Eliane Elias - Something for You: Elaine Elias Sings & Plays Bill Evans
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CD Details
Artist: Eliane EliasEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2008-01-15
Music Label: Blue Note Records
Soundtracks:
- You and the Night and the Music - Eliane Elias, Schwartz, Arthur
- Here Is Something for You - Eliane Elias, Evans, Bill [Piano]
- A Sleepin' Bee - Eliane Elias, Arlen, Harold
- But Not for Me - Eliane Elias, Gershwin, George
- Waltz for Debby - Eliane Elias, Evans, Bill [Piano]
- Five - Eliane Elias, Evans, Bill [Piano]
- Blue in Green - Eliane Elias, Evans, Bill [Piano]
- Detour Ahead - Eliane Elias, Carter
- Minha (All Mine) - Eliane Elias, Hime, F.
- My Foolish Heart - Eliane Elias, Young, Victor
- But Beautiful/Here's That Rainy Day - Eliane Elias, VanHeusen, James
- I Love My Wife - Eliane Elias, Coleman, Cy
- For Nenette - Eliane Elias, Evans, Bill [Piano]
- Evanesque - Eliane Elias, Evans, Bill [Piano]
- Solar - Eliane Elias, Davis, Miles
- After All - Eliane Elias, Elias, Eliane
- Introduction to "Here Is Something for You" - Eliane Elias, Evans, Bill [Piano]
Music reviews of Something for You: Elaine Elias Sings & Plays Bill Evans
Music Review: The Best Pianist Who Sings
Rating: 5 Stars
I was not a big fan of Eliane Elias' "Dreamer," so I bought this c.d. with some trepidation. It has received really good reviews; would I be wrong to buck the tide?
As it turns out, I'm not bucking the tide. This c.d. proves a basic point: Eliane Elias is the best pianist who sings. That's not to say she's the best singer who plays piano: I'd vote for Diana Krall on that score. And it's not to say she's the best singer/pianist: I'd vote for Andy Bey, but with a special nod to Patricia Barber.
I review singers; but Eliane Elias is such a fabulous pianist here that I can't (and shouldn't) get past that point.
She has chosen to tribute Bill Evans, and I can't think of a better musician to do so. For one, she's married to Marc Johnson, who plays bass here and was Evans' last bassist (before Evans died in 1980). And as such, the c.d. ends stunningly, with a "bootleg tape" of Evans (which Mr. Johnson has been holding on to, all of these years) playing "Here is Something For You." Eliane picks up in the middle of the song where Bill ends off, and except for the recording quality sound and absence of Evans' "grunts of joy," sounds just like him.
But for two, Bill Evans is probably the most influential jazz pianist of all. Nobody played more lyrically, and nobody played chords more lyrically, than Bill Evans. And in this respect, Eliane Elias sounds just like Bill Evans. She's not derivative; you can't "copy" Bill Evans. Rather, she has captured his spirit like none other. Eliane Elias has truly channeled Bill Evans in this recording.
Take for example "Five" (Track 6). This sounds amazingly like Thelonious Monk; but where Monk would play angularly and percussively, Ms. Elias - like Mr. Evans - plays it smoothly, roundly, with harmonies washing over.
Ms. Elias' singing isn't quite up to her piano playing, but that's for two primary reasons: 1) For the most part, she is singing English translations, when her native tongue is not English. As such, the phrasing sounds "stiff," as in "singing in syllables," rather than "singing in phrases." Ms. Elias fares best on "Minha," when she sings in her native Portuguese. 2) She is just so good on piano, that her singing can't compare. She's a better singer than Bill Evans, that's for sure! As I said, call her "the best pianist who sings," and let it go at that. RC
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