Bio:
Elie was first introduced to music at the age of 9. Soon after, music became his main interest and he began studying from records. He began imitating bass lines from those records, such as Jaco Pastorius’ debut album and albums Jaco featured on with Weather Report and Joni Mitchell. Elie quickly began showing talent, and by the time he was 17, he had built a name for himself in Lebanon. During the same year, Mike Stern invited him to perform alongside him on a visit to Beirut, which further inspired Elie to pursue music as his profession.
Elie then began playing regularly with Arthur Satyan, started taking lessons in upright bass as well as in classical contrabass, and also started taking a great interest in the jazz theory approach of Barry Harris who would become his idol. Over the years, Elie would go on to study with Barry Harris several times, in both Italy and New York.
In 2007, upon receiving a scholarship, Elie attended Prins Claus Conservatorium in Holland for a short period.
He then attended the The Collective School of Music in New York in 2012 after receiving another scholarship. It was here that Elie was quickly exposed to the New York scene, as well as having the opportunity to meet many great players that he would also learn a tremendous amount from such as Matt Garrison, Tarek Yamani and Ian Foreman.
Originally from Beirut, Lebanon, Elie is currently based in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, performing in various formations, mainly as Afif Jazz, as well as working in the sound production field.
Elie has performed with many great players such as, Rene Mclean, Mike Stern, Jerome Sabbagh, Chris Mcnaulty, Bobby McFerrin, Ranjit Barrot, Tim Garland, Ayden Esen, A.R Rahman, Zakir Hussein, Bobby Durham and Dwight Dickerson to name a few.
The Recôncavo is an almost invisible center-of-gravity. Circumscribing the Bay of All Saints, this region was landing for more enslaved human beings than any other such throughout all of human history. Not unrelated, it is also birthplace of some of the most physically & spiritually uplifting music ever made. —Sparrow
"Dear Sparrow: I am thrilled to receive your email! Thank you for including me in this wonderful matrix."
—Susan Rogers: Personal recording engineer for Prince, inc. "Purple Rain", "Sign o' the Times", "Around the World in a Day"... Director of the Berklee Music Perception and Cognition Laboratory
I'm Pardal here in Brazil (that's "Sparrow" in English). The deep roots of this project are in Manhattan, where Allen Klein (managed the Beatles and The Rolling Stones) called me about royalties for the estate of Sam Cooke... where Jerry Ragovoy (co-wrote Time is On My Side, sung by the Stones; Piece of My Heart, Janis Joplin of course; and Pata Pata, sung by the great Miriam Makeba) called me looking for unpaid royalties... where I did contract and licensing for Carlinhos Brown's participation on Bahia Black with Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock...
...where I rescued unpaid royalties for Aretha Franklin (from Atlantic Records), Barbra Streisand (from CBS Records), Led Zeppelin, Mongo Santamaria, Gilberto Gil, Astrud Gilberto, Airto Moreira, Jim Hall, Wah Wah Watson (Melvin Ragin), Ray Barretto, Philip Glass, Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd for his interest in Bob Marley compositions, Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam and others...
...where I worked with Earl "Speedo" Carroll of the Cadillacs (who went from doo-wopping as a kid on Harlem streetcorners to top of the charts to working as a janitor at P.S. 87 in Manhattan without ever losing what it was that made him special in the first place), and with Jake and Zeke Carey of The Flamingos (I Only Have Eyes for You)... stuff like that.
Yeah this is Bob's first record contract, made with Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd of Studio One and co-signed by his aunt because he was under 21. I took it to Black Rock to argue with CBS' lawyers about the royalties they didn't want to pay. They paid.
MATRIX MUSICAL
The Matrix was built below among some of the world's most powerfully moving music, some of it made by people barely known beyond village borders. Or in the case of Sodré, his anthem A MASSA — a paean to Brazil's poor ("our pain is the pain of a timid boy, a calf stepped on...") — having blasted from every radio between the Amazon and Brazil's industrial south, before he was silenced. (that's me left, with David Dye & Kim Junod for U.S. National Public Radio) ... The Matrix started with Sodré, with João do Boi, with Roberto Mendes, with Bule Bule, with Roque Ferreira... music rooted in the sugarcane plantations of Bahia. Hence our logo (a cane cutter).