Eliane Elias: "I Thought About You: A Tribute to Chet Baker"

Eliane Elias has been known until recently as a Brazilian singer who has done a few marvelous interpretations of American standards, such as "Baubles, Bangles, and Beads", and "Take Five".  But I suspect that's about to change.  Her new album, I Thought About You:  A Tribute to Chet Baker, was released today, on the first of a five-night run at Birdland Jazz Club in New York City.  It's dedicated wholly to American music, specifically to the music of the late icon of the Cool Jazz movement.

Eliane has long been considered one of the most versatile and expressive jazz vocalists on the scene right now.  Born in São Paolo, she's equally at home with samba and swing, with ballads and bossa nova, and with so many of the other Brazilian grooves, such as baião and afoxé, that are gradually becoming part of the repertoire of the music of the world.  Eliane is also an accomplished classical and jazz pianist with a distinctive style of jazz improvisation:  her piano riffs are immediately recognizable as hers and hers alone.  She came onto the scene at age 17, performing onstage with Brazilian heavy-hitters Vinicius de Moraes and Toquinho.  Since  then, her career has been on a quiet, upward trajectory that has gained her fans on every continent.  I came to her music late, in 2008, after hearing her second appearance on Marian McPartland's public radio show Piano Jazz, and  immediately fell in love with the way her vocal lines, like those of the truly great bossa singers, drift in and out of the beat, swaying with the rhythm but not rigidly tied to it.  Her 2011 album "Light My Fire" was a masterpiece.  She switches effortlessly between English and Portuguese on a couple of tracks.  Her piano playing is flawless, and her singing has a way of giving a listener the impression of singing for you, and for you alone.  She also has some of the best musicians working today on that album, such as Oscar Castro-Neves,  Romero Lumbambo, and Marivaldo Santos, to name but a few.

Eliane Elias' love of Chet Baker and his music is understandable:  both artists share a certain romantic and lyrical sensibility.  But she manages to bring a fresh voice to many of these standards, preserving their romanticism without lapsing into sentimentality.  She does this, as this review in AllAboutJazz.com says, by singing the music "straight and uncomplicated".  Add the genius of her piano, her distinctively, outrageously sexy Brazilian accent, the easy transition between samba and swing -- in one case, on the same track -- and you've got music that will drive a listener slowly, delightfully crazy.

Eliane is assisted this time by Steve Cardenas (electric guitar), husband Marc Johnson (bass), Randy Brecker (trumpet), Oscar Castro-Neves (acoustic guitar), Victor Lewis and Rafael Barata (drums), and Marivaldo dos Santos (percussion).  It is a wonderful interpretation of this portion of the American songbook.

Eliane Elias will be at Birdland Jazz Club nightly through June 1, playing sets at 8:30 and 11:00  

And here she is discussing the new album: