Yelena Eckemoff - Lonely Man and His Fish (2023) [Official Digital Download 24/96]

Pianist-composer Yelena Eckemoff’s body of elaborate, ambitious jazz concept albums reaches a new virtuosic summit with "Lonely Man and His Fish," to be released April 28. A double-album set, the album is also a long-form parable, a story of deep affection between a human and his beloved pet. An all-star lineup—cornetist Kirk Knuffke, flutist Masaru Koga, bassist Ben Street, and drummer Eric Harland—helps Eckemoff breathe life into the tale.

Eckemoff, who is an artist and poet as well as a pianist and composer, typically creates imagery and text to augment her programmatic music. In the case of" Lonely Man and His Fish," she outlines the concept as a prose narrative, broken down into short chapter-like sections that correspond to each track on the album, along with paintings that illustrate key moments.

Yet, as with all of her multidisciplinary projects, it’s the music that is front and center. “Every album I do is conceptual,” she explains. “At first I get an idea about a project, whether it’s stages of life, colors, smells, or animals. Once I get an idea, I don’t write out the story before the music. I have the story worked out in my head. When I compose, I already know how the story is going to come out.”

In a sense, the actual execution of the music brings in an aspect yet another creative discipline: theater. Knuffke and his cornet perform the role of Tim, the “lonely man” of the album title (who is a retired orchestral trumpet player). Koga wields a shakuhachi—a Japanese bamboo flute—to channel the character of Spark, Tim’s fish and companion. Each has impressive solo features, like Knuffke’s on “The Lonely Man” and Koga’s on “Life in the Pond.” But the two musicians also exchange and interact beautifully on tunes like the funky “A Man and His Fish” (on which Yelena plays celeste, the first time she’s recorded on anything but piano in a studio setting) and the warm, fond closer “Dreaming Together.”

TRACKLIST

1. Yelena Eckemoff - Lonely Man
2. Yelena Eckemoff - Pet Store
3. Yelena Eckemoff - First Evening at Home
4. Yelena Eckemoff - Breakfast fro Two
5. Yelena Eckemoff - Man and His Fish
6. Yelena Eckemoff - Accident
7. Yelena Eckemoff - In Hospital
8. Yelena Eckemoff - Into the Wild
9. Yelena Eckemoff - Life in the Pond
10. Yelena Eckemoff - Survivor
11. Yelena Eckemoff - Empty House
12. Yelena Eckemoff - Song for Spark
13. Yelena Eckemoff - Call of Friendship
14. Yelena Eckemoff - Dreaming Together



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