Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County presents
Jobim and the Music of Brazil
With Eliane Eilias, Anat Cohen, Trio da Paz and Shelly Berg and the Frost School of Music's Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra
In the 1960s, Antonio Carlos “Tom” Jobim brought the bossa nova craze to the United States, and this infectious and sensuous sound soon became beloved throughout the world. We celebrate Jobim’s centennial and the jazz genres of Brazil—including bossa nova, samba and choro—with the Frost School of Music’s Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra, Grammy Award-winning vocalist and pianist Elaine Elias, clarinetist Anat Cohen, Brazilian jazz group Trio da Paz and Grammy-nominated pianist Shelly Berg.
Program
Act 1
Jobim Medley
Lembra de Mim
Chovendo de Roasaria
A Felicidade
Agua de Beber
Fotografia
Desafinado
Luiza
At First Sight
Um a Zero
—Intermission—
Act 2
Seite Aneis
L'impossible
Baden
Bachião
One Note Samba
An Up Dawn
Waters of March
Ipanema/So Danco Samba
About the Artists
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Eliane Elias
Piano, vocals
Artist Bio
Eliane Elias
Eliane Elias
Born in Brazil, Eliane Elias revealed her musical talents at an early age. She began studying piano at 7 years old and at 12 was transcribing solos from jazz greats. By the time she was 15, she was teaching piano and improvisation at one of Brazil’s most prestigious schools of music. Elias' performing career began in Brazil at age 17, when she started working with Brazilian singer-songwriter Toquinho and poet Vinicius de Moraes, who was Antonio Carlos Jobim’s co-writer and lyricist. In 1981, Elias headed for New York and landed a spot the following year in the acclaimed group Steps Ahead. She released her first solo album, a collaboration with Randy Brecker titled Amanda, in 1984. Two years later, she signed to Blue Note Records.
Elias has sold 2.5 million albums and has a strong presence on Spotify, with almost 500 million streams and over 33 million listens of her song “Little Paradise.” She has toured 77 countries, is a four-time Gold Disc Award recipient, is a three-time Best Vocal Album winner in Japan and is winner of the 2018 Edison Lifetime Achievement Award in Holland. Her 2019 and 2021 albums (Love Stories and Mirror Mirror) were both voted Downbeat’s Best Album of the Year – Masterpiece. Elias has received 11 Grammy and Latin Grammy nominations in five categories. She has won two Grammys and two Latin Grammys Award.
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Anat Cohen
Clarinet, saxophone
Artist Bio
Anat Cohen
Anat Cohen
Clarinetist and saxophonist Anat Cohen has won hearts and minds around the globe with her expressive virtuosity and magnetic stage presence, earning esteem as a musician’s musician and as a performer who charms new recruits to jazz like few others. With her acclaimed albums, sold-out world tours and Grammy Award nominations adding up over the past 2 1/2 decades—not to mention the glowing profiles on NPR’s Fresh Air and in The New York Times—it has become apparent that the Brooklyn-based Cohen has evolved into one of jazz's great leaders. At the core of this is her jubilant, exploratory musicmaking as a soloist, bandleader, collaborator and composer.
Revered journalist Nat Hentoff encapsulated her artistry this way: “Anat does what all authentic musicians do: She tells stories from her own experiences that are so deeply felt that they are very likely to connect listeners to their own dreams, desires and longings.”
Bloom, Anat’s 21st album as a leader or co-leader and the second with her small group Quartetinho, was issued to rave reviews and a hit trans-Atlantic tour in 2024, with All About Jazz applauding the band’s “daring virtuosity and soulful joie de vivre.” Hot on the heels of that release came the live album Interaction, issued by Cohen's label, Anzic Records. Interaction presents the clarinetist as part of The 3 Cohens, the long-running family band that also stars her brothers, trumpeter Avishai and saxophonist Yuval (both ECM artists). They were recorded in concert with Germany’s WDR Big Band, an ensemble renowned for its collaborative flair.
Cohen's multiple Grammy Award nominations include one for 2019’s Triple Helix, the second album by her Tentet. Cohen has been credited with reestablishing the clarinet as a solo instrument in the 21st century, “bringing the clarinet to the world,” as Fresh Air put it. She has been named Clarinetist of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association every year since 2007, and she has been the top clarinetist in the readers and critics polls in DownBeat every year since 2011. Moreover, a JazzTimes review of a Quartetinho set at Seattle’s Earshot Festival underscored Cohen's continuing development as a player: “She has been winning jazz polls on clarinet for years, but her work has steadily grown stronger and deeper and freer.”
Since 2005, Cohen's prolific series of releases via Anzic have seen her range from infectious swing tunes to lilting ballads, from small groups to larger ensembles and back again, all the while exploring a world of music. Cohen fell for the choro music of Brazil while studying at the Berklee College of Music, and the country eventually became a home away from home for her. Many of her albums as a leader include Brazilian classics and pieces Cohen composed under the influence of choro, samba, bossa nova and more. The clarinetist has also devoted multiple albums completely to Brazilian music, including the Grammy-nominated Outra Coisa: The Music of Moacir Santos (with Brazilian guitarist Marcello Gonçalves) and Grammy-nominated Rosa Dos Ventos (with Trio Brasileiro).
A natural educator, Cohen teaches at the Stanford University Jazz Workshop in California and The New School in Manhattan, among other institutions, and she has been Jazz Artist-in-Residence at Columbia University’s Zuckerman Institute.
— Bradley Bambarger
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Trio da Paz
Guitar, bass, drums
Artist Bio
Trio da Paz
Trio da Paz
Featuring three of Brazil's most in-demand musicians, Trio da Paz update the infectious spirit of jazz-oriented Brazilian music. Formed in 1985 by Romero Lubambo, Nilson Matta and Duduka Da Fonseca, the Trio redefine Brazilian jazz with harmonically adventurous interactions, daring improvisations and dazzling rhythms. All three members are masters of jazz and Brazilian music with impressive résumés. The list of legendary musicians the members of Trio da Paz have recorded and performed with is extensive. Guitarist Lubambo has worked with Dianne Reeves, Michael Brecker, Grover Washington Jr., and Kathleen Battle. Bassist Matta has collaborated with Joe Henderson, Don Pullen, Yo-Yo Ma and Paul Winter. Drummer Duduka Da Fonseca has played with Antonio Carlos Jobim, Astrud Gilberto, John Scofield and Tom Harrell.
Trio da Paz as a group have recorded and performed with Charlie Byrd, Herbie Mann, Lee Konitz, Kenny Barron, Nana Vasconcelos, Joe Lovano, Dori Caymmi and Joyce Moreno, among others. The Trio's critically acclaimed, multifaceted debut recording, Brasil From the Inside, with special guests Herbie Mann, Claudio Roditi, Joanne Brackeen and Maucha Adnet, received the Indie award for best album of the year. Trio da Paz followed that success with a daring and ambitious concept album, an exploration of well-known themes from Black Orpheus, the soundtrack that set Brazilian music on a new course.
Their third release, Partido Out, is a riveting mix of spirited original compositions that embrace a spectrum of rhythms, fusing jazz and Brazilian music in a fresh and inspiring way. The album won the Jazz Journalist Association's award in 2022 for Brazilian jazz album of the year. The Trio followed that album with Café, which includes special performances by Cesar Camargo Mariano and Grammy Award winners Dianne Reeves and Joe Lovano. Their next album, Somewhere, treats American and Brazilian standards to exciting and often unexpected interpretations. Live at Jazzbaltica features Trio da Paz with guest Joe Locke, and is a vibrant performance that includes several originals. Trio da Paz 30, released in 2016, celebrates their three decades as a group.
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Shelly Berg
Piano
Artist Bio
Shelly Berg
Shelly Berg
Shelly Berg is a Steinway piano artist and five-time Grammy-nominated arranger, orchestrator and producer. His most recent album, Alegría, was recorded with bassist Carlitos Del Puerto and Dafnis Prieto and released July 2024 on ArtistShare. It is described as “buoyant joy” by JazzViews.net and “an instant jazz piano trio classic” by Modern Drummer. Berg’s original song “At Last” was nominated for a 2025 Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition.
An award-winning educator with over 40 years of leadership in higher education, Berg earlier this year retired from his role as dean and Patricia L. Frost professor of music at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami. He has appeared as a performer and lecturer throughout the United States as well as in Canada, China, Mexico, Europe, Israel, Japan, Romania and Venezuela.
Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra
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