Press

CD Reviews:

Conversations With My Strings:

"Beautiful solo acoustic guitar music." Hartford Advocate

"Conversations is a world-class guitar performance." Jerry Krahn, Nashville studio guitarist

Footprints CD:

Time was when you played one style, that's what you were -- a jazz guitarist, or a classical player, or a rocker. Not anymore. The new generation of guitarists is crossing over in genre and style, and showing the strength that comes from melding various influences into acoustic music. One such player is Eric Elias, whose latest CD "Footprints" showcases his abilities in pop, acoustic, jazz, and even classically-tinged compositions. Elias starts us out funky with some effective two-handed tapping on the opening cut "Flying Fish." "Fresh From Heaven" has a smooth acoustic jazz groove, and his duo with Robert Messore on "Fat Cat Bossa" whirls and slides through great chordal changes and single note runs. "Morning Light" syncopates between a pair of nylon-string guitars; the interplay is effective. The traditional classical piece "Afro-Cuban Lullaby" is well-phrased and preserves the feel of the piece... The CD closes with a lovely arrangement of "The Lord's Prayer" on steel string guitar, drawing the listener into that quiet place of the soul... Overall, "Footprints" is a good listen.
© Kirk Albrecht (Minor 7th)

 

My Compliments CD:

"My Compliments is a sonic stunner...Between the robust nature of the instruments and the recording technique, every Nelson and Elias chord is rendered in its full harmonic and percussive glory...The mix of originals and standards is unusually seamless...There a re a lot of interesting things going on here between the two players...My Compliments gets to the essence of jazz guitar."   Stephen Rosenberg, Just Jazz Guitar Magazine 

"I really enjoyed it." (This CD) " reminds me of some of the old duets of Kress, etc..."

Ed Benson Editor, Just Jazz Guitar Magazine

 

"Nice Job. I especially liked In a Mist." Bob Sneider, Instructor Eastman School of Music

 

"Shades of Kress and McDonough. Triple nice!"  Steve Greene, Recording Artist

 

"Pretty coolpretty complex, too. The real deal I like what I heard"  Wayne W. Johnson, Artist/Producer

 

"The playing is great. Great choice of tunes too."  Rich Severson, Founder Guitar College

 

"Loved the feel and approaches very creative."  Frank Markavich, Musician/Educator/Writer

 

"The playing is quite strong, the tempos are just rightVery tight, the synergy between the two is obvious, a hard thing to accomplish in this time of pick-up bandsThose Strombergs really sound great toolots of tonal and dynamic rangeThe recording itself was really nicely done as well.  Love the pictures of the guitars and glassesstruck me very funny"

Jody Fisher, Author/Educator/Performer

 

 

Solos, Duos, Trios and Quartets 

Great concept of combining solos, duos and trios--and wonderful choice of tunes. Both the time and feel are beautiful and these tunes are lucky to be played by someone who obviously loves this music so much.

Jody Fisher

 

Book Reviews:

Charlie Parker Transcriptions for Guitar (Two Book Set):

A great workout! Nicely presented and easy to follow, even though this is not easy stuff to play. The tab is logical and the most important thing for guitar players trying to do this stuff. These are books to come back to every day. The two volume set by Eric Elias (Transcriptions of Charlie Parker) is worth a lot as exercises, a study in Charlie Parker and as reference books."

Frank Forte, Guitarist/Writer

 

"I found these books to be very accurate in their capturing of the intricacies of Parkers work... The melodies are dead-on and the notation/tab are clear and easy to read and understand When looked at in Erics books the guitarist can see clearly how Parker constructed a solo Eric has taken the drudgery out of learning these tunes so that the player can focus on both learning and having fun!"

Frank Markavich, Just Jazz Guitar Magazine

 

Fundamental of Jazz Guitar Improvisation:

"This book presents the necessary material in a logical, well thought-out manner. One can tell that a lot of time and care went into the writing of this book. A welcome addition to the arsenal in the fight against jazz guitar illiteracy."

Joe Carter, Performer/Educator