Pianist/composer Yelena Eckemoff brings together a group of artists that are leaders in their own rights, but here they work together in a collection of music and poetry.
While the team of Mark Turner/ts, Joe Locke/vib, George Mraz/b and Billy Hart/dr don’t contribute to the poems that accompany each song in the liner notes, their performance with the leaders creates a sonic atmosphere that is part chamber jazz and chamber classical. There is a bluesy groove on material such as “Exuberance” and the gently driving “Pep” that gives hint of the Modern jazz Quartet, except the inclusion of Turner’s autumnal sounding tenor. Pizzicato bass and lumbering drums meld on “Encouragement” while romance permeates through Eckemoff’s fingers on “Inspiration” and “Affection.” Hart is quite selective throughout the entire session, judiciously using his cymbals on “Radiance” and going tick tock with Locke on “Reconciliation.” Intellectual with a modicum of viscera, the ECM-sounding band works hard on the grey matter here to pleasant effect.