Breakthrough (Wide Hive Records)
Erik Jekabson
Released January 17, 2025
AllMusic Favorite Jazz Albums 2025
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About:
Erik Jekabson’s Breakthrough on Wide Hive Records is exceptional. On thirteen new original orchestral compositions, Erik seamlessly weaves together jazz and minimalism into a mesmerizing sound all his own.
Erik Jekabson is a well-known Bay Area musician who has played trumpet with Galactic, John Mayer, and Kamasi Washington for Wide Hive’s Throttle Elevator Music. Here with his orchestra, Erik continues to establish his own sound with a steady transcendent feel.
Joining Erik for this recording are Mads Tolling on violin, Dan Feiszli on bass, Jason Lewis on drums, Johnathan Ring on French horn, Jeff Cressman on trombone, and many others.
Track Listing:
1. Jane Wants to Tell You Something part 1 6:16
2. Jane Wants to Tell You Something part 2 2:45
3. The Whisperer 7:20
4. A Centered Vibe 6:26
5. Speedway Meadow 7:10
6. Sun on the Keys 5:03
7. Above the Clouds 6:55
8. El Don 7:44
9. Washington as a Surveyor 7:11
10. Into the Jungle part 1 3:13
11. Into the Jungle part 2 5:15
12. Into the Jungle part 3 1:28
13. Sunset on the Keys 2:31
Personnel:
Erik Jekabson: trumpet, flugelhorn
Dan Feiszli: bass (1-8)
Jason Lewis: drums (1-4, 8)
Dan Zemelman: piano (1, 2, 5-8)
Jeffrey Burr: guitar (3)
Max Brody: guitar (8)
Dillon Vado: vibes (1, 2, 4, 5, 9)
Mads Tolling: violin (1-7, 9; solo on track 4)
Anthony Blea: violin (1-7, 9)
Charith Premawardhana: viola (1-7, 9)
Ben Davis: cello (1-7, 9)
Mary Fettig: flute, alto flute (1-7)
Dana Bauer: oboe, english horn (1-7)
Matt Renzi: clarinet (1-7), alto saxophone and tenor saxophone (8)
Jamael Smith: bassoon (1-7)
Jeff Cressman: trombone (1-4, 8)
Johnathan Ring: French horn (1-7)
Jonathan Sieberlich: tuba (8)
Stan Muncy: percussion (1-7)
Recorded at Wide Hive Records, Berkeley, Califotnia, by George Howe and Alberto Hernandez
Mixed by Alberto Hernandez and Gregory Howe
Mastered by Justin Weiss
Photos by Gregory Howe
Layout and Deseign by Dwayne Carter
Produced by Gregory Howe
Review:
Trumpeter Erik Jekabson showcases his jazz and orchestral skills on 2025’s lushly realized Breakthrough. A Bay Area native, Jekabson has established himself as a revered improviser, touring and session player, and educator. While the core of his style is harmonically engaging and lyrical post-bop, he has explored string chamber music, Latin traditions, and even ’70s-inspired funk-jazz alongside guitarist Gregory Howe in the collective Electric Squeezebox Orchestra. Again working with Howe as producer, Jekabson seemingly brings all of his varied experiences to bear on Breakthrough, an album that balances adventurous small-group jazz with intricate orchestral arrangements. Along with several special guests, the trumpeter is joined by a core ensemble of longtime associates, including pianist Dan Zemelman, bassist Dan Feiszli, drummer Jason Lewis, and (at various times) guitarists Jeffrey Burr and Max Brody. He also enlists a small army of orchestral string, woodwind, brass, and percussion musicians to bring his arrangements to life. Jekabson opens with the two-part “Jane Wants to Tell You Something,” framing his warm trumpet lines with shimmering waves of woodwinds and strings, evoking a Steve Reich-ian take on ECM jazz. It’s an organically textural approach that he returns to throughout the album, as on “A Centered Vibe,” with vibraphonist Dillon Vado, and “Above the Clouds,” with violinist Mads Tolling. Tolling also shows upon the airy “Washington as a Surveyor,” where he and Jekabson soar birdlike against a dewy backdrop of flute, strings, and spacey electric guitar accents. A second multi-part movement, “Into the Jungle,” rounds out the latter end of the album and, as with much of Breakthrough, finds Jekabson conjuring a vibrant blend of influences from the glimmering, minimalist orchestrations of Philip Glass and John Adams to the moody, sunbaked atmospheres of Miles Davis and arranger Gil Evans’ large-ensemble works.
Matt Collar (AllMusic)
