Rachel Eckroth: One
Blackbird Sessions

By her own account, Los Angeles-based Rachel Eckroth has given so much of the past ten years to singing, writing, and playing keyboards for St. Vincent, Rufus Wainwright, Chris Botti, and others that doing a solo acoustic piano album was exactly what she needed. Freed from having to make production- and instrument-related decisions, the purity and simplicity of the endeavour had undeniable appeal, as did the opportunity to “assert [her]self as a pianist.” Even more exposing for being almost completely improvised, the recording sees her surrendering to her muse and letting influences emerge naturally. Recorded on November 17, 2022 at Brooklyn's Big Orange Sheep, One is the sound of an artist creating in the moment and sharing her creative process with the world.

Anyone coming to Eckroth for the first time might want to know a little bit more about this versatile artist. She's had a hand in twenty albums, be it as a leader of co-leader, including 2021's The Blackbird Sessions Vol. 1, a duet album with her husband, bassist Tim Lefebvre, and the Grammy-nominated The Garden, featuring Lefebvre, Donny McCaslin, and Nir Felder. She's comfortable in alt-country, melodic rock, and jazz idioms. While her keyboard-playing skills have been showcased on her projects, her abilities as a singer have also been documented on many a release. Grounding everything she does, however, is acoustic piano, which she took up at the age of five. For that reason alone, her self-produced One holds a significant place in her discography.

Her command of the instrument is evident the moment “Don't Go” inaugurates the eleven-song set. Somewhat brooding, the piece is but three minutes long yet captures Eckroth deeply mining the material for creative possibilities. Whereas the fleeting sketch “Minuscule” is playful, “High Desert Winter” plays like an introspective expression of yearning. No minimalist she, Eckroth deploys dense chording and intricate patterning in her treatments, “Three Wheels” a case in point. She also knows when to strip things down, as illustrated by the melancholy balladry of “Black Eyed Susan” and the entrancing closer “Light Sleeper.” Classical refinement marks her playing, but jazz and blues are naturally part of the mix too (see the swinging “One Eyed Pete”). As pianists go, the performances suggest she's more Tyner than Evans.

May 2023