Eliane Elias: Bill Evans 80th Birthday Tribute

Eliane Elias Trio: Tribute to Bill Evans

From August 12th to August 16th, 08:30pm & 10:30pm $35

Iridium Jazz Club, NYC

1650 Broadway (51st Street)

Call Iridium Box Office at 212-582-2121.

The NY-based Brazilian nympha-diva Eliane Elias is known for her distinct and immediately recognizable musical piano style which blends her Brazilian roots (courtesy of Zimbo Trio's Hamilton Godoy's huge influence) with her impressive jazz and classical skills. In this exclusive engagement, the talented pianist brings to life the music of piano trio legend Bill Evans together with bassist Marc Johnson (who, alongside drummer Joe LaBarbera, anchored the last incarnation of the Evans Trio that I had the privilege to contemplate on their final Rio performance at the Cecilia Meirelles Hall back in 1979) and master drummer Adam Nussbaum, whom I first saw with John Scofield during the "Shinola" years, long before he joined Eliane's trio.

Eliane highlighted this same music in her acclaimed 2008 Blue Note release 'Something for You.' This celebration of Bill Evans also coincides with what would have been his 80th birthday, on Sunday, August 16th. It's interesting to mention that, still in her teens, Eliane Elias learned Bill Evans' style not only by listening to his albums, but mainly by playing-a-long with Evans' recordings, practing her solo abilities by soloing over the original bass/drums channel from the stereo. Most of Evans' LPs from the mid-60s to the mid-70s were with Eddie Gomez on bass and, not coincidently, Eliane met (and played with) Gomez in Paris, in the early 80s. Impressed by her artistry, Gomez encouraged her to move to New York and soon they were playing together on the Steps Ahead supergroup, along with Michael Brecker, Peter Erskine & Mike Mainieri.

Ms. Elias also recently released 'Bossa Nova Stories (Blue Note, 2009), the 21st recording of her career, a 14-tune collection that captures the cool and alluring spirit of bossa nova. She has documented dozens of her own compositions on thirteen solo albums, all of them achieving the top ten of America’s jazz charts, most reaching number one on the radio airplay charts and top five in Billboard Magazine. With her 1995 “Solos and Duets” album she received a Grammy Nomination for “Best Jazz Solo Performance.” In 1997 “The Three Americas” recording was Best Jazz Album of the Year, and Elias was voted in five other categories: Best Composer, Beyond Musician, Female Vocalist and Jazz Pianist in the DownBeat Magazine Reader’s’ polls. The CD “Eliane Elias sings Jobim” was number one vocal record in Japan for over three months and received best Brazilian Album in 1999 Jazziz Magazine Polls.

(Eliane Elias & Arnaldo DeSouteiro during a radio interview in 1987)

After having attended a series of Eliane Elias' impressive performances with Randy Brecker during a week-long engagement at the Maksoud Plaza Hotel 150 Nightclub, in 1986, Arnaldo DeSouteiro invited Elias for a trip to Rio the following year, when the producer introduced her talents to the mass media (including interviews for radio programs conducted by Mauricio Figueiredo at JB-AM, Abdalla at MEC-FM and Simon Khoury at Imprensa-FM, as well as a big story written by João Máximo for the Jornal do Brasil daily newspaper) and even persuaded Brazilian EMI to print a domestic release of Elias' debut LP for Blue Note, "Illusions," for which he translated the liner notes and prepared a marketing campaign after a meeting at the EMI office between Elias, DeSouteiro and EMI's International A&R boss at that time, Chica Burnier. Then, in 1990, came Elias' masterpiece, "Eliane Elias Plays Jobim," for which Arnaldo DeSouteiro wrote the press-release and Leonard Feather wrote the liner notes.