Musicians as Audiophiles: John Escreet

Even newbie audiophiles can be smitten with the vintage hi-fi bug. Keyboardist and composer John Escreet was once a streaming kind of guy. Then he heard the Fisher 500-C/Falcon LS3/5a-endowed system of bassist Matt Brewer, partner of former Stereophile editorial coordinator Jana Dagdagan.

“Their system sounded so realistic,” Escreet recalled from his Brooklyn apartment, where he lives with his girlfriend, vocalist Teresa Lee. “It gave a lot more clarity to the recordings. When I’d go around to Matt and Jana’s apartment, music through their system sounded focused and warm. It sounded like a live performance. Sounded so much better and more real. And considering music is my life pretty much, it made sense to go in this direction.”

And since Escreet’s comfy living room is home to vinyl from Michael Jackson to Hamiet Bluiett, the black shiny discs were foremost in his mind.

“I liked Matt and Jana’s setup with the Technics SL1200 turntable (modded by KAB), so I knew I wanted a similar situation to really listen to vinyl,” the 34-year-old added. “The vinyl process is different, you’re not flicking around and jumping around, being so schizophrenic. I just want to want to sit down and treat it with the respect it deserves. I put a record on then I have to get my ass up to change the thing. You have to be more invested. It’s not such a casual thing, it’s about listening properly.”

Escreet’s Discreet System

Escreet’s relatively new system, purchased in late 2017, draws on high-fidelity machines old and new. From his sparkling clean Rega P3 turntable and Dynavector 10×5 cartridge, to the 1960s tube-powered Fisher 500-C receiver and the comparatively modern (1977) Vandersteen Model 2 loudspeakers, Escreet has chosen wisely and well.

The Fisher 500-C is one of the all-time classic receivers, introduced in 1964 for $369.

Peter Breuninger reviewed the 500-C for Stereophile back in 2005: “The Fisher 500-C stereo receiver was the pinnacle of high-fidelity reproduction in 1964. A conservative estimate of the number of 500-Cs built runs to more than 100,000 units. It was a technological tour de force that combined a full-function control center (preamp) with a 35Wpc power amplifier and a stereo multiplex FM tuner that offered the highest sensitivity rating of the time. It’s interesting to note that FM tuners from those days continue to offer outstanding performance—witness the $2000-plus resale prices of Marantz 10Bs on the Internet. There is a reason for this, and it’s not just nostalgia.”

One of the most beloved loudspeakers, and a frequent starting point of audio discovery for newbies, the Vandersteen Model 2 provides easy entryway into the hi-fi way of life.

Steve Guttenberg wrote of the Vandersteen 2 loudspeakers in 2012 for Sound & Vision: “. . . Vandersteen’s speakers bore little resemblance to what other home brew entrepreneurs cooked up. Most guys start with a box and fool around with drivers. Vandersteen made recordings of everyday sounds and musical instruments and used the recordings to guide his progress for his prototype designs, and quickly discovered that as he reduced the size of the front baffle the sound was more realistic. He knew from the get-go he wasn’t going to make a box speaker.”

Even today, all “Vannies” look and sound unique. The Model 2 is a three-way design, the driver array stacked within the cabinet’s box- and baffle-less frame. The 2’s innards consist of an 8″ die-cast basket and curvilinear polycone woofer,4 ½” die-cast basket with linear surround and curvilinear polycone midrange unit, and a 1″ damped metal-alloy dome tweeter. A removable foam grill wraps the Vannie’s frame like a cozy fall sweater. Rated at 87dB with a nominal 7-ohm impedance, the Model 2s present a less-than-easy load, but the 35Wpc Fisher 500-C drove them respectably well in Escreet’s large listening/living room.

“In terms of listening to music this system makes me appreciate the subtleties and details and the quality of a recording,” the Brit-born Escreet explained. “Not just in terms of the gear but how an album was recorded, the different recording techniques from different eras, all of that has become more apparent. I’ve always been an astute listener, I always try to have a keen ear on sound in general. That’s why I love piano players who have wonderful tone.”

Learn to Live, Learn to Listen

Escreet’s latest release, Learn To Live (Blue Room Music), brings together some of the finest musicians in jazz to blow, cavort, and improvise on 10 fantastic compositions. Escreet gets exceptional performances from saxophonist Greg Osby, trumpeter Nicolas Payton, bassist Matt Brewer, and the extremely rare double drumming duo of masters Eric Harland and Justin Brown. This unusual combination of musicians play with excitement, cohesion and inspiration.

“I’m really happy with the new album and how the music turned out,” Escreet said. “It’s a special project to me. It’s got two drummers, Eric Harland and Justin Brown, playing together at once most of the time. Hearing the two together is pretty wild. They’re very different but alike in kind. They have similar qualities that I like. Justin being slightly younger is very respectful of Harland, but Harland has huge respect for Justin. And being drummers they’ve never had the chance to hit together before so like I just had this idea to put them together.”

Learn to Live is one of 2018’s most compositionally dense, funk-futuristic, freely improvisational jazz albums. Basically, it’s entertaining music free of borders. Steered by Escreet’s exquisite acoustic piano and exhilarating synthesizer work, his ensemble blasts through purely improvisational and through-composed pieces, scaling myriad dynamics with challenging solos and rapt group improvisations. Imagine an all-electric version of Herbie Hancock’s Mwandishi, with fiery synthesizer solos by Hancock, George Duke and Jan Hammer. Learn to Live cuts a wide swath of stylistic variation, from high-flying Pat Metheny-esque opener “Opening,” cosmically-deranged “Broken Justice (Kalief),” sleek funk in “Lady T’s Vibe,” freak Moog soloing and over-the-top improvisation in the title track, and the serpentine melodies of through-composed maze, “Contradictions.”

Escreet’s animal-like synth textures, acoustic piano and Rhodes work is the center piece of an ensemble that includes brilliant soloists in Osby and Payton, and the luminous double-drumming of Harland and Brown, gifted players who bring frenetic joy to every tune (double drums on roughly half of the album’s 10 tracks). Good vibes and daring musicianship elevate every song.

“I’m known for a kind of intricate through-composed music,” Escreet noted. “I’m very much back in that realm here. There are obvious compositions, obvious written things, but balanced with a more open approach because I wanted to allow the cast to be themselves, I wanted everyone a chance to stretch out and be their own personality. I wanted Nicolas to sound like himself and I focused on pieces I thought he would sound great on. I know Osby’s strengths and weaknesses. I wrote with the musicians in mind.”

A long-time member of Antonio Sanchez’s Migration, Escreet is also a member of trumpeter Amir ElSaffar’s Rivers of Sound Orchestra, and he’s led various configurations with such musicians as bassist John Hébert and drummer and Wesleyan professor Tyshawn Sorey.

Escreet’s previous releases include Consequences (Posi-Tone), Don’t Fight the Inevitable (Mythology), The Age We Live In (Mythology), Exception to the Rule (Criss Cross), Sabotage and Celebration (Whirlwind), Sound, Space and Structures (Sunnyside), and “The Unknown” (Sunnyside).

“The album is heavily electronic,” Escreet explained. “I’m using the Prophet-6 extensively which is something I’ve been exploring more the past year or two. I love that instrument. Then the TR8 Rhythm Performer Drum Machine, which is modeled after the old TR-808. Both of these are on the album as well as acoustic piano and Fender Rhodes. And pedals: Strymon El Capistan DTape Echo, Zvex Suer Duper Vexter, MXR Phase 90. (His home studio consists of Tannoy Reveal 601a monitors, Apogee Duet 2 interface, Prophet-6 and Roland TR8). It’s all over the place sonically, it’s a big sonic collage. We recorded at Sear Sound.”

Learning to Buy

Escreet’s system came together at the end of 2017. Buying his vintage gear off Ebay and the Rega P3 from In Living Stereo in New York’s West Village, he had it all shipped home before he knew how to connect A to B.

“I found the Fisher 500-C online,” Escreet said. “The guy said ‘it’s in really great condition,’ and the price was reasonable. I paid $800. This thing showed up, I don’t even know how to put it together. Matt said bring it over to his place to we’ll put it together. We A/Bed his with mine. We had a total nerd out. Not only did it work, it sounded great.”

Then the Vandersteen Model 2 purchase.

“Harish Raghavan, the bass player, recommended the Vandersteens,” Escreet recalled. “He said ‘they’re not that expensive, and they’re really great.’ And that the V2 version were much better on the wallet. eBay came to the rescue. I saw these online from Jackson Heights, Queens. The seller was an artist. She’d kept them in pristine condition, they’re immaculate. I paid 600 bucks, with the stands and the Nordost speaker cables.”

Audiophiles: Made or Born?

“The only thing that inhibited me from being an audiophile was money,” Escreet reflected regarding his newbie status. “But now I care more about the recorded sound in the studio and when I’m playing on a live gig.”

Spinning sides from Miles Davis (Nefertiti), Muhal Richard Abrams (Lifea Blinec), and Herbie Hancock (Sunlight), Escreet’s system sounded clean, smooth, present, dynamic.

“I’m a pretty young audiophile and I always wanted to be one, but it’s been impractical time-wise or financially,” Escreet said. “Ultimately, I dig the difference the system creates in how you approach listening to music. It gives the music the respect it deserves. Rather than just casually putting on some MP3—and what the fuck is streaming? It should be abolished. It’s degrading. I get it, and I understand that it’s here to stay, and I do stream myself, but music should have the respect it deserves.

“Having a proper setup to reflect that respect is what it’s all about,” he concluded. “It’s an investment in your time, and it’s an investment in your money for which you are rewarded by superior quality.”

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