Born on the 19th March 1960 in São Paulo, Brazil, Elias started learning to play the piano at the age of seven, and was transcribing solo portions of her parents’ jazz records by the age of twelve.
After studying for six years (and teaching by the age of fifteen) at Brazil’s prestigious Free Centre of Music Apprenticeship, she continued her classical education with Amilton Godoy and Amaral Vieria. She was also the protégé of Vinicius de Moraes, lyricist and songwriting partner of Antonio Carlos Jobim, a huge influence on Elias' work, and master of the Brazilian bossa nova movement. By the time she was seventeen years old she was touring with the best bossa nova composers and interpreters, composing her own pieces and performing at jazz clubs regularly.
Elias then moved to New York and studied privately with Olegna Fuschi at the Julliard School of Music, eventually joining jazz supergroup Steps Ahead (whose members included Eddie Gomez, Michael Brecker, Peter Erskine, and Mike Mainieri).
Her first live instrumental recording, Eliane Elias Plays Live, was recorded in Amsterdam on the 31st May 2002, and digitally released in the USA in 2010.
Elias lives in New York City with her husband, bassist Marc Johnson.
* Official site
The classical tradition meets the spontaneity of jazz through the virtuosic playing of Brazil-born and New York-based pianist Eliane Elias. A former member of jazz ensemble Steps Ahead, Elias has continued to explore two distinct musical streams through her solo recordings and her performances since the mid-'80s. In 1993, she became one of the few artists to release jazz and classical albums simultaneously. In a review of a concert in her homeland, Brazil magazine praised Elias for "her dazzling right-hand runs, executed often at frightening speeds. Her command of the keyboard was total. Her harmonic sensibility caused a sense of wonderment."
Elias may have inherited at least some of her musical talents from her mother, Lucy, a classical pianist who often played jazz records in the family home. After studying for six years at the Free Center of Music Apprenticeship in São Paulo, she continued to study classical technique with Amilton Godoy and Amaral Vieira. By her teens, Elias was composing her own pieces and performing in jazz clubs. While touring in Europe in 1981, she met jazz bassist Eddie Gomez and was encouraged to travel to New York. Arriving in the Big Apple the following year, she studied privately with Olegna Fuschi at the Juilliard School of Music. Elias' professional career received a boost when she was invited to join Steps Ahead, a jazz "supergroup" featuring Michael Brecker, Peter Erskine, Mike Manieri, and Eddie Gomez. She recorded one album with the group -- Steps Ahead -- in 1983. Shortly after leaving Steps Ahead, Elias began collaborating with trumpet player Randy Brecker, whom she subsequently married but later divorced. Their sole duo album, released in 1985, was named after their daughter Amanda. The following year, Elias launched her career as a bandleader. Since then, she's alternated tours with two different trios, one featuring drummer Jack DeJohnette and bassist Gomez and the other featuring drummer Erskine and her current husband, bassist Marc Johnson. Elias has also performed with a third trio, featuring Johnson on bass and Satoshi Takeishi on drums.
She signed with Blue Note in 1989, and released her debut for the label, So Far So Close, the same year with a slew of guests. While most of her recordings have been instrumental, Elias introduced her soft but coarse vocals on her 1990 album Eliane Elias Plays Jobim, and has employed vocals on occasion ever since. Her 1995 album Solos and Duets featured a brilliantly executed duet with Herbie Hancock. In addition to working periodically with Toots Thielemans' Brasil Project, Elias has served as musical director for Gilberto Gil's group. While she continued to record for the rest of the '90s, it was 2000's Impulsive! that proved one of the largest surprises in her career as she collaborated with conductor and arranger Bob Brookmeyer leading the Danish Radio Jazz Orchestra. In 2002 she left Blue Note for RCA's Bluebird label, where she debuted with Kissed by Nature, a primarily vocal album, and followed it up with the lovely Dreamer in 2004. Elias released Around the City in 2006, a collection of primarily vocal tracks that moved ever further into pop territory, covering music by Santana, Bob Marley, and even Beck. It was her final album for Bluebird.
She returned to Blue Note for 2007's Something for You: Elaine Elias Sings & Plays Bill Evans, fronting a trio with Johnson (who played with Evans) and drummer Joey Baron. In 2009, she issued what many have argued is her finest recording, Bossa Nova Stories, fully engaging her Brazilian heritage in bossa and samba and illustrating her singular jazz instincts as a pianist. In 2010, Savoy Records issued Timeless Eliane Elias, a compilation of tracks culled from her mid-'80s recordings Illusions and Cross Currents. In late 2010, Elias signed with Concord; in the late spring of 2011 she released Light My Fire, her debut set on the label. A year later, Elias paired with bassist Marc Johnson for the instrumental ECM date, Swept Away. In 2013, Elias paid homage to trumpeter/vocalist Chet Baker with I Thought About You: A Tribute to Chet Baker. ~ Craig Harris & Thom Jurek, Rovi
Desafinado
Eliane Elias Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Saiba que isto em mim provoca imensa dor
Só privilegiados têm ouvido igual ao seu
Eu possuo apenas o que Deus me deu
Se você insiste em classificar
Meu comportamento de antimusical
Eu, mesmo mentindo devo argumentar
Que isto é bossa nova
O que você não sabe, nem sequer pressente
É que os desafinados também têm um coração
Fotografei você na minha Rolleiflex
Revelou-se a sua enorme ingratidão
Só não poderá falar assim do meu amor
Este é o maior que você pode encontrar, viu
Você com a sua música esqueceu o principal
Que no peito dos desafinados
No fundo do peito bate calado
Que no peito dos desafinados
Também bate um coração
(Antonio Jobim)
(This song is from Tony Jobim a famous brazilian singer)
I've got two English translations of Desafinado:
Translation 1:
Ella Fitzgerald's version of Desafinado:
Love is like a never-ending melody
Always have compared it to a symphony
A symphony conducted by the lighting of the moon
But our song of love is slightly out of tune
Once your kisses raised me to a fever pitch
Now the orchestration doesn't seem so rich
Seems to me you've changed the tune we used to sing
Like the bossa nova, love should swing
We used to harmonize, two souls in perfect time
Now the song is different and the words don't even rhyme
Cause you forgot the melody our hearts would always croon
So what good's a heart that's slightly out of tune
Tune your heart to mine the way it used to be
Join with me in harmony and sing a song of loving
We've got to get in tune again before too long
There'll be no desafinado
When your heart belongs to me completely
Then you won't be slightly out of tune
You'll sing along with me
> (Very jazzy, swingy, and upbeat version)
Translation 2:
Desafinado
If you say my singing is off key, my love
You would hurt my feelings, don't you see, my love
I wish I had an ear like yours, a voice that would behave
All I have is feeling and the voice God gave
You insist my music goes against the rules
Yes, but rules were never made for lovesick fools
I wrote this song for you don't care
It's a crooked song, ah, but my heart is there
The thing that you would see if you would play the part
Is even if I'm out of tume I have a gentle heart
I took your picture with my trusty Rolleiflex
And now all I have developed is complex
Possibly in vain, I hope you weaken, oh my love
And forget those rigid rules that undermine my dream of
A life of love and music with someone who'll understand
That even though I may be out of tune when I attempt to say
How much I love you all that matters is the message that I bring,
Which is, my dear, I love you
The song Desafinado by Eliane Elias is a cover of the original by Antonio Carlos Jobin and is a Brazilian Bossa Nova classic. The lyrics explore the theme of insecurity in love and music, where the singer pleas with their lover to accept their imperfect voice and personal style. The first verse opens with the singer asking their lover not to judge them too harshly for "singing off-key" as it causes them immense pain. They further claim that their musical ability is innate and limited by what God has bestowed upon them. The singer recognizes that their music might not be conventionally appealing, but argues that it is natural and that it is possible to have a bossa nova style of music that may sound imperfect.
The second verse sees the singer explaining that the out-of-tune voice does not mean they lack a heart or emotions. They remind their lover that they have a gentle heart and can love passionately, even if their music is not perfectly in tune. They express that they hope their lover understands that life and love are not always about rigid rules or perfect timing, and that they can still be happy together despite their faults. The song's general theme is that love is not about perfection, and even seemingly flawed or out-of-tune people can have meaningful and rewarding experiences.
Line by Line Meaning
Se você disser que eu desafino amor
If you say that I sing off key, my love
Saiba que isto em mim provoca imensa dor
Know that it causes me immense pain
Só privilegiados têm ouvido igual ao seu
Only the privileged have an ear as sensitive as yours
Eu possuo apenas o que Deus me deu
I only possess what God has given me
Se você insiste em classificar
If you insist on classifying
Meu comportamento de antimusical
My behavior as unmusical
Eu, mesmo mentindo devo argumentar
I, even if lying, must argue
Que isto é bossa nova
That this is bossa nova
Que isto é muito natural
That this is very natural
O que você não sabe, nem sequer pressente
What you don't know, and can't even guess
É que os desafinados também têm um coração
Is that the tone-deaf also have a heart
Fotografei você na minha Rolleiflex
I photographed you with my Rolleiflex
Revelou-se a sua enorme ingratidão
Your enormous ingratitude was revealed
Só não poderá falar assim do meu amor
You won't be able to speak that way about my love
Este é o maior que você pode encontrar, viu
This is the biggest love you'll find, you know
Você com a sua música esqueceu o principal
You, with your music, forgot the main thing
Que no peito dos desafinados
That in the hearts of the tone-deaf
No fundo do peito bate calado
Deep within, it beats silently
Que no peito dos desafinados
That in the hearts of the tone-deaf
Também bate um coração
There also beats a heart
Writer(s): Antonio Carlos Jobim, Jon Hendricks, Newton Mendonca, Jessie Cavanaugh
Contributed by Adrian G. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
@deldaribehappy4613
Hermoso !
DESAFINADO, TOM JOBIM
Se você disser que eu desafino amor
Saiba que isto em mim provoca imensa dor
Só privilegiados têm o ouvido igual ao seu
Eu possuo apenas o que Deus me deu
Se você insiste em classificar
Meu comportamento de anti-musical
Eu mesmo mentindo devo argumentar
Que isto é Bossa Nova, isto é muito natural
O que você não sabe nem sequer pressente
É que os desafinados também têm um coração
Fotografei você na minha Rolley-Flex
Revelou-se a sua enorme ingratidão
Só não poderá falar assim do meu amor
Este é o maior que você pode encontrar
Você com a sua música esqueceu o principal
Que no peito dos desafinados
No fundo do peito bate calado
Que no peito dos desafinados também bate um coração
@marcoresende9059
TOM, ELIANE & MARC .........talentos puro, sofisticado e afinadissimo.......maravilha de interpretação!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Congrats!!!
@patapierna1
¿Y Rafael Barata?
@luislara-ol2ux
Brasil,Brasil...Qué música, qué deleite para el oído y para el alma.Abrazos desde el Perú.
@marisabelanzola3703
Confieso que de toda mi vida el Bossa Nova es y será siempre mi estilo preferido y aún más con estos músicos de alta factura
Ella es magistral con el Bossa y acompañada de Marc, más todavía.
Siempre digo como alguien que me antecede, las nuevas generaciones de músicos lo mantengan y le den su verdadero valor..
Jobim y todos sus aseedores,nunca deben ser olvidados...
@rezabadei3229
This interpretation of Maestro Jobim and transitions with each solo and then combinations together are absolutely fabulous, Wow! Brazilians are such awesome musicians. It's in their blood! Bravo ❤👏👏👏🙏
@rodolfoinguscio
The Queen of the jazz and samba bossanova
Beautiful
@mimibazela1025
Her husband played with Bill Evans. His talent shines through on all of Eliane's songs. Pretty magical pairing. Saw them at Monterey a couple years ago and the sound system for her show was the worst I've ever experienced at that great event. She handled it like a pro and her set was still outstanding.
@saschausher8219
Бразильское музыкальное чудо !!!
@GraciasLuigi
Técnica, talento, corazón en estos 3 maestros sumado a esta joya del MAESTRO Jobim... una genialidad👏👏👏👏
@ReinaldoGodinho
Eliane Elias... Piano e Voz, bom gosto musical, Brasileira, orgulha-me.