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Jazz Articles about Arild Andersen
Yelena Eckemoff: Nocturnal Animals
by Mark Sullivan
Pianist-composer Yelena Eckemoff is predictably unpredictable. After an early series of piano trio albums she worked with larger ensembles, culminating in the sextet (plus vocalists) of Better Than Gold And Silver (L&H, 2018). After cutting back to a duet with drummer Manu Katché on Colors (L&H, 2019) she returns with a larger band, but with a difference; this is a quartet with double bassist Arild Andersen (her longest collaborator), and drummer/percussionists Jon Christensen and Thomas Strønen. It may ...
Continue ReadingYelena Eckemoff: Nocturnal Animals
by Dan McClenaghan
"You're busy appearing or you're busy disappearing." Drummer-bandleader Art Blakey may have said that; if he didn't, he should have. Somebody had to express the importance of presenting your work, for getting it out there to an audience. This goes for virtually any artist in any medium. Double down on that for people who create jazz. Pianist Yelena Eckemoff rolls with the “busy appearing" concept. She is prolific; since her debut recording , Cold Sun (L & H, ...
Continue ReadingMoldejazz Festival 2018
by Luca Vitali
Molde Jazz Festival Molde, Norvegia 15-19.07.2018 Il festival jazz di Molde è il secondo più antico d'Europa --fondato nel 1961, lo precede di un solo anno il festival di Ljubljana la cui prima edizione risale al 1960 --e ancora oggi il più importante in Norvegia. È qui che Keith Jarrett e Jan Garbarek hanno mosso i primi passi per dar vita al quartetto europeo del pianista di Allentown, ed è qui che, prima ancora, Garbarek è ...
Continue ReadingYelena Eckemoff: Desert
by Mark Sullivan
Pianist/composer Yelena Eckemoff was born in Russia and in 2018 lives in North Carolina--neither location suggests a desert theme. But Eckemoff became fascinated by the Arabian Desert, producing not only music but also prose stories connecting the compositions to each other, as well as poetry and paintings (including the album's cover image). Her albums are usually organized around a theme. This one is unusual in having a musical style directly associated with it: so much of this program combines Arabic ...
Continue ReadingYelena Eckemoff: Desert
by Dan McClenaghan
Pianist Yelena Eckemoff's backstory doesn't suggest the potential for a rise to the category of top level jazz pianist. But here she is, after emigrating to the U.S. from Russia with her husband--leaving her children (temporarily) and everything else (permanently) behind in 1991 to escape repression and to start a new life. Classically trained in her homeland, Eckemoff came to jazz relatively late. With persistence, talent, ambition, audacity and a seemingly unshakable optimism, she has navigated her way to the ...
Continue ReadingArild Andersen/Paolo Vinaccia/Tommy Smith: In-House Science
by Karl Ackermann
Arild Andersen's superb trio with tenor saxophonist Tommy Smith and drummer Paolo Vinaccia had previously released two ECM albums, Live at Belleville (2008), and Mira (2014). Smith and Andersen joined the saxophonist's frequent collaborators, the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra for Celebration (2015) which included “Independency, Pt. 4" from Belleville. In-House Science is the second live album from the trio.Andersen's long career began in the late 1960s jumping right to well established artists such as George Russell, Don Cherry, ...
Continue ReadingArild Andersen: The Rose Window - Live at Theater Gutersloh
by Maurizio Zerbo
Il contrabbassista norvegese Arild Andersen è stato un magnifico protagonista del jazz europeo negli anni Settanta, grazie alle collaborazioni con Jan Garbarek, George Russell e Don Cherry. La sua sapienza compositiva ed organizzativa si intravede ancora una volta in questo CD registrato quest'anno in Germania, alla testa di un trio ben affiatato. Come era lecito attendersi, la dimensione live non aggiunge molto ad una cifra artistica storicizzata, in linea con l'estetica dell'ECM. È una musica che guarda ...
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