As on all of Yelena’s recordings, the musicianship is outstanding, whether playing behind her two excellent vocalist choices – Tomas Cruz or Kim Mayo – or rendering Yelena’s compositions instrumentally. The musicians interplay – Ralph, Ben, Christian, Drew, and Joey is consistently inspired in that word’s original spiritual meaning –“ to breathe into, to impart a truth or idea to someone.”
While listening, your soul is resting and slowly sliding into a world of dreams… But not into dreams of indifference, no, it is like padding through a gate into a world of praise and worship that is binding together the biblical praise of old times with a very personal contemporary attitude of praise. Colours are rising up, too, before the inner eyes of mine as a listener, – that helps to enlighten the words of the psalms and give them a more personal touch, a little bit as if the own heart is singing the verses on its own along with the psalmists.
The musical accompaniment follows the beautiful chord structures and elegant piano lines that Eckemoff provides, and this alone is a rewarding listen. Both singers deliver the words and imbue them with a soulful meaning, while also creating clear and compelling tunes. ..These really are piece that deserve to be heard as widely as possible. Of course, Eckemoff is not the first person to set the Psalms to music. But all too often composers take the ‘rhythm’ of the words and use this to pinion the music; Eckemoff lets the music free and, ironically, gives the words greater significance.
The music of Eckemoff can be interpreted less from the dialectic of supposed collective identities than from the bivalence, from the ambivalence, the ambivalence of human existence as such. And where else can this material be found in abundance than in the Bible? Their psalms are masterfully interpreted on one CD, sometimes vocally, sometimes purely instrumentally.
Rarely less than sublime, the group has that same symbiotic connectedness as John Abercrombie’s latter-day quartets. A different member of the ensemble carries the vocal line each time, tracing adulatory melodic arcs before dissolving into blissful passages of improvisation… Eckemoff’s music can perhaps wryly be described as being amongst the finest recordings that Manfred Eicher never produced.
With so many new releases coming out and often going under the radar, it would be a crying shame if this excellent effort went undetected. It just makes it into the best new recording list of the year and deservedly so.
The Russian pianist-composer’s chamber jazz-ish take on verses from the book of Psalms (two CDs, with and without vocal) is pleasantly easy-going yet too undemanding, even if it does offer an impressive array of New York’s leftfield jazz heads, including Ralph Alessi, Ben Monder, Drew Gress and Joey Baron.
In this new recording, dedicated to the reinterpretation of ten biblical psalms, she excites us and makes us partakers of a creative world that seems inexhaustible. ..There is room for improvisations, for moments of swing or Latin music, moments in which the musicians give a particular color to a music inspired by the liturgy, but that basically represents today’s jazz. Great record, solid and rich in musicality.
If you don’t like the bible, you don’t have to be sad, it’s a double CD, the 2 record contains the same titles, mostly played a bit longer, but without any vocals.
Eckemoff rightly considers this music to be modern jazz, not liturgical music. It takes its place alongside Duke Ellington’s Sacred Concerts (Prestige Records, 1968) and Steve Reich’s Tehillim (ECM New Series, 2000) (which presents his minimalist interpretation of the psalms). It also represents yet another new color in the rainbow of her recording projects, each different from the last.
Whether delivered by vocalist or instrumentalist, Eckemoff’s melodies are strong throughout, so much so you might find yourself hearing echoes of them once the recording’s over. …Think of Better Than Gold and Silver as a new addition to religion-inspired jazz works that include Coltrane’s A Love Supreme and Ellington’s Sacred Concerts. …It also would be wrong to interpret her decision to release a religion-themed album as an attempt to convert listeners; Better Than Gold and Silver is instead a 142-minute expression of deep personal belief that she’s long wanted to share.
Extremely attractive project by the Russian-born pianist: elegant jazz compositions of almost chamber-musical character, which are oriented towards the praising verses and yet go beyond the words. The CD with vocals is by far the more interesting one, because with the warm tenor of Tomäs Cruz and the charming mezzo-soprano of Kim Mayo gold and silver really flow out of the speakers.
This is a joy on a plethora of levels, serving heart, soul and ears.
Better Than Gold and Silver plays with a sense of leisure and splendor that’s in stark contrast to the hustle and bustle of today’s catchy-catch-all, groove-obsessed society. …Eckemoff’s instrumental “Psalms” say what words cannot.
The music is highly melodic, multilayered, intricately structured jazz that takes full advantage not only of her virtuoso pianism, but also of the distinctive talents of the all-star team of instrumentalists and vocalists.
The ensemble’s sound, literally shaped by role models such as Eberhard Weber, Arild Andersen and Tomasz Stanko, which owes much to the sound aesthetics of ECM, is brilliant thanks to the sound engineers James Farber and Owen Mulholland, but a slight feeling of satiety is still present by the middle of the second CD at the latest.
Even worldly listeners should sit up and take notice.
Setting biblical psalms to music… requires the ability not only to match and mold the cadences of ancient poetry, but also the ability to connect to the depth of prayer. Eckemoff does this but even more remarkable are the instrumental versions of the psalms found on a companion disc. These extended meditations are the purest expression of devotion to art as well as to god.
The extraordinary, phenomenal New York pianist Yelena Eckemoff prepares her every album comprehensively, publishing at the same time essays on music included on the album, as well as a talented painter while designing the cover of the publishing house. On each album, the artist surrounds herself with the greatest celebrities of world jazz, whose list with each subsequent album is enlarged by new names.
The result is far removed from all “jazz mass” clichés. ..Even worldly listeners should listen attentively.
Pianist Yelena Eckemoff has made a personal transition to faith but, in these recordings of Biblical psalms, has done so in a quiet fashion and her musical “choir” keeps the vision low-key and beautiful. ..The mood is almost uniformly consistent even while the lines share a good number of Eckemoff’s past directions: “Psalm 110” has hints of Latin rhythms; “Psalm 119” a touch of jazz tinged with modern classical; and a feel for gospel throughout. The most extended tracks are the gorgeously slow takes of the album’s closer, “Psalm 147”, the rhythm, as it develops, suggesting Bach. Eckemoff has said that she composed what she heard inside the psalms and every tune here reflects the passion and inner light of the composer.
This Russian lady unites classical and jazz music. Always with an A-list of fellow players. ..Beautiful music!
I like the instrumental versions a lot. Those melodies that easily thwart the words and singers suit Ralph Alessi’s trumpet just fine.
Miss Eckemoff’s musical setting of these Psalms – both in the vocal renditions and the instrumental ones – succeeds magnificently. The music here suggests that she as arrived at the pinnacle of her creative musicianship which is born of the great Russian Romantic School. And in this regard she is supremely alone among all of her contemporaries – irrespective of cultural background – who rely on that Jazz-centred approach to music. It is exactly this aspect of her music that makes the music of these Psalms incandescent, profoundly human and intoxicating in their celebration of The Divine. This music is breathtakingly original and startling; her interpretations of each Psalm is – quite stunningly – authentic in that she captures the utter simplicity of ancient creators of Psalms making these works at once old and new so much so that it is safe to say they will become part of the continuum of spiritual music. This is, in short, Miss Eckemoff at her finest on a disc to die for…
Better Than Gold and Silver stands among Eckemoff’s finest achievements, remarkable not only for its compositional strength and musicianship, but for its atmosphere of reverence. Such depth is rare within jazz, a tradition often driven toward assertion. Eckemoff has carved a quieter path, one that leads toward the same ocean that unites all creative practice, yet refuses to rush its arrival. ..A hymnal jazz, radiant with the wonders of creation, and anchored in the enduring truth that faith is not something we master, but something that holds us. ..The famous line “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path” becomes more than a quotation. It describes the music itself. The verse reveals a difficult and enduring truth: that God illumines only what is necessary. Not the distant future, not the full terrain, but the next faithful step. Enough to walk. Enough to trust.
Each release has its own charm and expression, but always bears the personal signature of the composer/pianist. For Better Than Gold And Silver she has come up with something very special. All-Star-Team succeeds in presenting an extremely expressive music on the highest level, which absolutely does justice to the Christian content of the psalms. And this has been accomplished absolutely with a beautiful and strongly harmonic lining, that often sounds truly like “Joy To The World”, music that spreads the Christian messages full of hope. Nevertheless, this is not church music in this sense, nothing sacred, but high-quality jazz using the psalms chosen by Eckemoff.
This is not ‘gospel jazz’ but more like jazz lieder, with the compositions and arrangements matched to the words or connotation of the Psalm. The sound is rich in melody and harmony with ornamental timbres of instrumental solos. Sometimes the rhythmic phrasing catches the ear, other times, the beauty captures the heart. It has ECM-like mellow and attractive tonal quality and allows concentration on the music and piece discernment.
The words are sung over calm, occasionally reminiscent of the special sound of ECM, modern jazzy, in the slow pace compositions, the piano gives the melodies, the very well selected band (Joey Baron, Ralph Alessi, Ben Monder …) underlies discreet rhythm and improvised prudently.
The music is sublimely introspective with an angular trajectory and evolution. Quietly contemplative and deeply moving.
The piano ace continues to take her vision farther afield than you would have guessed when she was starting out. .. Solid work by all throughout.