Appearing In the support slot to Mike Stern at Ronnie Scott’s on 18 April, pianist Yelena Eckemoff joined by Arild Andersen and Spin Marvel drummer Martin France is worth, to understate wildly, getting into the club that bit early for. Lions (L&H), the Russian’s new double album with Anderson (Afric Pepperbird) and Billy Hart (Mwandishi, The Jewel in the Lotus, Tutu etc), recorded in 2013 in New York studio Sear Sound, proof enough for that.

Born and brought up in Moscow, the daughter of a pianist-mother, Yelena began her piano studies at a young age later studying at the Piano School of the Moscow State Conservatory before moving to live in the US and beginning her career as a leader there with Cold Sun in 2009, an album that featured drummer Peter Erskine. Combining classical music in her musical personality – Chopin, Bach, Schumann, and Beethoven are some of the pianist’s favourite composers – with a virtuosic command of modern jazz Lions has an impressionistic quality to it. But it’s also full of power too in the interpretations of the pianist’s own compositions. A live version of the title track of ‘Lions’ is above