Lions

Pianist Yelena Eckemoff Returns with Lions, Her Most Ambitious Marriage of Music and Narrative Yet.

For Yelena Eckemoff, finding the nexus where training and an early successful career in the classical sphere meet with the Moscow-born, North Carolina-resident pianist/composer's more recent predilection for jazz and improvised music has been a wholly natural pursuit. A meeting place where the whole is invariably greater than the sum of its parts, with Lions - her eighth jazz album in nine years - Eckemoff once again raises the bar on a very personal approach to bringing detailed composition and freewheeling extemporization together with the idea of music as real narrative.

Unlike many musicians, who title compositions out of necessity - more afterthought than intimately tied to the music - Eckemoff has long striven to make albums with underlying concepts - a premise particularly evident with her last recording, 2014's A Touch of Radiance, and now, to even greater effect, with Lions. Lions' release may follow A Touch of Radiance, but chronologically it was recorded first - more than a year before, in fact - making it Eckemoff s first to use what she calls three-arts-crossing, where, in addition to the music, she contributes both poetry and cover art.

Inspired with the idea of putting together a suite of songs not only performed by 'lions,' but also about lions, Eckemoff says, I began writing music which would describe the many aspects of lions' lives. As my imagination grew wilder, I started to fantasize about escaping the human world and turning into a lioness myself. My fantasies were so vivid at times that even now I have my doubts that the story of getting transported to the African savanna on the wings of migrating birds, finding myself in a lioness' body, and then living in a lion's pride was just a figment of my imagination.or was it for real? I hope whosoever listens to the music and reads the story might find out for him or herself.

It's hard not to be swept away by Eckemoff's vision of African vistas and wildlife from a lioness' viewpoint. Eckemoff's music finds compelling middle ground between through composition and the loose interpretative interaction that any trio bolstered by Andersen and Hart is bound to possess. The three musicians traverse considerable territory, from ethereal atmospherics both sun-charred and moonlit indigo and more grounded explorations of groove, to cinematic expanses that evoke imagery reflective of Eckemoff's experience - the soundtrack to the most personal of imaginary films. And whether it's Eckemoff's impeccable virtuosity and penchant for the impressionistic, Andersen's lithe muscularity and irresistibly singing tone, or Hart's ability to suggest time with the broadest use of color and texture, Lions is an album that continues to surprise long after it's been spun for the first time.

While there's something to be said for the chemistry of a longstanding group, there's also no doubt that a rare kind of energy can imbue first encounters, especially where, rather than writing relatively spare sketches that are grist for more open-ended improvisation, Eckemoff provides her partners with detailed compositions filled with challenging yet somehow accessible structural constructs.

With the release of Lions, Yelena Eckemoff continues to make significant strides in her goal of gaining acceptance in the jazz world on her own terms. With an imagination as free as that of the majestic animals to whom she aspires, Lions is yet another leap forward in the career of an artist whose name may still be relatively new to the jazz world, but whose reputation is gaining ground with each successive release.
From Press Sheet by John Kelman.

Number of Discs: 2

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