Eliane Elias: Lively and Live

Eliane Elias is a jazz musician of the highest order. Her skills as a superlative pianist became known not long after she arrived in New York City from her São Paulo, Brazil, home in 1981.

She drew notice as a member of Steps Ahead, a groundbreaking fusion group of the early 1980s that included Mike Mainieri and Michael Brecker, among others. As her career grew, she became a prolific composer and interpreter of songs across a broad spectrum of genres. She slowly worked singing into her repertoire, with albums of Antonio Carlos Jobim music. (As a teenager and prodigy, she worked with Jobim in Brazil.) A bona fide star, she has toured the world several times and continues to do so.

Her work is never done. Elias doesn't pull on the reins of her imagination despite some physical setbacks that would have stifled others. Her creative soul won't allow it. She loves the process too much and adores being on stage.

Elias has recorded more than 30 albums, said to have sold more than 2.5 million copies. She won two Grammys (2016 and 2022) and two Latin Grammys (2017 and 2022) and is often nominated. This month she added to her output a new recording, Ao Vivo (Candid Records). It is her first live recording featuring her trio and her voice. The music is from her Brazilian side. Some of the songs she's recorded before, but for this occasion—from a concert at the SFJAZZ Center's Miner Auditorium in San Francisco in 2023—the music is made fresh by new arrangements.

She's excited about it, she said recently, prior to embarking on a tour that will take her to Europe before returning for gigs at Birdland in New York City in September.

"I think it came out really great. The band, we have a lot of affinity, and we're coming from touring together. So it was captured in one night. It really shows the essence of the music that I've been presenting live."

She's accompanied by Marc Johnson on bass, Rafael Baratta on drums and Leandro Pellegrino on guitar.

The songs in her Brazilian repertoire are ones she's been doing over time. "The arrangements are different than the recorded versions. And I think it went really well. I'm very excited. The band is swinging so hard. The groove is great. We were all having a good time and everyone played great."

Elias was studying piano at age seven and teaching in São Paulo at age 15. Her performing career began at 17, working with Brazilian icons Toquinho, Vinicius De Moraes and Jobim. She's done blazing straight-ahead jazz with the likes of Jack DeJohnette, Billy Hart, Joe Lovano, Randy Brecker and Eddie Gomez, and scorching piano duets with Chucho Valdes and Chick Corea, all solidifying her reputation as an elite pianist. But she's an outstanding composer and delights in arranging music for whatever band she is leading.

"I enjoy it very much. Everything that I do. I've been my own arranger from the very beginning, so I have a certain vision for how I want it to be when it's a studio album. When it's live, I prepare the arrangement for a live performance. So we have some moments of featuring the other musicians, some nice transitions between the solos, to keep the audience. The goal is to keep the audience there with you and interested all the way through those 90 minutes, so they will hear music and keep the joy and the rhythm and the feelings and things that we can transmit to them," she says.

Ao Vivo, which simply means "live" in Portuguese, brings authentic Brazilian flavor to her audience, something she has been doing in performance and the studio for many years.

Her Brazilian side is "very important," she says. "I feel like not only do I love doing this, but it's the authenticity. It's really in my blood. I grew up with this, and the authenticity is so important to continue doing it out there. Because a lot of the new players, they don't know how to play this music... There's a way. Things change, evolve, and we all play differently. But some of the great qualities of this music, the groove of it and how to make it in that way, is something that is very specialized. I love doing it."

She knows her band is top-notch, and she enjoys what each member brings to the table.

"The guys are wonderful. We have a lot of affinity, of course, with Marc. Rafael is a beautiful drummer. He really plays inside my piano with me, like he's there with me. And Leandro is a great guitarist. We have moments, as you can hear on the new recording, when it becomes very intimate. We go into the bossa nova and it's different. The groove is beautiful, the songs, and it's really something fun. I am so happy that (the new CD) is out there."

"So Danco Samba," "A Felicidade" and "Sambou Sambou" are among the songs on the album that fans may know. Their new presentation contains the same enthusiasm and artistic fervor that Elias is known for.

Her bassist, also her husband, is one of the finest on his instrument. He's played with a Who's Who of jazz stars, perhaps most notably being in the Bill Evans trio in the last years of the pianist's life, a group some feel may have been the best of the Evans trios. Johnson brings the right measure of virtuosity, support and improvisation to the Brazilian songbook.

"He's incredible. One of the things in the music that he was attracted to was the same thing that attracted me—the dialog. The conversational aspect. The back and forth. Listening, responding. More than the traditional accompaniment of, 'I'm going to walk a line in your solo,' or whatever," Elias says. Instead, "It's this dialog, the interchange, and what he does with Brazilian music, because we played together for so many years. He's been to Brazil a million times. He listens to the music. He knows the culture.

"He brought all his virtuosity and this way of interplay. He brought that into the Brazilian music. I don't know anybody else who can do this. It's just gorgeous, because the (musical) language that he has, and the improvisational skills and the affinity that we have, it's really great. And this comes into the music. What's brought there is like a foundation for the band. It's really very, very special."

Elias likes the idea of getting her bands, and her different musical directions, recorded to document her journey. She wants to present exquisite musical menus to her legions of fans. While some feel CDs don't mean as much to a musician's career, Elias does not agree and has no plans to ease up.

The size of the crowds and reaction to her music when she performs, whether it's a large jazz festival setting or an intimate club, illustrate that people want more. In addition to her Grammy awards and nominations, she is a four-time Gold Disc award recipient in Japan, where she is also a three-time Best Vocal Album winner, and in 2018 she received an Edison Lifetime Achievement Award in Holland.

"CDs are having a comeback again," she says, "because people realize the durability of that music. They have something that is durable, with the fidelity and the sound and all that. I love having CDs. I have such a collection, and I do not get rid of it. You get to read (album notes) inside, and the credits. It's a whole experience, having the actual CD. I'm into it, and I know a lot of people who love having it too."

She adds that her recordings "are the music I create. They are different from each other. When I did piano duets, that's one thing. Then I did originals, and then this is a live album."

The live recording is the latest accomplishment in a long, storied career. Music has been the driving force since she was a child. By her own admission, she didn't have a normal childhood, but rather went from her teen years to maturity, teaching music—and performing—at a very young age. She gave up everything to pursue music at the highest level possible, in New York City among jazz greats. She has never regretted it.

Along the way Elias had to face challenges outside of music. A shoulder injury a few years back forced her to immobilize herself for weeks in order to heal without surgery. Then a Lisfranc injury damaged bones and ligaments in her foot. It required an eight-hour reconstructive surgery. She had to learn to walk again, and it altered her balance. That caused another fall, this one breaking her other foot. Elias persevered, though the many screws that had to go into her foot still cause pain.

"It's painful at night. It hurts to press the pedal on a piano," she says without a hint of remorse. She's resilient and upbeat. "When I'm playing, then I forget about it with the enthusiasm of performing. As soon as it's done, it's 'Ow.' But when I'm playing, I forget about it."

Her creative life moves on. Bumps in the road will not prevent her from following her muse. She envelops herself in music, writing and playing. And she has a pair of grandchildren that brighten other aspects of her life.

"Frankly, playing and singing, I can never get bored. When I started doing more singing, it opened a whole new horizon of songs that I would probably not consider just doing as instrumentals. So the repertoire, between the American songbook, the standards, the Brazilian tunes, the originals, the vocals and the instrumental ones—I'm never bored," she says with a joyous laugh. "And it's so much fun. That's why I don't feel the pain in my foot."

Elias still loves touring, bringing music to people to hopefully enrich their lives for a time. The travel part is more difficult, something that musicians universally do not enjoy. But, "we love playing, so we look forward to it. But I don't love the travel... And it's a pity because what I love the most is to perform, and to perform, we are on the road."

She even has several dates building up for 2027. And there's another CD in the works that the public will be able to find and enjoy next year. She won't disclose the nature of the music, but it is a studio session.

"I love the creative process and the relationship with music. It's really special," she says of developing the project.

And overall, "It's been a beautiful journey. I'm grateful. I'm grateful for everything, for the fans, for the people who have been supporting my music and listening to it and coming to the concerts. It's loving and great. I do everything that I can to give them something as special as I can give, so they will be happy."

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