Eliane Elias’s Quietude Review Roundup

eliane-elias-quietude-2-connect-brazil — Quietude by Eliane Elias Review Roundup. (Photo courtesy of Eliane Elias, Facebook.

Grammy and Latin Grammy Wins Help To Announce The Arrival of Quietude

Eliane Elias’s Quietude review roundup. What are top music reviewers saying about Elias’s voice and guitar album?

2022 is an impressive year for Brazilian music. If it shows us anything it’s that superlatives have a hard time keeping up with Eliane Elias. The Sao Paulo-born vocalist and pianist is a natural at creating her own musical momentum.

Elias was one of the first to resume live performances, post-COVID. Fans returned to hear her songs and stories from her piano duets album, Mirror Mirror.

Released in September 2021, it placed Elias in a unique position. Playing side by side with a pair of piano masters, Chick Corea and Chucho Valdés. April arrived with a 2022 Grammy award for Mirror Mirror as ‘Best Latin Jazz Album. By the time summer peaked, the buzz was heating up on a Latin Grammy nomination. It was awarded to her last month.

Our review roundup of Eliane Elias’s Quietude includes her medley of ‘Saudade da Bahia / Você Já Foi á Bahia’, highly rated by Brazilian jazz fans on our streaming network at AccuRadio. Oba!

Quietude

Nestled into this timeline is the October arrival of Eliane Elias’s Quietude. Back then, we wrote:

Quietude’s character begins to show itself with ‘Marina’. It opens with a musical setting that seems rare among Eliane Elias’s recordings: Voice and guitar. That’s the framework for Quietude and the effect is mesmerizing.

It’s as if she were singing to you in your living room.

‘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.

Her desire to keep Quietude’s concept fresh and inventive led Elias to record with a trio of Brazilian guitar masters. Marcus Teixeira, Lula Galvão, and longtime friend Oscar Castro-Neves add to the album’s acoustic presence.

Fans are responding, by helping Quietude to #1 on Billboard’s Traditional Jazz Chart and #1 on iTunes Latin & Jazz Charts. Quietude has also reached the top spot on Amazon’s Jazz, Latin, and Brazilian Best Sellers list.

Here are snapshots of what several music reviewers are saying about Eliane Elias’s Quietude. Enjoy!

Scott Adams,

Connect Brazil

Read Quotes From Eliane Elias’s Quietude Review Roundup

Marc Myers | Wall Street Journal

“Beachy Bossa Nova. This new album recaptures the intimacy and authenticity of the genre popularized by Brazil’s sensualists.”

…Eliane Elias continues the tradition with the release of Quietude… which rivals the collaborative beauty and poetic minimalism of the iconic 1964 LP Getz/Gilberto. Ms. Elias has recorded bossa nova albums in the past, but this one is the first designed to recapture the intimacy and authenticity of Rio’s original beach music.

The album’s spare instrumentation places the emphasis on Ms. Elias’s seductive singing voice and the accompanying guitars. Her deep, warm tone imbues songs with a hushed yearning and traces of nostalgia.

Tap or click the link to read the complete review at The Wall Street Journal paywall.

Matt Collar | AllMusic

‘Eliane Elias crafts a sumptuously intimate showcase for her Portuguese vocals and bossa nova jazz balladry.’

Quietude intentionally spotlights her voice, pairing the Brazilian-born performer with several of her closest guitar friends on a handful of her favorite songs from her homeland.

Much of the album focuses on duets, including a hushed reading of Dorival Caymmi’s ‘Marina’ [with guitarist Marcos Texeira]. Other songs, like her lyrical take on Antonio Carlos Jobim’s ‘Só Tinha Que Ser Com Você’ benefit from her lush small group sound.

We also get a spritely take on Haroldo Barbosa and Geraldo Jacques’ bossa nova ‘Tim-Tim Por Tim-Tim’ which Elias recorded with the late Brazilian guitar legend Oscar Castro-Neves prior to his 2013 passing and which she hadn’t released until now. Equally compelling is her affectionate album-ending duet with 79-year-old singer Dori Caymmi on his father and Nelson Motta’s poetic sailing ballad ‘Saveiros.’

Tap or click the link to read the complete review at AllMusic.

Edward Blanco | AllAboutJazz

‘Brazilian-born pianist/vocalist and multi-Grammy-winning artist Eliane Elias returns to her musical roots on Quietude, her 31st album as a leader.’

The album could not have been released at a more appropriate time for those aficionados of the genre, as 2022 marks the 60th anniversary of the Brazilian-tinged ‘Jazz Samba’ (Verve Records, 1962) classic from Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd. While not a homage to that recording, the vocalist’s own contribution to the popular Brazilian sound is quite obvious and immensely important.

In order to maintain the light texture throughout the recording, Elias took the opportunity to purposely record with friends Oscar Castro-Neves, Marcus Teixeira, and Lula Galvao, three masters of the guitar. The intimate duet with Teixeira on ‘Eu Sambo Mesmo (I really Samba) is only one of the many gentle voices found on this album. All is not so quiet though. ‘Bolinha de Papel’ (Little Paper Ball) features the singer and band on one of a few of the fast-tempo pieces of the set.

The quiet sounds of the quiet Brazilian genre are gracefully documented on Quietude, and Elaine Elias’s alluring vocals serve as the perfect vehicle to convey the feelings of love, emotion and excitement captured quite elegantly here.

Tap or click the link to read the complete review at AllAboutJazz.

Tiny Desk! Eliane Elias visits NPR on December 9th with guitarist Leandro Pellegrino, bassist Marc Johnson, and Rafael Barata’s drums and percussion. Here’s the setlist: ‘At First Sight’, ‘An Up Dawn’, and ‘The Time is Now’. Enjoy!

Read more quotes From Eliane Elias’s Quietude Review Roundup

Will Freidwald | New York Sun

‘Let Eliane Elias bring you a sense of calm.’

Quietude, the new album by the Sao Paulo-born pianist, singer, and bandleader, elicits thoughts of a beautiful day at the beach.

Quietude arrives at a kind of a Moment of Referendum for Pan-American jazz piano: Her previous album, Mirror Mirror [with Chucho Valdez and Chick Corea] won the Grammy for Latin Jazz earlier this year. All three pianists are still very much on our minds, Senor Valdez not least because he just played a triumphant concert at Jazz at Lincoln Center last week, and Corea, because he passed away not long after recording his four duets with Ms. Elias; the world entire continues to mourn his considerable loss.

As Ms. Elias explained on Saturday at the Iridium, the two current albums of the pandemic moment represent two different facets of her talent. Mirror Mirror was exclusively piano, while Quietude stresses her singing. The contrast between the two is notable: as a pianist, Ms. Elias’s technical chops are on full display, and she can do the full-on Bud Powell pure bebop thing, playing as many notes and chords as possible in the fastest tempo imaginable.

Tap or click the link to read the complete review in the New York Sun.

“Like a tasty bowl of feijoada (Brazil’s national stew dish), the “comfort food” that is Quietude will transport you to the beautiful calm that is Bahia.” – WBGO Radio

“From start to finish, Eliane Elias has produced another masterfully crafted album with Quietude that will have you hitting the reset button over and over again” – Luxury Experience Magazine

George W. Harris | Jazz Weekly

‘Eliane Elias has quietly become not only one of the most adroit pianists in jazz but has now entered the top tier of Brazilian vocalists.’

Her voice, tall, tan, and lovely is alluringly soft and understated, making Astrud Gilberto sound stiff in comparison. Accompanying herself in a sensitive fashion on piano, Elias mixes and matches with guitarists (Marcus Teixeira-Lula Galvao-Oscar Castro-Neves), drummers (Celso de Almeida-Paulo Braga) and percussionists (Emilio Martins-Celso de Almeida) while keeping hubby Marc Johnson at the bass throughout.

The legendary Dori Caymmi joins in for a floating take of his own ‘Saveiros’ while his dad’s ‘Marina’ is a gentle affair of Elias looking good in nylons supplied by Teixeira. The warmth of pieces such as the joyful ‘Bolinha de Papel’, the relaxed ‘Olha’, and piano pulsed ‘So Tinha Que Ser Com Voce’ glow like a Brazilian sunset, while Elias sounds convincingly longing on a ‘Bahia’ medley and takes the tender cadence of ‘Bahia Com H’ on a journey like a leaf floating off of a tree. This is music for heart, mind, and soul.

Tap or click the link to read the complete review at Jazz Weekly.

Staff | Virginia Living

“Not only does Elias excel at the piano (her improv is sensational), but she sings like she’s dancing—bossa nova all the way.”

Many of the tracks take the form of a duet, showing off her delicate touch. Following her Grammy-winning release with Chick Corea, Elias continues to show the music of Brazil with flair.

Tap or click the link to read the complete review at Virginia Living.