John Escreet – Consequences (Posi-Tone, 2008)

Pianist and composer Escreet takes on some potent challenges with a very talented band. He is accompanied by David Binney on alto saxophone, Ambrose Akinmusire on trumpet, Matt Brewer on bass and Tyshawn Sorey on drums. The album opens with a very ambitious and lengthy three part suite featuring some stout and powerful trumpet playing and a very potent and percussive piano interlude in the third movement. This is a powerful arrangement that also allows the musicians in the group enough freedom for them to interpret the composition as they see fit.The highlight of the disc for me was “Wayne’s World” which gets appropriately Shorter-esque with an epic saxophone solo of knotty intensity, one of the best solos I have heard from Binney. “Dilema” ratchets down the intensity for a lengthy fender rhodes electric piano feature, and the closing “No Doubt” is a solo piano feature. I was impressed with this disc, for a young and up coming musician, Escreet acquits himself well in heady company and his compositions have a distinctively original and aspiring quality.