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ONE WAY Recommends [Issue
#22]
Eliane Elias By
Lynne Bronstein
Around The City
(CD
RCA Victor)
You can’t keep from dancing to Eliane Elias’s Around The City.
The Brazilian-born pianist/singer/composer has made her reputation in jazz with
her combination of cool, gentle vocals, and fiery keyboard work. On this, her
18th album, she balances vocals and instrumentation, Portuguese and English, covers
and original songs. But whatever Elias does, she makes her own. Her version of
Bob Marley’s “Jammin’” turns the familiar reggae classic into
a sultry jazz jam with a dark undertone. She brings Beck’s “Tropicalia”
back to its source sound (the 1960’s soul-jazz movement in Sao Paulo) and
aces the difficult phrasing required for the Brazilian pop favorite “Chiclete
Com Banana” (a literally sticky lyric in Portuguese). Her own contributions
include the introspective title song, the mysterious ode to a neighbor, “A
Vizinha do Lado,” and the two-part “Segredos” (Secrets) on which
she lets loose on the ivories. If Jobim’s music evoked Brazilian days on
the beach, Eliane Elias evokes the Brazilian nights, carefree nights spent under
the stars-and you just have to dance to this music.
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