Multi-GRAMMY Winner Eliane Elias Returns to Bossa Nova Roots on 'Quietude'

Hot off her 2022 GRAMMY® win for Best Latin Jazz Album for Mirror Mirror internationally celebrated virtuoso pianist, alluring vocalist, composer and arranger Eliane Elias returns to her Brazilian bossa nova roots on her new recording Quietude. Pre-save the album here.

A showcase of Eliane's sensuous Portuguese vocals, Quietude arrives after two brilliant recordings that reveal what an adventurous, multifaceted artist she is. 2019's Love Stories featured soft-focused classic songs and originals mostly sung in English and arranged with full orchestral momentum. In contrast, in 2021 she delivered the masterwork Mirror Mirror, a dazzling wall-to-wall duo instrumental piano excursion with friends Chick Corea and Chucho Valdés.

On Quietude, the piano takes a lower profile with Eliane's intoxicating, intimate singing prevailing often with acoustic guitar support in a swinging bossa nova sensibility. The vocalist-guitarist duo brings the authentic tradition, but in a very personal and expressive way through Eliane's harmonic approach as revealed in these arrangements. "I like to make music that I personally would like to hear. This album makes me feel good, at peace and relaxed and I hope that listeners feel the same," she says.

Eliane enlists three marvelous guitarists for Quietude, including Marcus Teixeira who has been recording with her since her GRAMMY winning 2015 album Made in Brazil. She also includes the guitarist Lula Galvão who's considered to be the current master of Brazilian acoustic guitar. And then there's her longtime colleague, the great guitarist Oscar Castro-Neves, who had passed away in 2013. "He was one of a kind," Eliane says. "I'm glad that I had saved this previously unreleased recording of 'Tim-Tim Por Tim-Tim" and that Oscar's beautiful playing is included in this guitar-centric album."

In many ways, Eliane's embrace of these Brazilian compositions ranging from legends Vinicius de Moraes and Antonio Carlos Jobim to Dorival Caymmi and Roberto Carlos marks an expressive return to home. A child piano prodigy, she broke into the performing world at age 17 by touring with Vinicius de Moraes. She enjoyed a special relationship with Jobim. In her solo career, she dedicated two albums to him, both as vocalist and pianist.

On Quietude Eliane states the material she chose to record owes less to her relationship to the composers and more to her relationship with the songs themselves. She opens the album romantically with a gently swinging take on the Carlos Lyra-Moraes song "Você e Eu" ("You and I"). Another of Eliane's favorites is the melody-rich "Marina," composed by celebrated Brazilian musician Dorival Caymmi. This song is beautifully sung by Eliane accompanied by guitarist Teixeira, drummer Celso de Almeida and bassist/co-producer Marc Johnson.

Eliane delivers a duo setting of Dorival Caymmi's tunes in the track titled "Bahia Medley." Though born in São Paulo, she says she's always had a love affair with Bahia where "some great songwriters came from and where the people are generally more calm, more laid back." The album cover photo was taken in Bahia. Eliane also pays heartfelt homage to the state of northeast Brazil with the song "Bahia Com H," played largely as a vocal-guitar duo with a slight piano embellishment.

Eliane dips into the Jobim songbook with a gorgeous take on his "Só Tinha Que Ser Com Você" ("This Love That I've Found"), a song she fell in love with in her teens and the first single release from Quietude. She closes her version with an authoritative, swinging and succinct piano solo. As a reminder of her technical prowess, she delivers another short but brilliant piano solo on the end of "Brigas, Nunca Mais" ("No More Fighting").

Other highlights include the Eliane-Lula take on the beauty, "Olha" ("Look"); the full band upbeat rollick (complete with vocalese) through "Bolinha de Papel" ("Little Paper Ball") which has cute lyrics about domestic issues; and the declarative love for the Samba "Eu Sambo Mesmo" ("I Really Like Samba").

Quietude ends perfectly with "Saveiros," a duo vocal affair with 79-year-old Brazilian luminary Dori Caymmi (the son of Dorival Caymmi) who co-composed the tune with Nelson Motta about men taking their sail boats out to sea. Eliane explains: "I can visualize this beautiful lyric about sailboats that set out to sea before sunrise, hoping that the winds will allow them to return home at sunset. With each boat that appears on the horizon there's a song of joy for having once again conquered the sea."

With her intoxicating vocals on this vibrant bossa nova journey, Eliane has masterfully told these calming musical stories to her listeners. Her artistry demonstrates that alongside her many accolades as a brilliant pianist, Eliane can also wear the crown as the reigning queen of the bossa nova.

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