For Brazilian born pianist and composer, Eliane Elias, the bristling tableau of songs that make up her 18th album, Around The City, crackle with the vitality of an urban nightscape. But it’s the mortar between the virtuosic gems crafted by Eliane, this time around, that sets Around The City apart from any of her other acclaimed efforts.
Staking out fertile co-writing sessions (for the first time in her career) with album co-producer, Lester Mendez, and songwriter Lauren Christy, as well as creative collaborations with the disc’s other co-producer, Andres Levin, Eliane focused on what she calls: “A vocal structure where the voice becomes almost a character itself.” She also imbues the 13 song disc with a sense of in-the-moment dynamics and fearless playfulness that rivals even the best contemporary rock sonnets. Once again the noted jazz sensation dazzles with her mesmerizing pianism and brave and delectable helpings of material, offering up exotic covers, including the Tito Puente penned-Santana hit “Oye Como Va”, an inspired version of Bob Marley’s “Jammin’”, and even a swirling Beck selection, “Tropicalia,” (culled from his 1998 album Mutations), which ironically, was a homage to the Brazilian Tropicalia psychedelic/soul fusion movement of the mid-1960’s (powered by the likes of Sao Paulo musical anarchists Os Mutantes, and Caetano Veloso, Gal Costa and Gilberto Gil, among others), the latter of whom influenced Eliane’s early years. It’s these kind of full-circle thematic leaps that Eliane traverses with such ease on Around The City, each song an entry-point into this ‘dual’ jazz citizen’s (as one reviewer dubbed her) musical template, with Eliane effortlessly gliding from song to song in both Portuguese and English. Harboring such eclectic passions has always been a trademark of Eliane’s compositional DNA. “From my earliest musical memories I had a passion for doing something in a different, new way. These ideas were just swimming around in my head. You have to remember I never aspired to be a singer. The challenge was always the music. It was the piano for me. And composing. I was always writing and I was such a lover of improvised music, Brazilian rhythm and American jazz, how could I not dream of ways to one day integrate all these wonderful sounds into my own creations.” Signed to legendary Blue Note Records in 1986, after releasing her debut album, Eliane would ultimately become the label’s most prolific and enduring artist, delivering 15 albums, a great deal of them topping Billboard’s Jazz charts. Eliane signed with RCA/Bluebird Jazz in 2002, releasing the sultry Kissed By Nature. 2004’s Dreamer was her second album for the new label, and a wake-up call to fans that Eliane’s vocal adventures were just beginning. “Once I began singing more, fans would actually come up to me afterwards and ask me to please sing more in future shows. I also began to realize there was a technical side to it as fascinating as the piano. What I loved about working on Around The City is that there are songs where I stretch my abilities with both playing and singing.”