Jazz Articles about Tomas Cruz

About Tomas Cruz

Album Review

Yelena Eckemoff: Better Than Gold and Silver

Read "Better Than Gold and Silver" reviewed by Mark Sullivan

by Mark Sullivan
November 11, 2018

Russian-born pianist/composer Yelena Eckemoff began setting verses from the Bible's Book of Psalms shortly after her conversion to Christianity, even before her emigration to the United States. But she waited until she had considerable experience working with jazz musicians before attempting these jazz arrangements. The first disc in this double disc set presents settings with two vocalists, tenor Tomás Cruz and mezzo-soprano Kim Mayo, accompanied by a remarkable band: trumpeter Ralph Alessi, guitarist Ben Monder, violinist Christian Howes, bassist Drew ...

Album Review

Yelena Eckemoff: Better Than Gold and Silver

Read "Better Than Gold and Silver" reviewed by Tyran Grillo

by Tyran Grillo
September 29, 2018

Some albums attempt to explain sacred text. Others adorn, elevate, or dramatize it. Better Than Gold and Silver does something rarer. It listens. It waits. It receives. Yelena Eckemoff does not set the Psalms of David to music so much as she attends to them, as though all that remains is to hear what still trembles in their wake. The result is not doctrine rendered audible, but scripture softened by silence, memory, and breath. Belief here is not asserted. It ...