Thomas Conrad

Thomas Conrad for Jazz Times

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Yelena Eckemoff has a story and a discography unique in jazz. She was classically trained during her childhood in Moscow, immigrated to the United States in 1991 and began making jazz records in 2010. She uses the best studios, the best engineers and the best musicians for her projects. Her sidemen have included Peter Erskine, Mark Turner, Joe Locke, Billy Hart and George Mraz.

As a jazz pianist and composer, Eckemoff retains a classical sensibility in her precise touch and in her systematic, refined, orderly forms. She writes minimalist études of romantic impressionism. The badasses she brings in to help her play them thrive in her measured yet open environments. Six of her releases to date are piano-trio recordings. Those with bassist Arild Andersen contain some of the most powerful, poetic work of his long career. Two of her recent albums engage additional players. Everblue has Andersen, saxophonist Tore Brunborg and drummer Jon Christensen. This Norwegian all-star contingent fits beautifully into Eckemoff’s aesthetic: Andersen with his looming pronouncements like final summations; Christensen with his suggestive rhythmic ambiguity; Brunborg with his clear, clean sound and respect for space.

Into the title track, which Eckemoff begins with glistening, small, widely separated clusters, Brunborg steps carefully, in long, solemn tones. Andersen’s entrance is dramatic, a slow, intense brooding. Their three very different voices then coexist in the song. A fourth, Christensen’s, scatters accents beneath them. Eckemoff’s tunes are grids that leave large spaces for improvisers. “Skyline” is all unanswered questions, Brunborg chasing its elusive, floating melody. “Abyss” is darker; upon Eckemoff’s bare frame, Andersen and Brunborg overlay portents and incantations.

That most of the compelling content on an Eckemoff album comes from her sidemen doesn’t diminish her achievement in setting up the rapt procedures that comprise her catalog. For an album so pretty, Everblue is deep.

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Thomas Conrad for Jazz Times

Thomas Conrad for Jazz Times

,

Yelena Eckemoff was born in Moscow and studied at the prestigious Gnessin Academy and the Moscow State Conservatory. She has lived in the United States since 1991, and was a classical pianist until about 2009, when she reinvented herself as a jazz musician. Her new album, Glass Song, has a theme. It is about the particular moment when the ice of winter begins to melt, promising the eventual arrival of spring. Her compositions have titles like “Dripping Icicles” and “March Rain.”

Eckemoff’s classical background is audible in the intricacy and proportion and refinement of each song’s design, and in the measured caution of her improvisations. But she is more romantic impressionist than academic. Her forms, for all their order and precision, are heartfelt. Her sonic metaphors are often apt, like the pretty cycling phrases of high treble melody that stand for “Melting Ice,” and the splashes of light that represent “Cloud Break.”

The risk with such music is sentimentality and preciousness. Eckemoff protects herself against these pitfalls by employing a world-class, powerfully assertive yet sensitive rhythm section. Bassist Arild Andersen and drummer Peter Erskine had never played together before. It’s difficult to think of a piano trio album, led by the pianist, that is so defined by its bassist and drummer. Andersen’s role is so prominent, and he is positioned so far forward in the mix, that Glass Song is like a piano/bass duo project with drum accompaniment. His rich bass sound, down to its bottom octave, is beautifully recorded; his lyrical, commanding lines flow all through Eckemoff’s fragile melodies; and his looming presence imparts drama. Everything Erskine plays is interesting, whether he is soloing melodically, like on “Dripping Icicles,” or shading and highlighting details within these songs, adding subtle edges.

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