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John Escreet

Over the course of his career, John Escreet has earned a reputation as one of the most active and diverse pianist/composers working in jazz and improvised music. His prolific output is reflected over the course of 6 diverse and critically acclaimed albums - the most recent being Sound, Space and Structures which partners his working Trio (with John Hébert on bass and Tyshawn Sorey on drums) with the iconic free-jazz saxophonist Evan Parker.

Bursting on to the scene with his 2008 debut album Consequences, Escreet quickly earned a reputation as one of the most exciting new pianist/composers to have emerged in recent years, with Downbeat magazine proclaiming “John Escreet’s recent debut Consequences signals the jumpstart of a new voice in jazz." Similar praise followed for his 2010 sophomore release Don’t Fight The Inevitable, of which the New York Times’ Ben Ratliff said “… on an ambitious second album, the pianist John Escreet seems to be thinking about where jazz can go next. He’s using lots of structure and instrumental texture, cruising through different languages, straight-ahead and free and in between; it’s like a tour of the last 25 years of serious jazz." 2011 saw two releases - The Age We Live In, and Exception To The Rule, followed by 2013’s Sabotage and Celebration, all of which received widespread international critical acclaim. The latest addition to this impressive catalog is 2014's Sound, Space and Structures.

As well as being a leader of prolific output, Escreet is also a much sought-after sideman. He has toured extensively with Antonio Sanchez’s Migration band, recording on his 2013 Cam Jazz release New Life. He has also contributed his pianistic skills to the working bands of David Binney, Amir ElSaffar, Tyshawn Sorey, and Jamie Baum among many others.

In 2009, John was a recipient of the prestigious Chamber Music America New Jazz Works Grant, as well as the CMA/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming in 2011. In 2013, Escreet was commissioned by the Jazz Gallery to write a new work as part of their Residency/Commissions for 2012-2013, for which he wrote an extended work for string quartet and piano trio. 2014 saw John being awarded the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation USArtists International grant to tour with his Quartet, and recently in 2015 he was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music (ARAM), his Alma Mater - awarded to past students who have distinguished themselves in the music profession and made a significant contribution to it in their particular field.

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Album Review

Dan Rosenboom: Polarity

Read "Polarity" reviewed by Jerome Wilson


On this album, trumpeter Dan Rosenboom and his quartet engage in a free-wheeling session which comes off as a modern update of Wayne Shorter releases such as The All-Seeing Eye (Blue Note, 1966). He engages in playful genre-crossing and experimentation here which incorporate the sensibilities of hip-hop and ambient music as well as modern jazz. The album's key track is the marathon opener, “The Age of Snakes" in which Rosenboom's trumpet and Gavin Templeton's alto saxophone lazily float ...

12
Album Review

Dan Rosenboom: Polarity

Read "Polarity" reviewed by Pat Youngspiel


Recently, Los Angeles-based trumpeter Dan Rosenboom has been experimenting with somewhat freer and edgier realms of improvisation, giving doomy metal influences a go on Trio Subliminal 2 (Orenda Records, 2022), and indulging high-energy trio interplay with plenty of delay effects and other sonic manipulation on Refraction (Orenda Records, 2021). Not to mention the opulent The Complete Boom Sessions (Orenda Records, 2022), which captured over 400-minutes, live to tape, recorded over five gigs at one of Los Angeles' premiere hubs for ...

Album Review

Amir ElSaffar River of Sound Orchestra: The Other Shore

Read "The Other Shore" reviewed by Neri Pollastri


Secondo disco per la Rivers of Sound Orchestra, ensemble creato nel 2015 da Amir ElSaffar con il preciso intento di esplorare in modo originale le culture musicali delle sue origini. ElSaffar è infatti nato negli Stati Uniti da madre statunitense e padre di origini irachene; avvicinatosi precocemente alla musica, ha coltivato quella jazzistica dalla discoteca paterna e quella classica dalle frequentazioni della madre; musicista dalle collaborazioni di altissimo livello--tra gli altri Cecil Taylor e Vijay Iyer--solo da adulto si è ...

2
Album Review

John Escreet: Seismic Shift

Read "Seismic Shift" reviewed by Mark Corroto


John Escreet's recording Seismic Shift, the pianist's first trio recording, might be the case for the return of warning labels on packaging. Not that there are explicit lyrics or violent images, it is just that the 52 minutes of music contained here are quite tempestuous and unrelenting. By design. Escreet is known for his wide-ranging interests in creative music. He has recorded in both the acoustic and electric realms, performing on instruments including the harpsichord, synthesizers, Fender Rhodes ...

2
Album Review

Olivier Le Goas & Reciprocity: Onramp Of Heaven Dreams

Read "Onramp Of Heaven Dreams" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


A blindfolded spin of French drummer Olivier Le Goas & Reciprocity's Onramp Of Heaven Dreams says the spirit of guitarist Pat Metheny is hanging around. The lineup—guitar, piano, bass and drums—mirrors that of Metheny's early ECM Records such as Watercolors (1977) and American Garage (1979), and the disc's title itself nods to Metheny's Offramp (ECM Records,1982). This in the year 2020, when Metheny released a career highlight, From this Place (Nonesuch Records). Olivier's sound has a clean, sharp-edged ...

3
Album Review

John Escreet: Learn To Live

Read "Learn To Live" reviewed by Friedrich Kunzmann


Take some sweet melodies from Jeff Lynn's ELO, add Keith Emerson on synth and think of an underlying rumbling towards more experimental sound collages, rooted somewhere between the electronic approach of Brian Eno and Miles Davis' early organic-fusion extravaganzas and you'll end up with... well, let's be honest, it still won't sound anything like what keyboardist / composer John Escreet has to offer on Learn to Live . While one preferably shan't judge a book by its cover, his first ...

1
Album Review

John Escreet: Learn To Live

Read "Learn To Live" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic


From the light, airy smoothness of “Opening," through the nomadic, polyrhythmic, suite “Broken Justice (Kalief)" (which brings to contemporary life Weather Report's axiom: “Everyone solos but no-one solos") to the poppy, practically Stevie Wonder-ish “Lady T's Vibe," keyboardist/composer John Escreet's fusion proves to be a many-headed, sinewy hybrid. All are brought to the forefront on Learn To Live. Employing a host of new and old keyboards, and a band of like-minded originals, trumpeter Nicholas Payton, drummers Eric Harland ...

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Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: John Escreet

Jazz Musician of the Day: John Escreet

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating John Escreet's birthday today!

Over the course of his career, John Escreet has earned a reputation as one of the most active and diverse pianist/composers working in jazz and improvised music. His prolific output is reflected over the course of 6 diverse and critically acclaimed albums- the most recent being Sound, Space and Structures which partners his working Trio (with John Hébert on bass and Tyshawn Sorey on drums) with the iconic free-jazz saxophonist Evan ...

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: John Escreet

Jazz Musician of the Day: John Escreet

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating John Escreet's birthday today!

Over the course of his career, John Escreet has earned a reputation as one of the most active and diverse pianist/composers working in jazz and improvised music. His prolific output is reflected over the course of 6 diverse and critically acclaimed albums- the most recent being Sound, Space and Structures which partners his working Trio (with John Hébert on bass and Tyshawn Sorey on drums) with the iconic free-jazz saxophonist Evan ...

1

Special Offers

Whirlwind Recordings Announces 5x Customer-Voted New Vinyl Reissues: Jensen Sisters, Paul Jackson, City Of Poets (Jason Palmer & Cedric Hanriot), John Escreet & Mike Gibbs

Whirlwind Recordings Announces 5x Customer-Voted New Vinyl Reissues: Jensen Sisters, Paul Jackson, City Of Poets (Jason Palmer & Cedric Hanriot), John Escreet & Mike Gibbs

Source: Emma Perry Publicity

Exciting news for vinyl fans: Whirlwind Recordings announced (in January) five brand-new reissues of celebrated back-catalog releases, available on LP for the first time. The new reissues come from a range of artists, featuring releases many customers have requested on LP for some time. The first five all ship in May 2021—look out for more reissues coming later in the year. These limited edition printings are a one-off and limited to 300 copies, making them a unique collector's item, grab ...

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: John Escreet

Jazz Musician of the Day: John Escreet

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating John Escreet's birthday today!

Over the course of his career, John Escreet has earned a reputation as one of the most active and diverse pianist/composers working in jazz and improvised music. His prolific output is reflected over the course of 6 diverse and critically acclaimed albums- the most recent being Sound, Space and Structures which partners his working Trio (with John Hébert on bass and Tyshawn Sorey on drums) with the iconic free-jazz saxophonist Evan ...

1

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: John Escreet

Jazz Musician of the Day: John Escreet

Source: Michael Ricci


Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: John Escreet

Jazz Musician of the Day: John Escreet

Source: Michael Ricci


Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: John Escreet

Jazz Musician of the Day: John Escreet

Source: Michael Ricci


Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: John Escreet

Jazz Musician of the Day: John Escreet

Source: Michael Ricci


Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: John Escreet

Jazz Musician of the Day: John Escreet

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating John Escreet's birthday today! Since moving to New York in 2006, John Escreet has had a powerful impact, and is emerging as one of the most creative and original pianists on the music scene there. He is highly revered amongst his peers for his creativity, openness and for his own original music, which draws inspiration from many different sources, and encompasses them all and much more. Escreet keeps himself busy by touring regularly across the ...

3

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: John Escreet

Jazz Musician of the Day: John Escreet

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating John Escreet's birthday today! Since moving to New York in 2006, John Escreet has had a powerful impact, and is emerging as one of the most creative and original pianists on the music scene there. He is highly revered amongst his peers for his creativity, openness and for his own original music, which draws inspiration from many different sources, and encompasses them all and much more. Escreet keeps himself busy by touring regularly across the ...

“A commanding performer who comps and solos with the percussive flamboyance of Jason Moran (who wrote the recording’s liner notes), Escreet's imaginative pen brings forth omnivorous music… Cerebral, gutsy, and filled with personality, Consequences is a discriminating work from a promising talent and one of the brightest releases of 2008.” —All About Jazz

“Pianist John Escreet's recent debut Consequences signals the jumpstart of a new voice in jazz.” —Downbeat

“John Escreet, a British jazz pianist in his mid-20s, has no problem communicating drama. "Consequences," his highly accomplished debut, opens with a half-hour composition "The Suite of Consequence" that divides almost imperceptibly into three parts. The piece at large is a whorl of high- impact quintet engagement, combustible solo digressions, calmly contemplative passages and flashes of mounting suspense. A lot happens there, and each moment carries its own sharp glint of conviction.” —The New York Times

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Polarity

Orenda Records
2023

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Seismic Shift

Whirlwind Recordings
2022

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The Other Shore

OutNote Records
2021

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Onramp Of Heaven...

Challenge Records
2020

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Learn To Live

Blue Room Music
2018

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Rich in Symbols

Ropeadope
2017

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