Michael Eckroth ‘Human Geography’ is out June 21 2024 via Truth Revolution Recording Collective
Human Geography is the newest album by GRAMMY-nominated pianist and composer Michael Eckroth and it combines the skill and passion gleaned from years of recording, writing, and performing within this fluid blend of Latin American music and modern jazz for which he is so known and creates something that is uniquely personalized.
Inherently paying homage to the cultures of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the vast amalgam that comprises jazz, Human Geography is an individualized perspective on the overlap of these traditions that showcases an intimate knowledge of and love for the genres - yet it does not adhere entirely to the normative frameworks. Featuring a rotating cast of piano trios with a selection of horn appearances, Human Geography is a masterwork of collaborative ebullience with an emphatic adoration of the cultures and traditions from which it is derived.
The album’s title, Human Geography, was taken from a concept in sociology in which cultures - and the people within them - are tied to their geographical location. This theory looks at how the location influences a culture as it interacts with the world around it and the other cultures with which it coincides. Through this process, a culture becomes not defined by a single attribute, but by the history of its people, its place, and the ebb and flow of its exchanges with other communities. Similarly, the music that Eckroth has created over the past decade, and the curated selection present on the album, stands as a musical representation of this sociological notion. This music itself is not a distilled version of any single tradition but is instead defined by the locations, the people, and the musical histories with which the composer and his ensembles have interacted. In so doing, Human Geography stands as a sort of map, charting the processes, progression, and development of a sound, with Eckroth standing as its great cartographer.
