Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Rachel Eckroth: Humanoid

Rachel Eckroth: Humanoid

By Mike Jurkovic
September 22, 2023
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Pianist

Rachel Eckroth

piano and vocals
b.1976

" data-original-title="" title="">Rachel Eckroth may use wellness or New agey terms such as polymath or bold vision to describe her approach to her considerable art, but she gets down to Earth for real and very quickly on Humanoid, her first all-acoustic recording.

Recorded live at Sam's First in Los Angeles, Eckroth's very active imagination spearheads a group, including bassist and all round jazz entrepreneur

Billy Mohler

bass
b.1975

" data-original-title="" title="">Billy Mohler, drummer

Tina Raymond

drums

" data-original-title="" title="">Tina Raymond—whose uncanny sense for everything a drummer can do, can be done at any moment and still drive the beat—and guitarist

Andrew Renfroe

guitar

" data-original-title="" title="">Andrew Renfroe, for a first set which would make audience members buy a ticket for the second.

Free of her electronics, Eckroth commands the keyboard as few before her have. How else can one explain the cut and paste, jumping tension jumble of Humanoid's flagship track? Eight minutes of pure unabashed sass and interpretation, Eckroth and Renfroe (whose integration of sound spans the whole jazz vocabulary) compliment and complain, state their case and take it from there. That Mohler and Raymond can keep ahead of things is one of the key reasons Humanoid is so cool and easy to listen to. Over and over.

"Mind," the big sky, open-ended second of Eckroth's vivid four compositions, highlights Renfroe in full

Pat Metheny

guitar
b.1954

" data-original-title="" title="">Pat Metheny mode, coasting on the combined updrafts of Eckroth, Raymond, and Mohler.

Carla Bley

piano
1938 - 2023

" data-original-title="" title="">Carla Bley's unhurried "Lawns" (from Sextet. (ECM, 1987) is taken at just the right speed. And that each arrives at the same rapturous conclusion makes for another cool reason to pay heed.

A moody indulgence pulls listeners into Eckroth's "Under a Fig Tree" only to snap to attention and head out on its own to the outer realms where each player can not wait to kick the tune in another direction altogether. Collaborative mayhem, perhaps, until the pianist pulls it back with Raymond as her wingman and Mohler in pursuit.

Duke Ellington

piano
1899 - 1974

" data-original-title="" title="">Duke Ellington's stately cascade of E flat minor sequences, "Fleurette Africaine"—first heard with

Charles Mingus

bass, acoustic
1922 - 1979

" data-original-title="" title="">Charles Mingus and

Max Roach

drums
1925 - 2007

" data-original-title="" title="">Max Roach on the revered Money Jungle (United Artists, 1962)—unwinds with all the honor and humor that the composition richly deserves.

Mohler's "Evolution" breaks loose from the start and re-assembles itself beautifully after a flurry of activity from Eckroth and Raymond, a duo very familiar with each other's flair. Raymond's solo at the six-minute mark crackles and sparks. Eckroth's re-entrance into the fury just is not something heard or accomplished everyday, and that goes threefold for Humanoid as a whole.

Learn more about our star rating system

Track Listing

Humanoid; Mind; Lawns; Under a Fig Tree; Fleurette Africaine; Evolution; Strange Meeting; Vines.

Personnel

Rachel Eckroth

piano and vocals

Billy Mohler

bass

Tina Raymond

drums

Andrew Renfroe

guitar

Album information

Title: Humanoid | Year Released: 2023 | Record Label: Sam First Records

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Rachel Eckroth Concerts

Sep 19 Fri

Rachel Eckroth Trio

The Nash
Phoenix, AZ

Sep 26 Fri

Rachel Eckroth Trio

The Nash
Phoenix, AZ

Oct 14 Tue

Rachel Eckroth Trio

Nospr
Katowice, Poland

Oct 15 Wed

Rachel Eckroth Trio

Ronnie Scott's
London, UK

Oct 17 Fri

Rachel Eckroth Trio

BIX Jazzclub
Stuttgart, Germany

Oct 18 Sat

Rachel Eckroth Trio

Jazzit
Salzburg, Austria

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