John Escreet

“the epicanter of your dreams”

(Blue Room Music BRM 1015)

John Escreet – piano, Mark Turner – tenor saxophone, Eric Revis - bass, Damion Reid – drums

Born in Doncaster in 1984 pianist and composer John Escreet is one of the few British jazz musicians to have really established himself on the US jazz scene. A graduate of London’s Royal Academy of Music  Escreet moved to New York City in 2006 to study for a Masters at the Manhattan School of Music. During this period he immersed himself in the local jazz culture, and ended up staying.

Escreet released his debut album “Consequences” in 2008, leading an all star American quintet featuring alto saxophonist David Binney, trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire, bassist Matt Brewer and drummer Tyshawn Sorey.

He has since released nine more albums, this current release is his tenth, and has continued to work with other leading jazz musicians from the US and elsewhere. Others to have featured on Escreet’s recordings include trumpeter Nicholas Payton, guitarists Wayne Krantz and Adam Rogers, saxophonists Chris Potter, Greg Osby and Evan Parker bassists Matt Brewer, Eivind Opsvik and John Hebert and drummers Nasheet Waits, Jim Black, Justin Brown, Eric Harland, Marcus Gilmore and Damion Reid. Heavyweight company indeed, and indicative of how fully integrated Escreet has become on the American jazz and improvised music scene. His full discography can be found at his website http://www.johnescreet.com

Escreet has also worked extensively as a sideman with artists such as drummers Antonio Sanchez, Tyshawn Sorey, and Anthony Fung, saxophonists David Binney and Zhenya Strigalev, trumpeters Alex Spiagin, Dan Rosenboom and Amir ElSaffar, bassists Michael Janisch, Pera Krstajic and Logan Kane, flautist Jamie Baum and electronic artist Floating Points (Samuel Shepherd).

The Jazzmann reviewed “Sabotage And Celebration”,  Escreet’s ambitious 2013 album for Whirlwind Recordings.
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In 2014 I was fortunate enough to witness a dazzling, but fearsomely intense, live performance by the trio of Escreet, bassist John Hebert and drummer Tyshawn Sorey at that year’s EFG London Jazz Festival. That event forms part of that year’s Festival coverage, which can be found here;
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Escreet was then to return to EFGLJF as a sideman in 2018, playing both acoustic piano and electric keyboards as part of drummer /composer Antonio Sanchez’s Migration group at The Jazz Café in Camden.

In early 2020, just before the start of the pandemic, Escreet re-located to Los Angeles. Following the inevitable Covid related delays he has since established himself as a major presence on that city’s jazz and experimental music scene. He says of his new home town; “This fertile musical environment is really broad and diverse, and not only the New York cats who have moved here. There’s a very healthy young, local scene as well. It’s all exciting”.

In 2022 Escreet released “Seismic Shift”, his second album for Whirlwind Recordings. Remarkably this was his first recording in the conventional piano trio format and saw him linking up with drummer Damion Reid and bassist Eric Revis, two other musicians formerly based in New York but now resident in Los Angeles. My review of this recording can be found here;
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Released in June 2024 “the epicenter of your dreams” sees Escreet expanding the group to a quartet, with tenor saxophonist Mark Turner joining himself, Reid and Revis.  It’s very much a West Coast band, both Revis and Reid were born in the Los Angeles area, while Ohio born Turner grew up in California.

The new recording features five original compositions from Escreet, one collective improvisation and arrangements of pieces by Stanley Cowell and Andrew Hill, two of Escreet’s piano heroes. The music ranges from the through composed to no holds barred free improvisation, and all points in between.

Escreet has spoken of his desire to blur the boundaries between composition and improvisation. He has stated that he strives for “the very fine balance between bringing my music and concepts to the table and allowing people the opportunity to shine and be themselves”. He adds; “if everyone’s comfortable all the time it makes for boring music”.

Boring is never an allegation that could be levelled against Escreet’s dynamic and exciting, albeit sometimes challenging, music. All of the tune titles are rendered in lower case and the album commences with “call it what it is”, a composition that is intended to “act as a harmonic and rhythmic catalyst for improvisation”. A sturdy and energetic slice of post bop driven by the leader’s percussive piano figures and Reid’s hip hop influenced drum grooves the piece finds Turner slotting into the group seamlessly with a fluent and intelligent tenor sax solo. He’s followed by the leader, with a dazzling piano solo as Reid and Revis continue to stoke the rhythmic fires. At times the music almost veers off into the realms of free jazz as the energy levels reach boiling point at the conclusion of Escreet’s solo. An immersive and invigorating beginning.

Variety is very much what Escreet is all about. By way of contrast the title track is through composed, beginning in suitably dreamlike fashion with the gentle and thoughtful dialogue between the leader’s piano and Turner’s tenor sax. The introduction of drums and bass imparts the music with greater energy and momentum, with Escreet inserting classical style flourishes into the course of his solo. Turner follows on tenor, his trademark lyricism always readily discernible no matter how deeply he probes. Variously described as “a voyage” and “an odyssey” this is a piece that passes through several distinct phases and embraces a wide variety of dynamic contrasts, not always following the obvious path. In the latter stages of the piece Revis is featured with a delightfully melodic double bass solo.

On the “Seismic Shift” album Escreet paid homage to one of his piano heroes, the late Stanley Cowell (1941-2020). Cowell’s then recent passing was acknowledged by the Escreet Trio’s beautiful interpretation of Cowell’s composition “Equipoise”. Here the expanded line up tackles Cowell’s “Departure No. 1”, another piece from Cowell’s 1973 solo piano album “Musa; Ancestral Streams”. The quartet give the piece a swinging, bebop inspired treatment, delivered at a rapid tempo and incorporating a torrential piano solo from Escreet, a slightly more considered sax solo from Turner and a dynamic solo drum feature from Reid. Escreet says of his musical relationship with the drummer;
“We spar with other rhythmically, and I feel that Damion can always match me. Whatever I’m doing on the piano, rhythmically or energy-wise, Damion’s right there with me”.

Credited to all four group members “meltdown” is a collective improvisation that represents the quartet’s only true excursion into the world of free jazz and embraces some of the techniques associated with the genre, including bowed bass and saxophone multi-phonics. But it’s not all scratchy free improv, this instantaneous composition eventually acquires a sense of structure and narrative and embraces its own kind of strange and dramatic beauty. It’s another example of Escreet blurring the boundaries between improvisation and composition.

The next written piece, “trouble and activity”, is cut from the same cloth as the album opener. Rhythmically vibrant and bristling with energy, and also featuring the darting unison melody lines of Escreet and Turner,  the piece also incorporates more discursive solos from both. Escreet’s intensely percussive piano explorations variously evoke the spirits of McCoy Tyner and Cecil Taylor, and again emphasise the importance of his musical relationship with Reid.

The album’s second ‘outside’ item is an arrangement of the Andrew Hill composition “Erato”, a ballad that was first recorded in 1965 but not released until a decade later. Hill (1931 – 2007) is another of Escreet’s piano heroes and Escreet speaks of Hill’s compositions as being; “kind of weird and angular. It’s everything that I aspire to – a little bit off-kilter and quirky, yet totally unique and identifiable”.
Escreet and his colleagues place their own stamp on the piece by subtly quickening the pace. Escreet provides an extended solo piano introduction, the prevailing mood soft and lyrical. The addition of sax, bass and drums increases both the energy and the tempo, but that sense of lyricism remains during the course of solos from both Escreet and Turner. Revis is featured with another melodic bass solo, but Reid’s prompting from the drum kit helps to ensure that nobody gets TOO comfortable.

“lifeline” is another of those intense, dynamic highly rhythmic pieces that Escreet seems to specialise in. There’s an edgy energy that stems from Reid at the kit and which informs the playing of the other musicians. Complex unison melody lines are contrasted with more expansive individual features, such as a typically percussive Escreet piano solo and a probing tenor sax exploration from Turner. Strongly influenced by Warne Marsh the saxophonist is a highly lyrical player, but one who relishes the opportunity to step outside his own musical comfort zone and he plays with a harder than usual edge here. Escreet says of Turner’s contribution to the album;
“I love Mark in this context, which is very much my world. It’s so extreme. Sometimes you can hear a pin drop and it’s really spacious, and other times it’s a wall of sound. It’s not necessarily something he would choose for himself, but it’s a situation where he can totally be himself – and nothing else would work apart from him being himself”.

The album concludes with “other side”, a brief final helping of muscular post bop driven by Reid’s dynamic drumming and incorporating razor sharp unison passages allied to a bravura piano solo from the leader. It’s an invigorating rush of collective energy that is over far too quickly.

At the time of the release of “Seismic Shift” the trio of Escreet, Revis and Reid had already played a few gigs with Turner, something that I described as being “an intriguing prospect”.

I’m pleased that this “intriguing prospect” has now come to fruition on record. The contrasting styles of Escreet and Turner complement each other perfectly and in Revis and Reid the band has a rhythm section that serves the frontline soloists well and which is more than capable of rising to the challenges of Escreet’s intelligent and often complex writing.

Escreet is one of the UK’s most successful jazz exports and remains a cutting edge presence on the US scene, now on both coasts.

“the epicenter of your dreams” is a fiercely intelligent recording featuring inventive original writing, imaginative interpretations of outside material and some excellent playing. It’s sometimes complex, sometimes intense, but remains approachable and is often highly exciting. Escreet has forged a piano and compositional style that is very much his own and he has fully earned the respect of his peers on the American jazz circuit.

The “Seismic Shift” trio of Escreet, Revis and Reid will visit London on November 17th 2024 to play two shows at The Vortex Jazz Club in Dalston as part of the EFG London Jazz Festival. It should be a hugely exciting event.

from  www.thejazzmann.com