Eric Elias and Luke Nelson formed their guitar duo in 1998. Both were new to the Hartford, CT area; Eric from Rochester, NY and Luke from Chicago. Luke, also a multi-instrumentalist (guitar, bass and piano) brings experience as a performer in Chicago and New York City, former tour manager for John Hendricks and musical director for many of Chicago's off Broadway shows. He has performed and or recorded with Don Sterinberg, Brad Goode and Johnny Frigo. Eric has toured the Eastern US, parts of Canada and England in various combos and has opened for Maynard Ferguson. The duo combines their experience in many aspects of the jazz world to create a unique jazz guitar duo sound that is anything but ordinary. Elias/Nelson have decided to eschew the obvious guitar idioms that so many rely on today, preferring instead to explore the true art of the arch top jazz guitar in a way that is reminiscent of Kress and McDonnough, Eddie Lang and Django Rienhardt, but with a 21^st Century twist.

The Elias/Nelson duo has performed weekly at the Paperback Café in Old Saybrook, CT for the past 3 and a half years. The duo has just released their first CD, My Compliments, in Dec 2002 (available on this site). They are also featured on two of the Connecticut Classical Guitar Society's compilation CDs (available on this site as well). Both Eric Elias and Luke Nelson are Stromberg guitar endorsement artists. You can hear their Stromberg Newports on the duo's new CD.  Check out a great review of their CD at www.minor7th.com .