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Yelena Eckemoff: Desert

By Dan McClenaghan
May 13, 2018
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Pianist

Yelena Eckemoff

piano

" data-original-title="" title="">Yelena Eckemoff's backstory doesn't suggest the potential for a rise to the category of top level jazz pianist. But here she is, after emigrating to the U.S. from Russia with her husband—leaving her children (temporarily) and everything else (permanently) behind in 1991 to escape repression and to start a new life. Classically trained in her homeland, Eckemoff came to jazz relatively late. With persistence, talent, ambition, audacity and a seemingly unshakable optimism, she has navigated her way to the top echelon of the jazz world and created a substantial discography of very good to excellent recordings, collaborating with the cream of rhythm section cohorts---bassists

Arild Andersen

bass, acoustic
b.1945

" data-original-title="" title="">Arild Andersen and

Jon Christensen

drums
1943 - 2020

" data-original-title="" title="">Jon Christensen, drummers

Peter Erskine

drums
b.1954

" data-original-title="" title="">Peter Erskine and

Billy Hart

drums
b.1940

" data-original-title="" title="">Billy Hart.

Eckemoff doesn't go about her craft by throwing a bunch of disparate tunes or ideas together. What she does is establish themes—such as Lions (L & H Production, 2012), or remembered aromas from her childhood, Blooming Tall Phlox (L & H Production, 2013)—fashioning herself into a master conceptualist.

Eckemoff's first release of 2018—she is persistently prolific—is Desert, a musical exploration of the magic of vast and seemingly barren lands, of mirages and drifting, whispering sands, of muted pastels of vast, wide-open spaces.

She has chosen to employ for the project the previously mentioned teammates, bassist Arild Anderson and drummer Peter Erskine. New to her ensemble is multiple reedman

Paul McCandless

woodwinds
b.1947

" data-original-title="" title="">Paul McCandless, a founding member of the group Oregon.

A Middle-Eastern mood pervades on a set of Eckemoff originals, sounds tinted by the influence of the Arabian peninsula: "Bedouins," "Mirages," "Desert Cry" and "Colors Of Nothingness." The arrangements are succinct and crisply executed. Drummer Erskine gives a masterclass in elevating the music throughout, in the way that

Paul Motian

drums
1931 - 2011

" data-original-title="" title="">Paul Motian always did, with a distinctively different approach.

Eckemoff's compositions have a characteristic refinement, their accessible complexities woven through by McCandless' sinewy melodic lines from his oboe, English horn, soprano saxophone and bass clarinet. And a bonus—Eckemoff's prose and poetry included in the twenty-plus page cover booklet that adds a vocabulary to her musical ideas. Especially compelling is her short story "Bedouins." She is proving herself as fine a writer as she is a musician on this excellent work of art.

When the coils of time were dissolved, the desert endured.—Yelena Eckemoff, from her poem "Desert Remained."

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Track Listing

Bedouins; Mirages; Desert's Cry; Dance; Colors of Nothingness; Condor; Oasis; Dust Storm; Desert Remained; Garden of Eden; Sands.

Personnel

Yelena Eckemoff

piano

Paul McCandless

woodwinds

Arild Andersen

bass, acoustic

Peter Erskine

drums

Yelena Eckemoff, piano, compositions; Paul McCandless, oboe, English Horn, soprano saxophone, bass clarinet; Arild Andersen, bass; Peter Erskine, drums, percussion.

Album information

Title: Desert | Year Released: 2018 | Record Label: L & H Production

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