Eliane Elias / “Too Late” from her Time & Again album (2024)
Columbus is a great city in many ways but not for the national or international jazz scene. I’ve been bouncing back between my home state of California and Ohio most of my life. I lived in the Bay Area for 15 years and worked for an international corporation in the day and hung out on the local jazz scene at night.
I have a different definition of jazz than many today. I’ve gone through the invasion of the so-called “chardonay” type of watered down jazz for gackground music in restaurants rather than music from leading artists today like Elias. Not surprising since everything else is going this way into duplication, syndication or umbrella franchises in films.
The reason that Columbus is not a great jazz town is that it protects its own local musicians through local organizations. This is a good thing for the musicians as the organizations produce a steady stream of jazz and employment for jazz musicians. But for those affionados of live jazz from leading international jazz artists, Columbus is not the place to hear this. Jazz lovers have to travel outside the city to see them.
So, Pittsburgh is not a long drive to see one of my favorites Eliane Elias at the Pittsburgh Jazz Center. Fantastic seats in the first row, fifteen feet from the Eliane. Thanks for getting the tickets Rich! And, sitting next to us, we meet Bill and his wife. A great couple and huge Eliane Elias fans like we were. They had come a little farther than us to hear Eliane. Bill had a pilot’s licence and they flew up from their home in Austin, Texas.
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Eliane Elias official site
Eliane Elias YouTube Channel
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Lyrics / “Too Late” by Eliane Elias
I’m trying to remember
We’re walking through the park
Like fall the colors changing
Nothing the same at all
Why did we dream together? Why?
We were told it was for life
I’m looking back in time
We were walking through the park
Don’t know how to make this better
Like ice melting through my hands, just now
Give me back that life, the one I had
One more time to taste the love we had
It’s too late to say I’m sorry
It’s late
Was a flower I never gave you
Many deeds were left undone
There are times for forgettin’
When morning never brought the sun
Why didn’t I love you better? Why?
Lord, help me understand
I can’t go back in time
We were walking through the park
Don’t know how to make this better
Like ice melting through my hands, just now
Give me back that life, the one I had
One more time to taste the love we had
It’s too late to say I’m sorry
Too late
For many years, Columbus was considered to be an “overgrown farm town” and this would not be a good environment for jazz. However, I now win my share of bets when wagering that (the city of) Columbus, OH, is bigger than (the cities of) Boston, MA, and Atlanta, GA. Not the metropolitan areas, but the cities.