Title - Human Geography
Artist - Michael Eckroth Group
For those unaware, Michael Eckroth, pianist and keyboardist, is an active performer in New York and worldwide, having performed extensively with musicians such as jazzicons John Scofield, Ron McClure, Eliot Zigmund and Paul McCandless.
Equally at home in jazz and Latin-American music forms, Michael received a Grammy nomination for his work on the 2018 Cuban music album Orquesta Akokan, which received rave reviews on outlets such as NPR and France’s FIP. He is also a recipient of a PhD from New York University, former professor of music at Dartmouth College and a current full-time professor of music at FIU.
Truth Revolution Recording Collective is thrilled to announce the newest album by this Grammy-nominated pianist and composer, Human Geography. The renowned pianist-composer, who elegantly and effortlessly steps between the realms of contemporary jazz, Afro-Cuban, and Puerto Rican music cultures, Human Geography is the follow-up to his 2021 release Plena.
1. Human Geography (5:32)
2. Little B’s Poem (3:50)
3. Freedom In Precision (4:46)
4. Kachina (4:33)
5. New Bomba (6:08)
6. In 15 (4:26)
7. Funk Gets It (4:26)
8. Hilton (3:30)
On what is an album where Eckroth combines the skill and passion gleaned from years of recording, writing, and performing within this fluid blend of Latin American music and modern jazz, thus creating something that is uniquely personalized, he opens with the guaguancó, rhythmical-charged title track Human Geography and an ode to Herbie Hancock and Bobby Hutcherson in the form of the piano-fed, percussional hipsway of Little B’s Poem, and then brings us the rhythmic guaguancó jazz overtones that drive Freedom In Precision and the impassioned, Afro-Cuban-imbibed Kachina.
Along next are the Puerto Rican bomba rhythms that dutifully pulsate throughout the stellar New Bomba which is in turn backed beautifully by the late night-hued ambiance of the smooth In 15, the recording rounding out on the free-flowing, and aptly titled Funk Gets It, coming to a close on a tribute to the great Hilton Ruiz, the robustly rhythmic Hilton.
Eckroth is quick to give praise to his band members in achieving the powerful vibrancy of this album. All of the musicians on the album are longstanding collaborators for Eckroth, with each one representing a lengthy history of performing and creating together.
Above all, Eckroth values the musicians’ ability to fit anywhere and envision anything. “These musicians are supremely flexible, and most importantly are able to bring out more than what’s intended by the compositions and arrangements,” Eckroth says. “It’s a group aesthetic that has been nurtured over several years of sporadic playing.”
The album boasts multiple arrangements of piano trios, changing bassists and percussionists both to suit the needs of each piece and to represent different moments in Eckroth’s musical history. The personnel on Human Geography is Michael Eckroth (piano, Rhodes, keyboards); Joel Mateo (drums); Raul Reyes, Edward Perez, and Alex “Apolo” Ayala (bass); Mauricio Herrera and Carlos Maldonado (percussion); Matt Hilgenburg and Alex Norris (trumpet); and Peter Brainin (tenor saxophone).
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