings, she has performed and/or recorded with Joe Henderson, James Taylor, Michael Franks, Mingus Dynasty, the Brecker Brothers, Toots Thielemans, Denyce Graves, and Steps Ahead, among others. Her compositions, as arranged by Bob Brookmeyer, have been performed by the Danish Radio Big Band, leading to a Grammy nomination for "Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album" in 2001. In the same year, the soundtrack for Calle 54, the highly acclaimed documentary film by Oscar-winning Spanish director Fernando Trueba, featuring Elias' performance of “Samba Triste,” was also nominated for Best Latin Jazz Album.  In 2002 Elias recorded The Lost Days with opera sensation Denyce Graves, which included two of her arrangements of Brazilian classical pieces and an original composition written especially for Ms. Graves (“Haabia Tupi”).

Eliane Elias is considered one of the great interpreters of Jobim’s music, has been involved in a number of concert tributes to Jobim, and has recorded two albums of his music for Blue Note, Plays Jobim and Sings Jobim.  The longest signee with Blue Note following its 1984 revival, Elias recently signed with RCA Music Group/Bluebird, releasing Kissed by Nature in 2003. Her latest recording, Dreamer, features her vocals supported by a full orchestra, and includes rarely performed tunes from the American songbook, Brazilian bossa novas, and new Elias originals, including her first songs written with English lyrics. In addition, Dreamer marks the first time that Elias has recorded an album with most vocals sung in English. Says Elias of her new project, “By now, I have spent half of my life in Brazil and half in the United States, so I chose songs written by both American and Brazilian composers. I looked for American songs that would sound and feel good in a bossa nova setting and Brazilian songs that already had been given English lyrics--and great lyrics. All the songs, without exception, spoke to me on several levels, through their words, melodies, and harmonies.”

Joining Eliane Elias on her fall tour is Brazilian guitarist Rubens de la Corte. Also from Sao Paulo, he has played acoustic and electric guitar professionally since the age of sixteen. In addition to performing and composing, he has taught guitar and music theory at the Ulisses Rocha School of Music in Brazil. During his studies at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, de la Corte and classmate Sheryl Cohen formed the vocal/ duo, Brazil Jazz, merging standard, American jazz repertoire with the rhythms of Brazilian music.

Elias’ husband and frequent collaborator, bassist Marc Johnson, has been a major jazz innovator for the past two decades.  Born in Nebraska, Johnson first studied piano and cello before taking up the bass at age of 16.  While still a music student at the University of North Texas, Johnson began performing professionally with the Fort Worth Symphony, and joined the Woody Herman Band on tour in 1977. During a stop in New York, he was invited to sit in with Bill Evans at the , Paul Motian, Jack DeJohnette, and Gary Burton, in addition to his recordings with Bill Evans. A long-standing member of John Abercrombie’s trio, Johnson has frequently worked with other guitarists, including Bill Frisell and John Scofield, and has been a touring member of the Charles Lloyd and Paul Motian bands.

Don’t miss Eliane Elias’ “Night in Rio” –a perfect warm-up for a cool November night.

“An unwavering melodist, Elias projects deep emotion and a strong blues feeling in her sound, informed by a lexicon of harmony, beats, and attacks” (Ted Panken , Downbeat, April 2003).

“Vocally, Ms. Elias has a matter-of-fact delivery...with her reach never exceeding her grasp. Whether singing in Portuguese or English...she simply states a song, then lets her pianism carry it into another dimension… Her renditions of "The Way You Look Tonight" and "Desafinado," in particular, ripped the songs open, lighted firecrackers in their grooves, and set them ablaze" (New York Times, October 2004).

This week: Eliane Elias plays at the Hot House in .php).