Pianist John Escreet teams up with fellow Angelenos Mark Turner/ts, Eric Revis/b and Damion Reid/dr for an album that sounds the extension of the vision of late period Blue Note, namely Andrew Hill’s Black Fire and Point Of Departure or Wayne Shorter’s The All Seeing Eye. Escreet’s touch on the piano, while all his own, has hints of both Hill and Herbie Hancock in the fingers, while Turner’s tenor is a perfect extension of the style of a Joe Henderson or Wayne Shorter. The eight tunes on the album have 6 like m indeed originals as well as one by Hill himself.
Hill’s own “Erato” sets the tone well, with dark tones and shadows, soft and warm hues from Turner and deft brushes assuaging the impressionistic mood. Both “Call It What It Is” and “Lifeline” are intricately complex themes, prismatic and elliptical with Turner sustaining tension on the sax and Escreet delivering ectomorphically tricky ideas. Stanley Cowell’s “Departure No. 1” is a well dug rivulet, with Reid and Revis riding the whip on the galloping stallions, while the title tune is a rich and multi-hued opus with a mix of dramatic leaps and bounds and melancholic sighs, with Revis giving lamenting support in blue. Heady with a heart.