UK Jazz News

Mondays with Morgan: Rachel Eckroth and John Hadfield – new album ‘Speaking in Tongues’

The two musicians sit on a blue bench against a plain white background. They are both wearing all white and looking straight into the camera.
Rachel Eckroth and John Hadfield. Photo credit: Alyssa Smith.

The following is an interview between jazz journalist Morgan Enos and pianist, composer, and vocalist Rachel Eckroth, along with drummer, percussionist, and composer John Hadfield.

The duo’s debut album, Speaking in Tongues, will be released 28 February via Adhyâropa Records. A preview track, ‘Saturn,’ can be heard via the link at the end of this article, alongside links to both artists’ websites.

Upon hearing the fleet, atmospheric, forward-thinking Speaking in Tongues, my first impulse was: People who don’t care about jazz will like this record. Turns out Rachel Eckroth was right there with me.

“It’s tricky, because there is jazz involved, but it’s not necessarily a jazz record. I have some fears about it,” she admits. “But when I did my [2021] album called The Garden, it was a similar world. It wasn’t really jazz, and it went well. So, I don’t know.”

If they’re being honest, a DownBeat review is on their minds. “I know they just gave Aaron Parks’ last record [2024’s Little Big III] two stars or something,” John Hadfield notes. “So, it’s like, What are we supposed to do here?”

“I try to not think about it too much,” Hadfield continues. “I hope it’s well received. We had a blast making it. So, what else can you do, really?”

Eckroth and Hadfield did what they could do: make compelling music together, which may ensnare listeners far afield from the jazz racket.

With the release of Speaking in Tongues a month away, read on for Eckroth and Hadfield’s analysis of the record. Although every song title slouches toward the celestial (‘Blood Moon,’ ‘Andromeda’) or religiously esoteric (the title track), the greatest magic lies in the alchemic interplay between old acquaintances turned deep collaborators.

UK Jazz News: You two met in the ‘90s, then reconnected in 2022 and realised you had a shared musical language. What was that musical language?

Rachel Eckroth:
The way we hear phrasing and rhythms is really similar. We went to school together; I don’t know if that really matters, but maybe we listened to the same kind of music growing up.

John Hadfield:
It was easy to play together. For example, one of the tunes on the record, ‘Jeanne D’arc’: there’s a head, but it was improvised in the studio. Musically, we felt connected, and could predict what the other person was going to do, and work together.

RE:
That’s the dream. That’s what you want from musicians, always. I don’t know if you always get that when you put a full band together.

UKJN: Any particular music you’ve found you’re both steeped in?

RE: I’m not going to speak for John, but he’s really percussion oriented. John, a lot of your listening has been more world music, percussion-based, than mine has been in my life.

But I really love groove, and I really love all black music. So, a lot of my experience early on was from listening to pop and R&B, and playing in those kinds of bands when I was young. Groove and rhythm are kind of the foundation for me, from the start.

JH: Maybe the thing that makes it interesting is not our shared language. It’s the circles that don’t overlap – and then, when we come together, we have other genres and influences affecting our previously shared knowledge.

‘Jeanne D’arc’ is also a prime example of that, because the tune is based off of a North African, Moroccan groove, initially.

Rachel Eckroth and John Hadfield lie on the white concrete ground. Rachel is looking up at the camera and John has his eyes closed.
Rachel Eckroth and John Hadfield. Photo credit: Alyssa Smith.

UKJN: Rachel, what was your approach on the synth-nerdery front?

RE: We were originally going to do drums and acoustic piano, make it simple, so that we could tour.

But we just started going, “Oh, maybe this would be nice if we had a little Mellotron pad underneath,” and, “We need a melody for this section,” that I was just playing chords in. It was just a natural building of a record.

Live, we obviously can’t do all that’s recorded, because there’s not enough of me; I have two hands. So, John brings a sample pad, and he can trigger some of the loops he created. I’ve also been using another sample pad, the Roland SP-404. I created some drones inside, so I can add full texture underneath.

Our original idea was bass-free, and some of the songs are very much that. But then, in some of the songs, I’ll add a low end on a synth.

When we tour, I’ll probably just bring the sample pad with drones, and just play piano or Rhodes. We did one in Colorado with a saxophone player, John Gunther, and we have a gig coming up where Donny McCaslin is going to do it.

https://youtu.be/vkJ4nCspeUo?si=tP1jt1NTuXYgQztl

UKJN: How did you approach your sounds on Speaking in Tongues?

JH: I used some things I normally use: fan drums, and some weird stacked metal things that people have made for me.

When we went to Athens, Greece, to record it, the whole concept was very mobile. We had done this tour in Europe, all on the train, and we were going for a minimal setup.

My setup is actually not so huge. It’s basically been the drumset with percussion, and I play some hand drums – the frame drum, specifically. On a couple of tracks, I play the kalimba. On ‘Andromeda,’ we processed it with some pedals.

RE: I don’t know if I have an approach to sound more than I have a sound. My tone is my tone on piano. I mean, all pianos are different, but I think I’ll always sound like me.

Texturally, with all the synths and stuff, I just like filling out the space with beauty. Per track, it’s like, I need something fluffy here, or something more string-sounding, or piercing. All these little pieces fit together, and it’s all more instinctual at the moment than anything.

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