Rachel Eckroth

A New York City resident working as a jazz pianist, singer, composer, and arranger, Rachel Eckroth produces an eclectic body of work that encompasses artful pop, jazz standards, and exploratory instrumental pieces. Her first solo recording emerged during college in 2005, after which she turned toward testy adult alternative pop on releases such as When It Falls in 2018. The 2021 Tim Lefebvre project The Blackbird Sessions, Vol. 1 focused on jazz standards, while The Garden, issued the same year, earned her a Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album; that small-ensemble jazz recording featured Lefebvre, Donny McCaslin, and additional musicians. During this period she also served as a member of the house band for the television program The Meredith Vieira Show and performed with artists including Rufus Wainwright, St. Vincent, and Chris Botti. In 2023 she issued the solo piano album One, which adopted a more restrained and classically influenced stance.

Born in Mandan, North Dakota, Eckroth grew up in the Phoenix, Arizona region with two musician parents; her brother Michael Eckroth likewise works as a pianist. While attending the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, she recorded with the U.N.L.V. Jazz Ensemble, and after completing a jazz performance degree she remained in the region as a side instrumentalist. She later moved east to obtain a Master of Fine Arts in jazz performance from Rutgers University, finishing the degree in 2005. That year she self-released her debut album, MIND, which featured bassist Kevin Thomas and drummer Chris Benham. Before issuing the 2009 duo album Louder Than Words with saxophonist Arun Luthra, Eckroth contributed keyboard parts to recordings by Danielle Evin and Marion Meadows.

On the April 2014 release Let Go, issued by Virgo Sun Records, Eckroth moved closer to a singer-songwriter approach while retaining jazz elements. The album was tracked in Brooklyn, New York, and Scottsdale, Arizona, with an array of sidemen handling drums, horns, strings, and other instruments; Eckroth sang and played a wide range of keyboards, including synthesizer, and handled most production duties herself, although Myles David Lancette, Jesse Fischer, and Chris Parrello contributed tracks. Later in 2014 she joined the house band of ABC’s The Meredith Vieira Show on keyboards. Following the program’s conclusion after its second season in 2016, she toured with singer-songwriter KT Tunstall, then spent a 2017 stretch with trumpeter Chris Botti.

When It Falls, her next solo album, arrived in September 2018 on Virgo Sun and leaned further into adult alternative, at times incorporating rock textures. Bassist Tim Lefebvre, drummer Matt Chamberlain, and guitarists Doyle Bramhall II and Derek Trucks appeared among the guests. Eckroth and Lefebvre married before the year ended, and in 2019 she opened dates on Rufus Wainwright’s All These Poses Anniversary Tour, performing alone with keyboard and voice.

January 2021 brought the mini-album The Blackbird Sessions, Vol. 1, a collaboration with Lefebvre that included covers of standards such as “Body and Soul” and “Mood Indigo.” In May she released a self-titled EP containing four original adult pop songs. That September she returned to adventurous jazz with The Garden, which featured Lefebvre on bass and guitar, Donny McCaslin on saxophone, Christian Euman on drums, and several additional guests; the album received a Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album. Before the year closed, Aimee Mann’s Queens of the Summer Hotel LP included Eckroth’s piano work.

After appearing on albums by Gaby Moreno and Nabate Isles and touring behind St. Vincent, Eckroth issued One, a solo piano album, in April 2023. The recording offered a reflective statement rooted in classical tradition without being confined by it.