Since moving to New York City in 1994 Elie has garnered critical acclaim both as a jazz and world music performer and as a music producer and arranger.
Born in Gibraltar, a small british colony on the southernmost tip of Andalucia Spain.
Described by Jon Anders of Downbeat Magazine as a guitarist who’s ‘textures and effects recall stylists as diverse as Bill Frisell, John Abercrombie and Bern Nix'.
Stuart Boomer of Cadence Magazine writes; ‘Massias has a command of the guitar that extends from the fingerboard to the amplifier, from the lightest acoustic play to R&B”
Through years of composing, recording and performing, Elie has developed his own unique sound and style. His music meanders and celebrates the many sounds that emanate from the vistas….lone ships crossing the straits of Gibraltar into the mediterranean sea, the majestic views of North Africa from the top of the Rock of Gibraltar, vacations in Morocco as a child, the deep British music influence on the colony, the effortless fusion of sefardic cantorial ladino musings with flamenco guitar and cante hondo, the years of living, traveling and performing in Europe, the U.S., North Africa and Israel, his deep love and commitment to Jazz and improvised music …. all these melt into Elie’s individual music pot to create an art that is all at once personal, subtle, eloquent and above all beautiful.