Jacob Szekely Trio
Los Angeles, California, United States | Established. Jan 01, 2014 | SELF | AFM
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The Jacob Szekely Trio I recently released its selftitled debut album, a 37-minute disc of imaginative groove-based music. Led by the innovative cellist Jacob Szekely, the ensemble also includes Josh Nelson on piano and Christopher Allis on drums. Five of the six tracks on the CD are compositions by Szekely-the one nonoriginal piece is Szekely's arrangement of "Dig," a compelling rock song by the band Incubus.
Szekely, who is based in Los Angeles, is emerging as a leader of the alternative- strings community. In the past, he has performed in such groups as Supernova, the Eartha Austria Trio, and Quartetto Nuevo, and continues to perform in the acoustic rock band Uncle Daddy etc..... - Cornelius Dufallo-Strings Magazine
There is so much to admire on this recording, from the fresh original compositions to the inspired improvising, to the sensitive ensemble work. This is the first recording I've heard that makes a convincing case for the cello as leader in a hard-hitting modern jazz setting. - Eugene Friesen-Cello Pioneer,Multiple Grammy winner, Professor Berklee school of Music
“His Mixture of Rock and Post Bop is striking… Resonates as it charms” - -James Crel-The Strad
I think that the Jacob Szekely Trio, if based in Europe, would be recording for ECM. I say that as a giant compliment because of ECM’s attention to purity of sound. No where is that more evident than in the spaces between pianist Josh Nelson’s notes on the self titled album’s closing song, “Postlude: Houston.”
ECM respects silences like no other label. Their motto after all is the “Most Beautiful Sound Next to Silence.” But this review is about Szekely and his trio and the sounds here, as well as the silences, are superb.
The cello in Szekely’s special hands is transformative, literally. At times a guitar, a bass guitar, a violin, a harp. But always, always a cello. Is there anyone else in the world who plays the instrument like this. A musician who could clearly play classical — and at times nearly does here — but is broadly considered a jazz musician.
Better to forget labels. To paraphrase Duke Ellington, there really is only good music and bad music. This is the good stuff.
What I think about Szekely and his cohorts — the aforementioned Nelson and drummer Christopher Allis — is that they are reaching, reaching for something better. They are magic together but magic in the sense of something that lifts the spirit, that touches all the emotions from melancholy to buoyancy. There are no sidemen here, there are three excellent musicians playing together.
Cerebral and soulful in combination. If you think I’m going to write at some point that this is music that’s not for everybody, I’m not. It is for everybody but you have to let it flow over you without expectations.
Perhaps play it on a Sunday morning when there’s less noise in your life and in your head, maybe while cooking breakfast or just savoring a soft morning. It is not to be hurried.
During part of my listening, the damn street cleaner went by with its loud jarring sound. I hit the pause button and if I’d had a rocket launcher I swear my town’s streets would be dirtier for a long time.
There is delicacy herein but delicacy is strength not weakness. There are also robust moments, poetic ones, enchanting ones. Music to entice deeper thoughts and feelings.
And as I said above, reaching, reaching. I’m not sure I know for what but Szekely himself says in a note in the CD jacket that he hopes “you will hear three musicians stretching themselves in new directions and hopefully finding something beautiful in the end.”
Exactly.
A footnote: I have no right to suggest this but I’d love to hear this trio work with a singer and I have a suggestion. Play with Little Lonely (Julie Cain). These are the two most beautiful albums I’ve heard so far this year however different they may be. The combination might be marvelous but such things almost never happen because great talents must almost always go their own way. - Brian Arsenault-International Review of Music
Jacob has produced an emotive, innovative and thoroughly modern fusion of musical styles ... A strikingly original virtuoso cello statement.... Beautifully performed and uniquely arranged." - -Geddy Lee- basist/vocalist (Rush)
This cellist is really unbelievable. All those classical chops plus he can improvise (stunning intro on your last piece). - Larry Koonse-Grammy winning Jazz artist
"A Uniquely gifted Artist" - KJAZZ Radio-Los Angeles CA
Discography
Still working on that hot first release.
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Bio
Jacob Szekely Trio
Upon listening to The Jacob Szekely Trio, Grammy winning cellist and Berklee professor Eugene Friesen has proclaimed “This is the first time that I have heard a cellist make a convincing case as a soloist in a modern jazz context.” In his first outing as a leader, cellist Jacob Szekely has created a revolutionary album that has set the bar for creative string playing.
With influences that range from classical/jazz/funk/rock and even indian, the music is highly complex rhythmically and harmonically, while always grooving with an unfailing sense of melody.
Born in Brooklyn New York, Jacob Szekely began his studies at age 3 and grew up in a musical family where his talent was recognized early on. The family moved to Lexington Kentucky where fiddling and bluegrass music were in the air. By the age of 13 Szekely expanded his listening to rock and Jazz. “It took me a while to realize that I could improvise and play in different styles as a cellist” Szekely says: “I always knew that the sound of the cello was my voice, but there just wasn’t a template for that.” The results of this search have led to a unique voice in Jazz. Noted Jazz Critic Brian Arsenault has recently proclaimed in the International review of Music:
“The cello in Szekely’s special hands is transformative, literally. At times a guitar, a bass guitar, a violin, a harp. But always, always a cello. Is there anyone else in the world who plays the instrument like this?”
Jacob explains the genesis of the trio: “As a studio musician and sideman here in Los Angeles, I’ve spent so much of my professional life trying to sound like other musicians and in a way trying to prove what my instrument was capable of… I finally decided the time had come to ask myself the question of who I am and what I really sound like and then spent a year digging really deep trying to figure that out.”
This one year path of discovery led to a complete reimagining of the possibilities of the instrument from the compositions, to the development of a real improvisational language on the cello, to the unique group Szekely chose to record with.
“The drums and piano take up allot of sonic space which meant I needed to start with musicians who were extremely sensitive and had a great sense of dynamics.” Jacob enlisted two of Los Angeles’s top young studio artists, pianist/keyboardist Josh Nelson and drummer Christopher Allis. “Playing with Josh and Christopher has been a dream come true for me” Szekely says. The trio’s textured often electric sound recalls such contemporary groups as the Flexible Trio or Chris Potter’s Underground. “To me, the Rhoads and Moog are great colors and compliment the cello in ways the piano can’t,” Szekely explains. “The Rhoads is so expressive, and yet has a lightness that doesn’t compete with the cello as much.”
The Album is comprised of seven original compositions and two arrangements that stretch the boundaries of the originals far beyond the possibilities.
Most of the tracks on the album were recorded in a single day in one or two takes. “the music that attracts me has a sense of risk taking, and I think this album and the way did it captures allot of that. Even the classical records I grew up liking were the really old recordings of Pablo Cassals or Artur Schumsky that had allot incredible humanity and risk taking but also allot of imperfections. I’m a high risk player and to me that’s really necessary when you’re trying to do something new as an artist.”
The Album begins with 300 years, a soulful meditation on time and the infinite. The track is an excellent example of Szekely’s style which tends to favor the through composition and an over-arching narrative structure of classical music with contemporary jazz harmony and funky grooves often in mixed meters (The album features Szekely composing and soling fluently in 3,7, and 13, amongst other exotic time signatures). Another example of this type of composition is the enigmatic Morning Rush which touches on elements of jazz, metal, Indian (listen to Jacob’s dramatic solo) and culminates in a fugue contrapuntally blending all the previous themes of the piece.
One of the unique moments on the album is Diana’s Lullaby which features Szekely alone on electric 5
string cello. “I don’t
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