Eliane Elias slows things right down on new album Light My Fire, delivering a remarkably sensuous sounding record that draws within its reach bossa nova, the jazz traditions which Elias has played all her career, and her belief in the power of intuitive improvisation. Interview; Peter Quinn.

It’s not just slow. It’s breathtakingly slow. There’s a syncopated, two-chord vamp in the piano. While the bassist marks each chord change on the beat, the drummer’s brushes subtly reinforce the pianist’s syncopation. Emerging out of this three-part texture are the sustained single notes of an overdriven guitar. Bathed in a luxuriant reverb, the overall effect is the musical equivalent of a heat haze. You almost expect to see your speakers glowing like hot coals. Then, after what is only in fact an eight-bar introduction, yet feels like time itself has been suspended – and deliciously phrased behind the beat – the ice cool vocal kicks in. “You knowww that it would beee untrue...”

You could argue until hell freezes over about whether it’s possible for a cover version to improve on the original. To argue whether a cover version can be sexier than the original, on the other hand, is a different matter entirely. You’d actually need just a single piece of evidence to win your case hands down: the title track of Light My Fire, the new album from the Sao Paolo-born, New York-based pianist, vocalist and composer Eliane Elias.

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