While I don't know if this is your problem, you should use
KeyEvent.VK_ESCAPE instead of 27.  IIRC, 27 will not necessarily
always map to the same value on a keyboard if the keyboard is for a
different language.

Also, within your code, what object are you adding that key event to?
For example, assuming you are implementing that method inside the
JFrame in question, you should have...

   this.addKeyListener(new KeyListener() {
     public void keyPressed(KeyEvent e) {
     }
     public void keyReleased(KeyEvent e) {
       if (e.getKeyCode() == 27){
         System.out.println("closing...");
         close();
       }
     }
     public void keyTyped(KeyEvent e) {
     }
   });

(Notie the "this" reference on the first line.)

Just wanted to clarify to weed out any minor issues first.

It's a really poor idea to needlessly extend classes. I know there is
lots of bad tutorial code out there that inappropriately inherit, but it
is really quite poor design.

keyTyped would be more conventional.

Do any other keys call that method?

Key events are fired for a single component. So if the focus is in a
text field, the enclosing frame will not receive the event (nor would an
enclosing JComboBox, incidentally).

The magic parts of the APIs are:

    JComponent.getInputMap(WHEN_IN_FOCUSED_WINDOW)
    JComponent.getActionMap()

(If you want to see how it's used, look at the docs for
JComponent.registerKeyboardAction(ActionListener,String,KeyStroke,int),
which was the old, easier-to-use way of doing it.)

Tom Hawtin

Nevermind.
I found this solution, and it's working fine. Thanks anyway.

KeyStroke escapeKeyStroke = KeyStroke.getKeyStroke(KeyEvent.VK_ESCAPE,
0, false);
Action escapeAction = new AbstractAction() {
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
//close the frame
}
};
getRootPane().getInputMap(JComponent.WHEN_IN_FOCUSED_WINDOW).put(escapeKeyStroke,
"ESCAPE");
getRootPane().getActionMap().put("ESCAPE", escapeAction);