Around the City

Eliane Elias

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 22, 2006)
• Original Release Date: August 22, 2006
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: RCA Victor
• ASIN: B000FQJP1O
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #21,620 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Pianist Eliane Elias goes from bop and Bach to bossa nova just as easily as she sings in English and Portuguese. This CD is the sequel to her 2004 recording, Dreamer, and it features bassist Marc Johnson, guitarist Oscar Castro-Neves, flutist Dave Valentin, and trumpeter Randy Brecker. The 13 selections are iPod-ready, techno-textured tunes, including the hip and hypnotic "Running"--which was recently featured on the television show Brothers and Sisters--the upbeat, Top 40-type number, "We’re So Good," and the flamenco-flavored "Slide Show." But Elias's engaging renditions of several pop classics steal the show. The Santana/Tito Puente Latin masterpiece, "Oye Como Va," features her sly, new lyrics and her zesty, Fender Rhodes solo. Bob Marley's "Jammin'" is a resyncopated, electro-samba, and Beck's "Tropicalia" swings with Rio-born, soft syncopations. So it's no wonder that this Calle 54-featured, soulful South American can cross over into smooth jazz with ease and integrity. --Eugene Holley Jr.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Keep jazz alive, give this album a listen!, February 6, 2007

By	Pristine Angie at www.d332.com (NYC) - See all my reviews

While Elias is an established musician/ pianist / keyboardist / vocalist / songwriter of a high order, one would be well-advised to casually ignore all the jazz snobs who bleat for Elias to return to playing "real jazz." A pedestrian listener such as myself can even vouch that without experimentation, fusing of different music traditions, and the need to break the bounds of what is considered "real jazz," Louis Armstrong, Bird, Miles, Anthony Braxton, Cecil Taylor would never have happened. The drive in modern day to petrify jazz into a respectable art form has backfired and made jazz stagnant and frighteningly outdated today.

Ironically, what stodgy jazz connoisseurs regale as their iconic figure, Miles Davis, repeatedly broke the rules and courted many different music forms to make the continuum that is the heart of jazz pulse and breathe. Elaine Elias does just this. Those of us who love and listen to the so-called "hip" clubby/lounge music will truly appreciate the sonic adventure within "Around The City." Club music often samples other people's music passages into loops that- though stylish sounding- tends to entropy into banality. One has always wondered how the form could jettison in capable hands of great dexterity. Elias's reading of Bob Marley's "Jammin'" realizes this, with a momentum that sounds like a fluid updated sequel to Mile Davis's Milestone. It's fast, infectious, and reminiscent of the gyroscopic tension that Bebop was remembered for.

The track that is the pearl of the album however, is the stately "Slideshow." How wonderfully it captures what I call that Brazilian "Certain Sadness" that Astrud Gilberto's voice has come to embody. The lyrics are beautiful and the flamenco guitars and handclaps are gorgeous. Just one listen puts me on the cliffside roads leading into that stretch of beach front in Ipanema.

Songs like the Latin tinged rhythm of "Running," "Segredos," and "Oye Como Va," (suddenly sexy-sounding in the absence of Carlos Santana's whiny electric guitar) to a traditional jazz ballad of Buddy Johnson's "Save Your Love For Me" and a pop AOR easy-listening "We're So Good" showcases Elias's range. I hope Elias continues to explore. It's a sheer joy to see and hear that bossa nova can continue to evolve and stay with the times.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not As Bad As the Purists Would Have You Believe, February 9, 2007

By	dwood78 (Long Beach, CA USA) - See all my reviews

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Having own Elias' 2004 LP "Dreamer", I too was surprised at the musical shift on this LP.

However, the question here is not rather or not it fits the narrow-minded view of jazz purists, but is a good LP? Here the answer is yes.

While the title track & "Oye Como Va" may have to grow on me, the rest of the CD is great. Try listening to "Running" or her version of Bob Marley's "Jamming" without moving your head or getting up to dance.
Elaine is also writing more, as she wrote or co-wrote many of the songs on this disc. She's still showing off her chows as a jazz pianist & there's still lots of brazilian jazz/bossa nova present (& even flamenco-favors with "Slide Show").

Bottom line, the purists should go elsewhere if they want nothing but standards, but the rest of us will enjoy this disc.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars She's so much better than this, October 4, 2006

By	gottahaveajava (Berkeley, CA) - See all my reviews

Updated May 8, 2007

Breaking boundaries doesn't by itself automatically equate with true innovation or quality.

The fields of jazz are littered with failed attempts to break boundaries. The reason we don't hear them that often is that they've been buried in the cosmic bit bucket where they belong. After all, when was the last time you heard the Duke Ellington and Count Basie tributes to the Beatles? Or Stan Getz playing "Marrakesh Express." Or, for that matter, Paul McCartney as a symphonist. Indisputably great artists making ill-advised choices in an attempt to widen their audiences, or to be taken more seriously, or whatever.

There's no question that Eliane is breaking out and exploring new avenues on this album. Some of the reviewers have made the dubious claim that because it's different, it's automatically better. They also make the claim that the reason her loyal fans hate it is because they're just old squares who can't keep up with an artist who's outgrowing them.

The thing is, in order for the new stuff to be an improvement, it would actually have to BE better.

Some of the stuff that Eliane sings and plays on this album is just junk, most notably the title cut. Some of the album is quite good.

To separate the good from the bad, you simply have to perform the 'Lester Test.' Look at the liner notes, and wherever you see the name Lester Mendez, that cut's probably bad. Wherever his name is missing, that cut's probably good.

The 'Lester' tunes are all reaching for pop breakthrough, mostly at the expense of those things that make Eliane great. It's as though she checked her own judgment (which is impeccable) at the door for those sessions, and let Lester and the whole star-making pop music machinery run the show. The result is predictable: formulaic, mediocre pop music.

Because she's got such great instincts as a composer and arranger, it's surprising to see her lavish her playing talents and her name to material that's so... lame.

The thing is, Eliane is SO fabulous when she's fabulous that we feel a sense of loss when she's not. That's a terrible burden for her, but part of the price of being so great. In her prior outings, she's put her best assets on hold to explore her vocal avenues, and 'Around the City' merely compounded that, putting her best stuff one level still further back.

Great news, though. We saw her last fall when she appeared in SF at the Great American Music Hall, along with her all-time best sidemen (Marc Johnson, who never left, and especially Satoshi Takeishi, who has been sorely missed).

They proved that she's still got it... Man, oh man, does she ever still have it! She did something that night that we hadn't seen before. She sang, yes, but, for once, instead of obscuring her playing brilliance, she brought all her gifts to bear, played her heart out, and brought down the house!!! Half a year later, we're still totally buzzed by the music that emanated from that spot that night. She can sing all she likes if she does it like that!!!

Eliane is an unbelievably great artist. This particular outing deserves less, but we love her too much for that, so 3 stars on this for a 5-star artist.