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Jazz Articles about Yelena Eckemoff

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Multiple Reviews

Yelena Eckemoff And Cory Smythe: Imagination Unbound

Read "Yelena Eckemoff And Cory Smythe: Imagination Unbound" reviewed by Doug Collette


Yelena Eckemoff and Cory Smythe have configured mirror images in music that reflect global mindsets of race, gender and class in the wake of COVID lockdowns and in the midst of climate change (among other controversies). The former postulates an insular existence populated only by a single individual and a sole figure with whom he finds empathy, while the latter formulates a world vision from a single point of view scanning the boundaries of culture(s). In keeping with the various ...

4
Radio & Podcasts

New Music From Yelena Eckemoff, Arturo O'Farrill, Lauren Henderson, Melissa Pipe, Cecilia Smith & More

Read "New Music From Yelena Eckemoff, Arturo O'Farrill, Lauren Henderson, Melissa Pipe, Cecilia Smith & More" reviewed by Mary Foster Conklin


This broadcast includes new releases from pianists Yelena Eckemoff, Arturo O'Farrill, vibraphonist Cecilia Smith, vocalist Lauren Henderson, saxophonist Melissa Pipe and a special song cycle by lyricist David Hajdu featuring Theo Bleckmann, Alicia Olatuja and Dan Tepfer, plus birthday shoutouts to Roxy Coss, Wendy Kirkland, Judy Wexler, Rosa Passos, Kendra Shank and Lara Downes, among others. Thanks for listening and please support the artists you hear by seeing them live and online. Purchase their music so they can continue to ...

47
Album Review

Yelena Eckemoff: Lonely Man and His Fish

Read "Lonely Man and His Fish" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


A Moscow-raised, classically-trained pianist, Yelena Eckemoff made the move to the United States in 1991, after being bitten by the jazz bug via a Dave Brubeck concert she attended in Moscow in 1987. In 2010, after settling with her family in rural North Carolina, she released Cold Sun (L & H Records), a trio outing featuring bassist Mads Vinding and drummer Peter Erskine. She followed up this fine debut with several more albums, all on her L & H Label, ...

40
Liner Notes

Yelena Eckemoff: I Am a Stranger in This World

Read "Yelena Eckemoff: I Am a Stranger in This World" reviewed by Mark Sullivan


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 producing her jazz arrangements. They were first recorded on her album Better Than Gold and Silver [L&H Production, 2018], which presented ten Psalm settings in both vocal and instrumental versions. The detailed story of how Yelena Eckemoff came to set ...

30
Album Review

Yelena Eckemoff: Colors live at KITO Bremen

Read "Colors live at KITO Bremen" reviewed by Mark Sullivan


Composer and pianist Yelena Eckemoff's Colors (L&H Production, 2019) was a duet with drummer Manu Katché, a unique instrumentation in her ever-growing list of works. His contributions were so singular that when she had an opportunity to celebrate the album release by playing the music live at KITO in Bremen, Germany in 2019, and he could not make the gig, she opted to play solo rather than hire another drummer. It was the first time in about 15 years that ...

54
Album Review

Yelena Eckemoff: Adventures of the Wildflower

Read "Adventures of the Wildflower" reviewed by Mark Sullivan


The last time composer/pianist Yelena Eckemoff recorded in Finland she led a quintet on Blooming Tall Phlox (L&H Production, 2017). The program was devoted to smells, particularly the phlox flower and other scents remembered from childhood. Here she returns to Finland with a sextet (including several returning players, basically the entire rhythm section) and a related concept: the life cycle of a wildflower. The mood of the music is well captured in the smiling band photo on the back of ...

80
Album Review

Yelena Eckemoff: Adventures of the Wildflower

Read "Adventures of the Wildflower" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


The seeds of pianist-composer Yelena Eckemoff's Adventures Of The Wildflower were planted in 2013, when she traveled to Hollola, Finland, to record Blooming Tall Phlox (L&H Productions, 2017) with a group of young Finnish musicians. Several Eckemoff albums came about after that recording, but the experience with her Finnish friends must have exerted a sort of gravitational pull, and in 2019 she made a return trip to the country to team with vibraphonist Panu Savolainen, bassist Antti Lotjonen and drummer ...


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