In the music of jazz artist Eliane Elias, someone or something always sings

Brazilian-born Eliane Elias was already a world-renowned jazz artist when, in 2004, she took a creative leap that almost immediately — and positively — altered her career trajectory.

Long praised for her piano prowess and the inventive blend of traditional jazz with Afro-Latin rhythms that color her compositions and arrangements, Elias was encouraged by her then-record company, RCA/Bluebird, to try singing while she played. She had a mesmerizing speaking voice, they told her, and surely untapped power in her singing voice. Elias was doubtful. “I’m not a singer,” she said. “I’m not going to do this.”

But the label’s A&R representative was unpersuaded, even describing her as “The Brazilian Sade,” and soon she relented. The rep even suggested Elias tie her left hand to the piano bench and play only with her right hand. Simple accompaniments, nothing more. Doing so, he reasoned, would allow her vocals to shine through. They could add strings and any other musical elements later on. That’s how her breakthrough album “Dreamer” was born.

Then she sang in concerts to promote the album. People took notice, sales increased, awards and accolades mounted. Many more albums and countless performances followed at some of the world’s most vaunted venues, including Symphony Center. On her latest visit here, an SCP Jazz concert on May 9, she’ll play with her trio: husband Marc Johnson on bass, Leandro Pellegrino on guitar and Rafael Barata on drums. (Celebrated Colombian-born harpist Edmar Castañeda is on the bill as well, performing from his album “Family.”)

Now, 21 years and two Grammys later, it’s hard to imagine that Elias’ voice was once virtually silent onstage — talking only sparingly, never singing. It’s especially unimaginable when you read reviews such as this five-star DownBeat assessment of her 2019 album “Love Stories”: “Elias’ intoxicating vocals emote the ambient calm of a forest after a soft rain; her vibrancy is a force unto itself. With powerful artistry, her naturally prodigious talent is even stronger as the years pass — a feat capable only by the true elites of the music world.”

With a schedule that’s booked through the end of 2025, Elias has little down time between touring and recording. But she’s used to the grind. And she tries to take advantage of limited quiet moments, when both her mind and soul are at ease, to compose. Her most recent studio album, “Time and Again,” garnered typical raves when it came out in mid-2024. "Whether one is a fan of the Brazilian genre or not, Elias’ ’Time and Again’ is without question one of the most pleasurable and enticing vocal jazz albums one will encounter without regret,” Edward Blanco wrote in site All About Jazz.

“Today, my presentation has expanded to a place that I had not imagined,” Elias said two days after a triumphant 10-show stint at New York’s iconic Birdland Jazz Club. Before that, she toured Poland and played six concerts in London. “It is much more complete,“ she said. ”And I engage the audience in a very different way than I did when I was in my 20s or 30s or even early 40s, when I would greet them and tell them the title of a song and just play.”

Things were contentious at first. “My piano was very jealous,” she said, oked. “Because my piano always carried the melody, the song, the delivery. Then it had to accompany my voice.” (They’ve since made peace.) In doing both at once, she said, “My brain is split into three people. Because my left side maintains the rhythm, my right side does the interjections, and the center is my voice delivering the melody.”

Elias still dazzles on the keyboard, but there’s something about the human voice, she said, that conveys vulnerability and raw emotion like no other instrument can. Not surprisingly, even her playing is vocal-ish because she treats the piano like a stringed instrument (think cello or violin) as well as a percussion one. Which makes perfect sense in that stringed instruments can best emulate the uniquely expressive human voice. In fact, she said, fans have commented that her piano “speaks.” It’s a skill she began honing during her student days at Juilliard, where her private piano teacher stressed the importance of “making the strings vibrate” and showed her how to float melody above harmony with her right hand so that, in effect, it sang.

In Elias’ music, something or someone is always singing.

“A lot of singers or instrumentalists have somebody else accompanying them, or they play very sparsely behind their voice,“ she said. ”But I do the whole thing. Today, I could not imagine doing a concert and not singing.”