jazz blog

John Escreet has been working with bassist John Hébert and Tyshawn Sorey as a trio for four years and is here joined by Evan Parker, the hook-up with the free-jazz icon stemming from a September 2013 Stone residency in New York when Parker invited the Escreet trio to perform with him. A recording session was then arranged a week after their performance together, which comprises the music on Sound, Space and Structures all composed by Escreet.

More intimate than last year’s Sabotage and Celebration, less squally and noisy, Parker is at his most poetic on ‘Part II’ the subtly expanded minimal patterns suitably engrossing. Sorey’s opening at the beginning of ‘Part III’ spurs Escreet on, a dense solo full of blocky pugnacious intent that teases Parker out of his lair. There are lots of moments like this where the four players suddenly “get it”, and process complex ideas delivered in real time.

A must for anyone interested in state-of-the-art free-jazz: the style seems to have entered a new phase as Parker at the top of his game passes on the flame to a new generation, Escreet, the English jazz scene’s most significant “jazz export” to America since Dave Holland’s arrival more than 40 years ago, on fine form. SG

_{John Hébert, top left, John Escreet, Tyshawn Sorey, and Evan Parker}

_{Photo: johnescreet.com}