I heard this trio in 2012 when they were augmented by guitarist Rubens de La Corte for Elias’s aptly titled and ecstatically received Light My Fire quartet date at the Ystad Sweden Jazz Festival. As this fabulous evening at Ronnie’s showed, time has done nothing to diminish the interactive potency and overall appeal of leader Elias (p, v), husband Marc Johnson (b) and drummer Rafael Barata.
Over the years, I’ve caught some cracking gigs at Ronnie’s. These have included, e.g., George Adams and Don Pullen, Monty Alexander, Richard Bona, Betty Carter, Elvin Jones, Manu Katché, Art Pepper, Sonny Rollins, Omar Sosa and John Surman. Elias’s sparkling early evening set (the first of two in this all-too-brief stop-over in London) was right up there with the best of these: 70 minutes of heart-warming, absolutely irresistible jazz-sprung Latin melody and mood, which deservedly drew a concluding standing ovation from the full house.
Opening with Little Paper Doll – featured on her recent Quietude release (reviewed 04/01/23) – Elias explained that the set would be devoted to bossa-nova items. Long acknowledged as a prime interpreter of the oeuvre of Antonio Carlos Jobim (hear her Plays Jobim and Sings Jobim albums of the 1990s) the young pianist shared early stages with the Brazilian master and clearly retains a deep affection for his work. A consummate, most engaging performer, Elias managed the minor miracle of getting the house to contribute the “aahs” to The Girl From Ipanema with scarcely a smidgeon of cheese infecting the proceedings.
I first heard Elias live back in the days when she was part of the New York fusion scene, enjoying her contributions to a mid-1980s London gig with Steps Ahead. Since than I’ve been consistently impressed by her ability to dig back into her Brazilian roots while refreshing them with a most literate and intelligent admixture of jazz feeling, form and phrasing.
As those can attest who know the two ECM albums Shades Of Jade and Swept Away (2005 and 2012) which she cut with, a.o., Marc Johnson – who led the Jade session and co-led Away – Elias is blessed with a most telling poetic capacity for melody, realised with diversified harmonic, rhythmic and dynamic sensibility. And her command of touch and time can often evince the most pleasing ability to move seamlessly from passages of suspended rubato reflection to moments of blues-fed magic, as subtle as they may be slinky.
And so it was here. With Elias’s sensuous vocals as compelling as her adroit pianism and Johnson (pizzicato throughout) and Barata deep in the pocket, the Grammy-winning leader showed just why it is that to date she has played in some 79 countries (!) and received no fewer than 13 Grammy nominations, the latest for her recent Candid release Time And Again.
The well-paced programme was wide and deep, refreshing the Sinatra chestnut Come Fly With Me as well as digging into “after the carnival” material inspired by Luiz Bonfá’s Black Orpheus. Best of all was the concluding Desafinado. The 1959 classic was given a tremendous reading where the trio delivered some thrilling uptempo passages in straight jazz time and Barata – throughout the set as delicate and entrancing with brushes and bare hands as he was potent with sticks – built up and sustained an extensive solo of multivalent, even roasting and savage power.
Eliane Elias Trio at Ronnie Scott’s, London, 27 March 2025
