Tyran Grillo for All About Jazz
Pianist Yelena Eckemoff, a melodic marvel whose gift for atmosphere has been apparent from the beginning, has never felt comfortable settling into a single definition. Rooted in classicalism yet never bound by its strictures, she has carved a singular path through the world of jazz, guided by a restless imagination that treats genre as porous terrain rather than fenced land. Her music arises from a place where labels dissolve and instinct takes over, a place recognized immediately by tender-minded musicians who understand that sound is older than taxonomy. In this sense, Lions stands as one of her most unbound creations to date. Though released in 2015, it still oversees the pride with variegated authority, a work whose presence has not dimmed with time but ripened.
Alongside bassist Arild Andersen and drummer Billy Hart, whose contributions never overshadow but instead honor the material, Eckemoff leads us into a landscape that unfolds patiently, deliberately. The journey begins with the richly hued title track, a nine-and-a-half-minute declaration that establishes the album’s domain. We are ushered into a world painted in deep oranges, burnished yellows, and sun-scorched golds, colors that seem to radiate from the piano itself. Moving from one scene to the next, the music behaves as a sonic film, its narrative carried by texture and motion. Here, human intention and animal instinct coexist, sharing the same dust, the same heat, the same unspoken laws that govern survival and wonder.
Among these unfolding mysteries, few are as beguiling as the track that follows. “Migrating Birds” reveals Eckemoff’s adventurous spirit, one that knows precisely when to surge forward and when to pull back into silence. In moments of restraint, she opens vast savanna for Hart to roam freely, his rhythmic commentary scattered with fresh detail and fertile gatherings. Andersen anchors the music with a sense of gravity, reminding us of the earth beneath our feet and the ancient pull that keeps flight from becoming escape. Elsewhere in this expansive two- disc travel diary, moments of enchantment continue to surface. “Stars Bathing in Shallow Waters” shimmers with descriptive lucidity, its light refracted through gentle currents, while other passages feel etched by wind and time rather than sound alone.
As expected, and as nature itself insists, not everything here is cloaked in comfort. Threaded through these lyrical visions is Eckemoff’s clear-eyed contemplation of a lion’s life in all its visceral immediacy. There is the unbridled joy of “Young at Play,” the tightening focus of “Pursuit,” the stark trials of “Surviving the Famine,” and the communal rite of passage marked by “Joining the Pride.” Each piece captures a distinct phase of becoming, not as a metaphor alone but as a lived experience translated into sound. The latter track’s grounded vamp sparks especially vital playing from all three musicians, moving effortlessly from abstraction into swing, from uncertainty into cohesion, always knowing where the ground lies.
If one composition embodies the album spirit in its fullest form, it is “Sphinx.” Seated in quiet command, it understands that authority is earned through endurance rather than spectacle. Its sense of stillness carries the weight of long memory, of battles faced and lessons absorbed. Andersen’s solo work here is profoundly evocative, unfolding against Eckemoff and Hart’s subtle colorations with a sense of earned grace. What emerges is a feeling of calm accomplishment that feels both personal and archetypal. The music breathes with possibility despite its age, gazing forward without abandoning the ground already claimed. Close behind is “Simple Pleasures,” a piece of introspective honesty in which Eckemoff’s piano seems to rise from the soil itself, each note emerging patiently until the full instrument stands revealed. Its beauty is quiet yet astonishing, the sort that lingers long after sound fades.
Lions closes with “Ode to Innocence” and “Ode to Strength,” a paired benediction that distills the album’s deeper truths. From airy lyricism to modal finality, these pieces reflect what it means to endure within an unrelenting world. They speak of resilience without bravado, of grace sharpened by necessity. With hope coursing through its veins and skill resting in its claws, this music continues its measured walk across open land, carrying memory, instinct, and vision together. It does not seek dominion so much as belonging, and in doing so, it claims a quiet majesty that refuses to fade.
