Seismic Shift＜限定盤/Grey Marble Vinyl＞

The first-ever trio album from John Escreet, 2022s Seismic Shift captures the pianist in deep interplay with his highly regarded rhythm section partners, bassist Eric Revis and drummer Damion Reid. Born in the U.K., Escreet spent many years living in Brooklyn before relocating to Los Angeles at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was during one of his initial post-pandemic shows in 2021 that he first worked with Revis (a longtime member of Branford Marsalis band) and Reid (who has played with Robert Glasper and Steve Lehman). All three musicians found common ground, communing over their many years in New York and shared interest in pushing the jazz envelope. Its that push-to-the-edge energy they bring to all of Seismic Shift, with songs that straddle the line between harmonically nuanced post-bop and frenetic, atonal avant-gardism. Aesthetically, Escreet is an intriguing player with a style that bridges the warm sophistication of Herbie Hancock and McCoy Tyner with the bold free jazz and fist-crashing chords of Cecil Taylor and Thelonious Monk. In the past, he has led groups featuring horn players, including Ambrose Akinmusire (2009s Consequences) and Evan Parker (2013s Sound, Space and Structures). While its always welcome to hear how engaged he is with another front-line improviser, hes just as compelling on his own, and more importantly with his trio partners here. Both Revis and Reid are titanically gifted players who regularly grab your attention with their boldly delivered accents and swinging flourishes. Theres a maverick quality to Seismic Shift thats evident right from the start, as in the opening "Study No. 1," where Escreet pushes you with force, tearing your ears open with dense chords and great blasts of notey runs. More measured is "Equipoise," a dramatic modal piece in the John Coltrane tradition. Here, Escreet pours shards of linear broken-glass notes down a deep stairway of fourths against which Revis and Reid offer woody bellows and tumbling stick rhythms. The trios tactile give-and-take is redolent throughout, especially on the evocatively named "Digital Tulips," which has the energy of a 1940s bebop track being remixed in real time by a DJ. The title song is yet more evocative, conjuring haunted house imagery as Escreets prepared piano technique of plucked strings and dampened keys gives way to Revis mournful bowed bass and Reids ghostly cymbal work. Seismic Shift is a gorgeously arresting album, and theres never a moment where you can easily predict where Escreets trio is going to go next. ~ Matt Collar