Home » Jazz Articles » Play This! » John Escreet: Departure No. 1

John Escreet: Departure No. 1

By John Chacona
July 3, 2024
View read count

When you first listen to "Departure No. 1," from

John Escreet

piano
b.1984

" data-original-title="" title="">John Escreet's The epicenter of your dreams (Blue Room Music, 2024), you might well ask, Who wrote that? At once familiar but tantalizingly hard to pin down, the composition sounds like a

Bud Powell

piano
1924 - 1966

" data-original-title="" title="">Bud Powell tune or maybe an undiscovered

Herbie Nichols

piano
1919 - 1963

" data-original-title="" title="">Herbie Nichols gem, perhaps in an edition by

Jaki Byard

piano
1922 - 1999

" data-original-title="" title="">Jaki Byard. Nope. It's by

Stanley Cowell

piano
1941 - 2020

" data-original-title="" title="">Stanley Cowell, a pianist/composer who matches those luminaries for brilliance and singularity. The Yorkshire-born Angeleno pianist, bassist

Eric Revis

bass
b.1967

" data-original-title="" title="">Eric Revis and powerhouse drummer

Damion Reid

drums

" data-original-title="" title="">Damion Reid roar through Cowell's playful chart like children rushing for shelter in a sudden downpour. On tenor,

Mark Turner

saxophone, tenor
b.1965

" data-original-title="" title="">Mark Turner eats up the changes with an almost absurdly videogame-level speed and agility, nailing the arrival.

Contact John Chacona on All About Jazz.
John Chacona is a freelance journalist, content writer and producer in Cleveland.

Contribute to Play This! Recommend a favorite song, album, or performance and we'll share it with your fellow All About Jazz readers. Submit it here.

PREVIOUS / NEXT

A Place Called Home
< Previous

Earthen
Next >

Support All About Jazz

All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.