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Yelena Eckemoff: Better Than Gold and Silver
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 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 ...
Continue ReadingYelena Eckemoff: In The Shadow Of A Cloud
by Neri Pollastri
Continua la ricca vena creativa della pianista e compositrice russa Yelena Eckemoff, di formazione classica ma dedita al jazz dal suo arrivo negli U.S.A., nel 1991. Questa vena si concretizza in una fitta serie di album (l'ultimo di cui ci siamo occupati è Leaving Everything Behind, del 2016) registrati con formazioni sempre diverse e ogni volta composte da musicisti di altissimo livello. Stavolta il gruppo che realizza questo doppio CD è un quintetto, con una ritmica tra le ...
Continue ReadingYelena Eckemoff: Desert
by Tyran Grillo
After two expansive collections that gathered large ensembles and formidable names, Yelena Eckemoff chooses subtraction. Desert arrives as a deliberate narrowing of the horizon, a journey defined not by accumulation but by exposure. Joined by Paul McCandless on an assortment of reeds and winds, Arild Andersen on bass, and Peter Erskine on drums and percussion, Eckemoff steps into a terrain where every gesture is magnified by space. What emerges is music that feels windswept and arid, an austere and sharply ...
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 ReadingYelena Eckemoff: In The Shadow Of A Cloud
by Tyran Grillo
Following her successful quintet outing, Blooming Tall Phlox, pianist Yelena Eckemoff retains the ensemble's name while quietly reshaping its interior life, recalibrating the personnel for another generous two-disc statement. Joined this time by Chris Potter on reeds and flute, Adam Rogers on electric guitar, Drew Gress on double bass, and Gerald Cleaver on drums, Eckemoff unfurls a map of 14 new compositions that trace some of her most fluid and contemplative terrain yet. These pieces feel resolutely discovered, as though ...
Continue ReadingYelena Eckemoff: In The Shadow Of A Cloud
by John Kelman
She may rarely perform live in this context, but Yelena Eckemoff has managed to build, over just seven years and a mammoth eleven releases--including her second release of 2017, In the Shadow of a Cloud--a loyal and growing following in the jazz world. It's all the more remarkable for a multi-talented expat Russian pianist who began life in the classical world, and only entered the jazz world in 2010 with Cold Sun. But there's even more to marvel ...
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