Last month, a two year collaboration finally came to fruition. My long time friend and colleague, John Hadfield, a phenomenal drummer and percussionist reached out a few years back to do some dates with a French jazz artist he was working with – John currently resides in Paris.
Within the time we were doing these Europe shows, we realized that our musical connection was fun and also deep, and that we had to do something about it. So, the idea for this duo project was started in the summer of 2023. It became a much bigger endeavor than we originally imagined, but I suppose that’s how things often go.
The idea of piano and drums alone really doesn’t have any obvious tradition except maybe for through composed concert music. And in the realm of jazz, it’s not done too often, so this was the first challenge to explore. We wanted something that could tour easily, something sustainable and something that transcends the boundaries of genre. Our initial thought was to be solely improvisational. This was the simplest conceptual idea in terms of being ready for a performance NOW. So in order to get things started, we’d need to get together in a studio so we could figure out what our sound would be and forge a sonic identity.
We both arrive to this project with diverse musical influences and points of study. John holds graduate degrees in western classical percussion, and also has spent many years studying with masters of Gamelan in Indonesia, Carnatic Music in India and Gnawa and Berber music in North Africa. He has graced many prestigious stages performing with orchestras as well as playing in groups with progressive jazz musicians such as Brad Shepik and Ron Blake. My foundations are in modern jazz but I also devote a large part of my time to playing keyboards and synthesisers with bold, fearless art rockers like St. Vincent much of the time. I’ve learned a lot about sound design through this kind of work and I really love working with effects pedals and synthesizers, so my sonic palette isn’t really typical of most jazz pianists. We were excited to find out what kind of music would emerge from our combined and varied experiences.
But we had a distance problem. Living on different continents, how do we create together and keep momentum going? Thanks to technology, we can easily email ideas back and forth, but the beginning of any project really needs that in person ‘let’s create in the same room’ time.
So we decided to take the approach of each of us writing 4 or 5 pieces or sketches and booking a studio to go in and hash them out.
We had to figure out where and how to do this next part, with a very meager ‘we don’t have a budget’ budget. John had previously spent some time in Athens, Greece recording music with a composer in a huge, beautiful studio with a Steinway. We learned that Greece is surprisingly affordable (maybe not if you live in Greece) and we were able to book Sierra Studios for 5 days to experiment and record. The cost of my ticket to Athens – I was already to be on a tour in Europe with another artist – was reasonable, and John’s flight from Paris was too, so we decided quickly and set up the dates.
Now, at this point, the session is four months away, I’m in the brainstorming/inspiration phase. I’m really thinking about piano and all the ways I could pull sound from it and how I could use percussion in a melodic way. My main way of getting inspired is to put on random records for days, to see what hits me during that time. I had just finished recording a live quartet record of original tunes and standards and I definitely wanted to pull away from that style of compositional thinking – head-solo-head. I was leaning towards even more freedom in form and improvisation. I began listening to albums like Async by Riuichi Sakamoto, Landfall by Laurie Anderson and Kronos Quartet, and Webern and Grieg String Quartets. One of these records I had recently picked up was in the gift store at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. Pianist Jason Moran has a beautiful solo installation in which he recreates the main stages at two historic New York nightclubs that were pivotal places for the history and development of jazz.
There was also an accompanying recording of the music that was beautifully pressed on limited edition vinyl. I saw it. I needed it! That’s when things started bouncing around in my imagination. A few days later, I sat at the piano and worked out what became the first composition, ‘The Jesus Side’. The title comes from the fact that on Moran’s vinyl, the side I was most inspired by has a small Jesus picture on it. Not really having any religious connotations at first, this song sparked the direction of this duo project.
Piano and drums. No bass. This was the challenge I gave myself. I wanted to try to write music that wasn’t in need of that third person covering the low end. I wanted to write something that has a lot of space and sits in the moment longer than some of my past writing. The Jesus Side is a slow, mellow piece at first, then opens later for improvisation over a section that is jagged and harmonically ambiguous. Throughout, the left hand is mostly playing an ostinato in intervals of 5ths and 7ths. This really takes care of the low end space without it feeling like a bassline.
John adds color to the top with various chimes and bells, along with some light mallet improvisation on the toms. We were able to take our time in the studio to layer these things. John has an interesting drum set up, a bit unconventional but perfect for this setting – including an extra tiny snare, some stacked metal pieces, a square ride cymbal.
As we both began writing, we used the magic of the internet to send ideas to each other. John sent me a long loop of a groove called Gnawa (Morocco) that he laid down in his studio in Paris. This was the first true collaboration in this project. I began to write some piano gymnastics over this groove, eventually settling into a melody that plays with triplets and parts of the rhythmic bed. The C section of the piece moves into a metric modulation based on the melody and a pattern of 5 in the left hand. We then recreated it live in the studio with an undetermined improvisational section. This became a track called ‘Jeanne D’Arc’, keeping with this theme of religion/belief/spirituality.
I thought I’d try writing some pieces that felt meditative. I came up with this simple melody of half notes and cycled it three times while the harmony changed at every half measure. It has the feel of a chorale, and keeping with the thread, I called it ‘Sanctus’.
I really like how the recording turned out. My idea was to start simple then build to madness. In my head, I kept hearing this ticking clock similar to the beginning of Carla Bley’s Musique Mecanique II. The drums would do that the whole time, then we’d overdub a layer of wild free jazz drums. The piano part starts just as chords like in a chorale, then eventually moves in a similar arc as the drum part, exploding into a frenzy of notes as the chords stay constant. After having some time to figure things out in the studio, the ‘ticking’ idea wasn’t working, so instead we added a layer of mellow marching snare halfway through. It worked much better. We began to break the rules now of the piano/drums only configuration. I have a pretty nice collection of synths and keyboards in my home studio, and being that this was now called Sanctus, it felt appropriate to fill in some space with some ethereal organ-like textures from electronics. Post session, I took the files home and recorded the Juno 106 and a Mellotron M4000D.
Besides two completely improvised pieces, there was one other that was a true collaborative composition. I asked John to just sit at the drumset and record any groove he was feeling at a specified tempo. He started with a groove in 7 that eventually moves to 4 and back to 7. Our original idea was to chop the groove up and make something, but instead we kept the track as is, and in my home studio, just started layering things, and made a melody and just let it all move along with the drum part. This became the song ‘God Particle’ and the first track we released from the album. Again, the ability to take time to try things out was really key for this project. We could sit with our choices, then change them if we didn’t like it the next day.
Speaking In Tongues turned out to be an album that is very true to both of us. I think that genuine collaboration has so much push and pull. That discipline of letting your ideas be molded by another person really takes courage and trust. As composers, we often have to believe strongly in our musical ideas, so that others will as well. But in truly collaborating, it’s more like solving a puzzle with someone, then hopefully being pleasantly surprised by what the final picture looks like.
Speaking In Tongues is available now on all usual platforms, but more importantly, BandCamp and physical copies at our shows.
About the Author:
In a recent WBGO interview, Simon Rentner proclaims ‘Pianist, singer and composer Rachel Eckroth is more than a musical chameleon. Her shapeshifting is so dramatic that there is no upper limit to her creativity.’ Fueled by curiosity, preparation, and opportunity, Rachel has been on world stages as an artist and an in-demand keyboardist for everyone from Rufus Wainwright to St. Vincent to NBC. Her musical training was an inherent part of her upbringing. Born into a musical family and being generously exposed to the arts gave Rachel a solid foundation in the art of listening. This became the cornerstone of her musical contribution which fostered her ability to make other artists shine.
A student of legendary pianist Stanley Cowell, Rachel earned a Master’s Degree in Jazz Piano from Rutgers University in 2005. She identifies as a composer first, and throughout her career, she has written for her own projects – duo, trio, nonet – as well as jazz ensembles, orchestras, and television. Her songwriting and voice are also featured in the Emmy-winning documentary ‘Dick Johnson Is Dead’ (Netflix 2020). She is represented by the publishing agency Brava Jazz, a female-led agency featuring the work of women composers. Rachel frequently travels the country and abroad as a clinician and guest artist with universities and various jazz programs. She has held positions at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and Phoenix College and has been on the faculty at The Brubeck Summit, Langnau Jazz Nights and Engelsholm Jazz Week in Denmark.
Most recently, ou can hear her keyboard work on St. Vincent’s ‘All Born Screaming’ (2024) which recently won the Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album (2025). Rachel’s 2021 album, The Garden, on the Rainy Days Records label was nominated for a Grammy (Best Contemporary Instrumental Album) in 2022. It features some of her most compelling work to date, with the help of world renowned musicians Tim Lefebvre, Donny McCaslin and Christian Euman. Since then, Rachel has released three more albums – all with different musical styles and purposes. The urge to grow and try different styles and ‘languages’ of music is the driving force behind this exploration in her catalog.
Her personal catalog includes three singer-songwriter albums, an improvised solo piano album, a live quartet record, an album of jazz standards featuring only voice and bass, experimental jazz, and recently a duo project with drummer/composer John Hadfield. This album, ‘Speaking In Tongues’ (2025 on Adhyaropa Records) received a four-star review from Downbeat magazine and is proving to be a formidable duo on the improvisational music scene.
For Eckroth, new ideas abound and need to be explored. Both collaborations and significant time spent in her Phoenix, AZ studio have made exploration possible, with the tools of technology and the innate desire to listen to herself – and everyone else.