Mike Greenblatt

Mike Greenblatt for Goldmine

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Title: Russian emigre Yelena Eckemoff makes her masterpiece.

I Am A Stranger In This World says keyboardist-composer Yelena Eckemoff on her L&H Productions label. This epic double-disc with trumpeter Ralph Alessi, guitarists Adam Rogers/Ben Monder, violinist Christian Howes, bassist Drew Gress and drummers Nasheet Waits/Joey Baron is subtitled “Original Settings Of Biblical Psalms, Instrumental Version.” But you don’t have to be a believer to love her jams. The arrangements keep things moving at a dizzying, kinetic pace, offset by lyrical gorgeous moments of sterling grandeur. Yelena defied the Russian government with her spiritual side when to be a churchgoer was to be committing a dangerous transgression against the state. Her burgeoning creativity couldn’t fathom such an environment so after completing her pedigree in classical and jazz piano, she left her native Moscow—influenced by a famous 1987 performance in which she thrilled to Dave Brubeck—to end up in 1991 North Carolina. She’s been putting out great jazz records ever since. (Check out her 2018 Better Than Gold and Silver.) This one is a conceptual experiment that succeeds wildly by dint of its spiraling transcendence and interplay between these A-List musicians.

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Mike Greenblatt for The Aquarian

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Yelena Eckemoff lives In the Shadow of a Cloud. She’s an amazing woman. Leaving her country, her job, her family and her safe secure life in Russia to emigrate to North Carolina with her husband in 1991, she’s put out 11 CDs, starting out classical and ending up jazz. She’s a pianist, composer, label owner, (her own L&H Productions), band leader, producer and arranger. She painted the beautiful painting that graces the cover. She wrote a poem for each of the 14 tracks on this sumptuous two-CD set that fills a 28-page accompanying booklet. She recruited masters for each instrument yet they all coalesce into a cohesive whole: prime New York in-demand cats like Chris Potter on reeds and flute, Adam Rogers on guitar, Drew Gress on bass and Gerald Cleaver on drums. Tough to pick a highlight when every single track is so engrossing, but “Acorn Figures,” like the liner notes say, is a “jazz sonata for quartet.” Her classical motifs have never left her, and this makes her latest project oh so delectable.

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Mike Greenblatt for Rant ‘n’ Roll

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Yelena Eckemoff is a highly-gifted pianist/composer who leys violinist Mark Feldman shine on her Leaving Everything Behind (L & H Production.) She also has legendary drummer Billy Hart and bassist Ben Street moving things along in a jazz route because Yelena is a classical pianist from the Moscow State Conservatory who left her studies, her country, her life and her children behind to come to America. The result is an absolutely gorgeous classical/jazz synthesis that drips with pathos (especially “Tears of Tenderness.”) Evocative, romantic, with a sound that leans heavily on violin and piano/violin interplay, Leaving Everything Behind grows on you with repeated listenings.

Mike Greenblatt for Rant ‘n’ Roll

Mike Greenblatt for ClassicaLite

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Russian poet Yelena Eckemoff has been playing classical piano her whole life until 2010 when she became a jazz musician. ‘Everblue’ is a beauty.

Question: Is it jazz or is it classical? Pianist Yelena Eckemoff started out within the confines of classical music, adhering to the strict notations of whatever composer she magnificently performed. This was back in her native Soviet Union. Continuing to play and compose classical, ambient and world music after she emigrated to the U.S. in 1991, it wasn’t until her 2010 Cold Sun that her fingers started improvising. Six albums later, Everblue (released through L&H Production) fuses both her worlds together. You could call it a classical jazz hybrid if you want.

Working with the Norwegian dream team of saxophonist Tore Brunborg, acoustic bassist Arild Andersen and drummer Jon Christensen, Eckemoff’s interactive conversation with her band informs a scenario that encompasses the ocean and nature (animals, birds, winds and ghosts). Her poetry graces the CD booklet with a poem for each piece of this land- and sea-scape, a friendly environment where “our consciousness constantly searches and yearns for the divine, unspeakably beautiful eternal.” She calls it Everblue. Pockets of energy are compacted within the mix before they recede like waves.

Drummer Christensen and bassist Andersen first made their considerable mark with fusion pioneer Jan Garbarek in the 1970s. Here, the drummer giveth yet taketh away as his counterpoint cymbal work goes against his own beat during “All Things Seen And Unseen.” It’s a mesmerizing effect.

“Waves And Shells” is a minimalist mystery that moves in many directions simultaneously. A church-like call-and-response brackets the track with the middle being a delectable percussion discussion. “Skyline” certainly ebbs and flows like the ocean itself while “Sea Breeze” is its own world of broken eighth-notes, complete with Christensen’s rolling cymbal triplets.

“The beach sands hiss and moan with pleasure every time the waves crash on them bringing gifts of shells, sea creatures, water plants, and all kinds of things that the ocean has claimed in its possession. Alas, all these visible things are temporal, yet the ocean itself is eternal” –from the poem accompanying “All Things Seen And Unseen.”

Answer: This is jazz.

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