John Escreet / John Escreet Trio
Jazz Road Creative Residencies Grant Recipient
Recipient Information
Location
San Gabriel, California
Year of Award
2021
Grant or Fellowship
Jazz Road Creative Residencies Grant
Grant Amount
$40,000
About the Project
Create, workshop, record and perform new work for pianist Escreet's trio including bassist, Eric Revis and drummer, Damion Reid. In-studio recording for a new album will lead to new release shows at The Jazz Gallery (NY) and Sam First Jazz Club (Los Angeles).
Residency Location
Los Angeles, CA; New York, NY; Multiple locations
About the Artist
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 8 diverse and critically acclaimed albums.
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.""
2014's ""Sound, Space and Structures"", and 2016’s ""The Unknown"" saw Escreet and his working Trio collaborate with the master free-jazz saxophonist and elder statesman Evan Parker. The Unknown also marks Escreet’s first live album, recorded in Europe over the course of 2 concerts. 2018 saw Escreet return to composed music with perhaps his most remarkable release to date - Learn to Live - which among other things features Escreet extensively using the Prophet 6 synthesizer to expand his musical palette.
Escreet - also a much sought-after sideman - has enjoyed a long association with the Grammy award-winning drummer Antonio Sanchez, recording on 3 of his studio albums and touring extensively across the globe with his band Migration over the past decade, becoming an integral part of that group’s sound and development.
In 2009, John was a recipient of the Chamber Music America New Jazz Works Grant. 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 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.