REVIEW:

The John Escreet Project

The Spin was unsurprisingly full to the brim for the John Escreet Project who had arrived from New York that very morning. The club has been able to get a number of international players onto the stage over the past few years but this was the first from the very heartland of jazz. Keyboard player and composer John Escreet, originally from the UK, has been over in New York for several years. He has written music for a band of truly luminous players who bring together a diversity of styles that Escreet has managed to weld into a group that plays with rare imagination and virtuosity.

Ambrose Akinmusire on trumpet can rein in his technical mastery to investigate the notes of a tune with spare haunting phrases. This deliberate frugality contrasted beautifully with alto saxophonist David Binney who has such fluidity and speed that he sounded like an unfolded version of Ornette Colman at his best. The sheets of notes welded a clear chain of musical ideas yet allowed Akinmusire’s trumpet to sound equally thoughtful and individual as he nudged at a phrase. Alongside these two John Escreet on a Fender Rhodes laid down the structure of the pieces and played with an equal mix of alacrity and intensity often unafraid to return to a single note or cluster to build the tension. Behind him the rhythm section of Zack Lober on bass and Tyshawn Sorey on drums created a firm yet kaleidoscopic carpet. Sorey was perhaps the most exceptional player in the whole group able to entirely alter the landscape of the sound by subtle or deliberately forceful alterations in the rhythmic structure. The group often played in duo or trio giving a sense of everyone being involved rather than the more traditional formula of soloist and support. Although Escreet’s music is tightly written there were many times when the band seemed to take the music to a very free edge, though this was immediately counteracted when the horns restated a melody with absolute precision.

Let’s hope the Spin can continue to be the rightful venue for more such international bands on UK tours as well as the best in the UK.

© Paul Medley