What ties it all together is Sood’s knack for telling stories through the band as a whole.
Self Produced
Eshaan Sood – guitar; Annie Orzen – piano; Ivan Demarjian – tenor saxophone; Brendan Nie – bass; Sam Schaeffer – drums
Guitarist and composer Eshaan Sood makes a strong debut with Dream River, a collection of eight originals played with some of his Eastman School classmates. Born in New Delhi, Sood studied at the Global Music Institute before moving to Rochester, NY. His path to the guitar wasn’t straightforward—he survived a car accident that left him blind—what matters here is the music. These pieces are lyrical, patient, often impressionistic, closer in spirit to storytelling, with voices overlapping and blending instead of lining up for solos.
That sense of ensemble storytelling shows up with the opener, ‘Mountain Muse.’ It sets the tone with a stately bass figure and soft washes of piano and percussion. A hushed tenor sax carries the melody while Sood’s guitar rises gently out of the texture—not dominating, but adding a warm hue, like sunlight breaking through mist. It’s a fitting homage to the Himalayas, where Sood spent childhood holidays. The repeating melodic figure echoes the sort of folky flute tune you might hear drifting through the mountains.
If ‘Mountain Muse ’looks outward to the mountains, ‘Glass Blown Acquaintances ’turns inward to a single fleeting encounter. It was inspired by a chance meeting with a glassblower on a ten-hour train ride. The music drifts in gently with a light shuffle rhythm, tender sax lines, and piano notes scattered like flecks of light. Sood doesn’t appear until three-quarters of the way through, content to let others shine rather than stepping into the spotlight himself.
After the easy drift of ‘Glass Blown Acquaintances, ’the mood turns more intimate with ‘Miss Lightning, ’Sood’s tribute to his dog Bijli (‘lightning ’in Hindi). A gentle guitar figure leads into a slow, expressive sax solo before fading like a memory. The sorrow is there, but so is the affection.
That personal thread runs through other pieces as well. ‘If Our Hearts Could Talk’ reflects his belief that if we spoke simply and without reading between the lines, there’d be more love in the world. The music mirrors that idea: repeating piano and bass figures, a patient guitar melody, nothing overstated. ‘Plea for Forgiveness,’ by contrast, was written during a time when nothing seemed to go right. It’s Sood’s musical apology for whatever unintentional deed he might have done to cause such distress, voiced in forceful ensemble passages that give way to gentler stretches of guitar.
Not everything leans inward. ‘Here for a Good Time’ borrows Coltrane changes but flips them into a playful dance groove, reminding himself and the listener not to take life—or music—too seriously. The closer, “Sailing Through Dream River,” feels like the band rowing together—guitar and sax trading the melody, carried along by bass and drums until it drifts to a quiet close.
What ties it all together is Sood’s knack for telling stories through the band as a whole. He plays plenty, but he’s just as willing to let his bandmates share the spotlight. As he puts it: “The unifying theme of my music is my personal experiences. I love telling stories, and improvised music seemed like the perfect way for me to tell these stories in an abstract way.” That sense of shared storytelling is what makes Dream River such a rewarding debut.
