Jacob Szekely Trio at The Sound Room

Upon listening to The Jacob Szekely Trio, Grammy winning cellist and Berklee professor Eugene Friesen proclaimed This is the first time that I have heard a cellist make a convincing case as a soloist in a modern jazz context. With influences that range from classical/jazz/funk/rock and even indian, the music is highly complex rhythmically and harmonically, while always grooving with an unfailing sense of melody.


Born in Brooklyn New York, Jacob Szekely began his studies at age 3 and grew up in a musical family where his talent was recognized early on. The family moved to Lexington Kentucky where fiddling and bluegrass music were in the air. By the age of 13 Szekely expanded his listening to rock and Jazz. It took me a while to realize that I could improvise and play in different styles as a cellist Szekely says: I always knew that the sound of the cello was my voice, but there just wasnt a template for that. The results of this search have led to a unique voice in Jazz. Noted Jazz Critic Brian Arsenault has recently proclaimed in the International review of Music: ...

read more

Upon listening to The Jacob Szekely Trio, Grammy winning cellist and Berklee professor Eugene Friesen proclaimed This is the first time that I have heard a cellist make a convincing case as a soloist in a modern jazz context. With influences that range from classical/jazz/funk/rock and even indian, the music is highly complex rhythmically and harmonically, while always grooving with an unfailing sense of melody.


Born in Brooklyn New York, Jacob Szekely began his studies at age 3 and grew up in a musical family where his talent was recognized early on. The family moved to Lexington Kentucky where fiddling and bluegrass music were in the air. By the age of 13 Szekely expanded his listening to rock and Jazz. It took me a while to realize that I could improvise and play in different styles as a cellist Szekely says: I always knew that the sound of the cello was my voice, but there just wasnt a template for that. The results of this search have led to a unique voice in Jazz. Noted Jazz Critic Brian Arsenault has recently proclaimed in the International review of Music:

The cello in Szekelys special hands is transformative, literally. At times a guitar, a bass guitar, a violin, a harp. But always, always a cello. Is there anyone else in the world who plays the instrument like this?


Jacob explains the genesis of the trio: As a studio musician and sideman here in Los Angeles, Ive spent so much of my professional life trying to sound like other musicians and in a way trying to prove what my instrument was capable of I finally decided the time had come to ask myself the question of who I am and what I really sound like and then spent a year digging really deep trying to figure that out.

This one year path of discovery led to a complete reimagining of the possibilities of the instrument from the compositions, to the development of a real improvisational language on the cello, to the unique group Szekely chose to record with.

The cello in Szekelys special hands is transformative, literally. At times a guitar, a bass guitar, a violin, a harp. But always, always a cello. Is there anyone else in the world who plays the instrument like this. A musician who could clearly play classical and at times nearly does here but is broadly considered a jazz musician.

Better to forget labels. To paraphrase Duke Ellington, there really is only good music and bad music. This is the good stuff.

show less