ELIANE ELIAS

“Dance of Time” is nominated for a Libera Award!

Eliane’s Dance of Time is nominated for a A2IM Libera Award for Best Latin Jazz Album of the Year.

“Since Edison invented the phonograph, independent music labels have defined American musical culture and disseminated it to the world,” said A2IM CEO Richard James Burgess in a statement. “The Libera Awards is the first platform to celebrate and honor the entrepreneurial spirit, creative independence, and cultural diversity that undergirds these genre-defining American artists and businesspeople.”

https://liberaawards.squarespace.com/nominees

The Chicago Tribune gives Eliane’s show a stellar review

The sounds of Brazil swept into Evanston on Friday evening, though imbued with the character of American jazz.

Brazilian singer-pianist Eliane Elias has been intertwining the two, to varying degrees, through most of her career, and during her first set at SPACE she very nearly erased lines separating them. For whether she was playing up-tempo fare (most of the time) or occasional ballads, she combined the rhythmic lilt of Brazilian samba and bossa nova with the robust spirit and harmonic intricacies of contemporary jazz improvisation.

True, Elias worked within mainstream expression, leaving experimentation to others. But perhaps it’s best to regard her as a longtime champion of the music of her native country, proselytizing for it around the world, and quite effectively so.

Indeed, the youthful enthusiasm and unabashed ebullience of her show at SPACE ran counter to what one might expect from an artist who has been touring the world for decades. Judging by this night, Elias still brings a sense of discovery to her Brazil-meets-jazz metier.

Much of the evening’s repertoire came from “Dance of Time,” Elias’ latest album, starting with the joyous “Sambou Sambou” (which Elias translated as “You Dance to the Samba”). Its composer, the prolific Brazilian songwriter-pianist Joao Donato, made a belated Chicago debut as a septuagenarian in 2007, leading a trio in a buoyant performance at the now-long-gone HotHouse; and he returned the following year to participate in singer-guitarist Paulinho Garcia’s massive bossa nova concert in Millennium Park.

“Sambou Sambou” captures the puckish, playful facet of those Donato appearances, Elias emphasizing the point with the bright timbre of her vocals, the silvery tone of her pianism and the easy bounce of her rhythms. It was impossible not to smile during this performance.

Elsewhere in the program, Elias answered her throaty vocals with melodic piano commentary in the Gershwins’ “Embraceable You,” produced an avalanche of keyboard sound in “Coisa Feita” (“Silver Sandal”) and provided an all-too-rare moment of quiet in her own “By Hand” (“Em Maos”).

The tour de force came toward the end, in Jobim’s “Desafinado,” reconceived here as a vast fantasia built on multiple sections and several tempo changes. Elias’ lush opening piano solo revealed her conversance with the musical vocabularies of two stylistically far-flung masters: Art Tatum and Bill Evans. Once Elias’ collaborators joined the instrumental texture, the trio offered rigorous jazz improvisation, with Johnson’s cellolike bass solo as surprising as it was poetic.

Asking the audience to sing “ahhh” at the appropriate moments in Jobim’s “The Girl From Ipanema,” which Elias offered as an encore, may not have been the most original idea of the night. Yet there was something disarming about hearing a packed house deliver that famous sigh in unison, as if to underscore the universality of Brazilian sounds of a certain era.

Ultimately, this music never goes out of date. In Elias’ hands, it can seem almost new.

Howard Reich is a Tribune critic.

“Dance of Time is so far one of the best Brazilian-rooted albums of the year” says World Music Central

ELIANE ELIAS CELEBRATES HER ROOTS

USA-based Brazilian pianist and vocalist Eliane Elias has become of the most familiar names in the world of Brazilian-rooted jazz. Her new album Dance of Time takes Eliane back to her Brazilian roots in a brilliant manner.

Dance of Time was recorded in Brazil and the result is a truly exquisite recording. There is not a weak track on this album. Eliane Elias effortlessly balances her talent as a pianist and singer-songwriter, delivering some of her finest material, injecting spirited samba.

Dance of Time features first class talent from Brazil and the United States, including pianist Amilton Godoy, singer- songwriter and guitarist João Bosco, guitarist and vocalist Toquinho, trumpeter Randy Brecker, vibraphonist Mike Mainieri and the unmistakable remarkable vocals of Mark Kibble (Take 6).

The performances on Dance of Time are remarkable and the recording quality is superb.

Dance of Time is so far one of the best Brazilian-rooted albums of the year.

Angelo Romero April 28,2017

Eliane Elias Celebrates Her Roots

Angelo Romero April 28,2017

London Evening Standard calls Eliane ‘Legend of the Bossa Queen’ and gives her a 4 star review

Eliane Elias, review: Legend of the bossa queen

Elias proved she’s an artist at her peak, says Jane Cornwell 4/21/17

Spectacular playing:  She’s told it before but she’ll tell it again: Eliane Elias was just 17, leading her trio at a gig in Sao Paolo, when she spotted Joao Gilberto and Vinicius de Moraes, the creators of bossa nova, seated down the front.

“As close as you are now,” said the New York-based virtuoso, 57, smiling at a rapt front row from behind a grand piano. Adding that she would go on to work with the pair for three years, she dedicated Chega de Saudade, the first ever bossa, in their honour, her sweet croon and spectacular playing – delicate skips, cascading trills, wildly percussive chords – vindicating their faith, and then some.

The double bassist Marc Johnson, formerly of Bill Evans’ trio, clung tenderly to his instrument, as if it was all too beautiful.

An artist at her peak, Elias is getting her dues. Her last record, 2015’s Made In Brazil, won her a Grammy, finally, after seven previous nominations (“So, you know, never give up!”).

Current album Dance of Time, a salute to samba and to the musicians who helped her on her way, went straight to Number One all over the place. Little wonder: tracks including a Latin-tinged Sambao Sambao and her own exquisite ballad, Little Paradise, fizzed with optimism, bathed you in warmth. “Obrigado,” she said at the end, looking heavenwards.

Read the full review here.