Eliane Elias - I Thought About You: A Tribute to Chet Baker

Pianist and vocalist Eliane Elias pays tribute to legendary jazz trumpeter/vocalist Chet Baker on her 2013 album I Thought About You.

Featuring a selection of standards strongly associated with Baker, Elias mixes her native Brazilian bossa nova with swing, straight-ahead jazz, and even a few bluesy flourishes with much aplomb. Joining Elias are guitarists Steve Cardenas and Oscar Castro-Neves, bassist Marc Johnson, drummers Victor Lewis and Rafael Barata, and percussionist Marivaldo Dos Santos.

Also adding more than a few moments of deft and thoughtful improvisation is Elias' husband, trumpeter Randy Brecker. As Baker grew up listening to the music of the '30s and '40s, many of his own choices for songs to play were informed by the great songbook of those decades.

Baker also had a natural inclination toward a pretty melody and romantic lyric and he never failed to pick great songs to perform. Subsequently, Baker's recordings showcase a superb batch of tunes to pick from. Elias, who has also leaned toward playing melodic, often romantic music, is a perfect conduit for reinterpreting Baker's music.

Here she plays such songs as "There Will Never Be Another You," "Let's Get Lost," "Just Friends," "Embraceable You," "I Get Along Without You Very Well."

~ Matt Collar, Rovi