River Eckert Band

River Eckert is a 15 year old piano player born and raised in New Orleans, LA. From a very young age, River has been surrounded by music. Immersed in the styles of Professor Longhair, James Booker, Dr. John, Allen Toussaint, Fats Domino, Art Neville among others, River is passionate and dedicated to “carrying the torch” of the New Orleans Piano tradition.

Coming from a musical family, River started playing piano at the age of 3 years old. He began studying classical music and his teachers urged him to start playing blues and jazz based on his natural ability to quickly grasp those styles. Now at the young age of 15, he sings and plays both in a solo piano and full band setting. He is quickly gaining local and national popularity and River recently began recording his first studio album. He is joined by George Porter Jr., Ivan Neville, Terence Higgins, Cornell Williams, Raymond Weber, John Fohl and others. His first single “Pass That Torch” was released in October and the full album is expected to be released in early 2025. Recently, River was also a featured artist on 2 “Playing for Change” video recordings.

River has been fortunate enough to have performed with George Porter Jr. (Meters), Stanton Moore (Galactic), Ivan Neville (Dumpstaphunk), Luther Dickinson, Terence Higgins, Roger Lewis, Fred Wesley (James Brown), Kirk Joseph, Donald Harrison Jr., David Torkanowsky, Brad Walker, Nikki Glaspie, Anders Osborne and many others. He has had the honor of performing at Jam Cruise, New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, Tipitina’s, Maple Leaf Bar, Chickie Wah Wah, French Quarter Festival, NOLA Funk Fest, Oak St. PoBoy Festival, WWL Morning Show, WWOZ Radio, and Fox 8 News…