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John Scofield: Works For Me
by David Adler
Since 1997’s A Go Go, which featured the backing of Medeski, Martin & Wood, John Scofield has been increasingly pigeonholed as a sage of the burgeoning “jam band" movement. But the guitarist has been blending post-bop and a more rock/funk-oriented style even since his earliest recordings, and he’s always had the uncanny ability to sound like himself no matter what kind of music he’s playing. “It’s because I only have a few licks," Scofield once modestly quipped to this writer.
Continue ReadingJohn Scofield: Works For Me
by Mark Corroto
Today’s lesson is you cannot escape your past. Like Jay Gatsby at a Hampton’s society party, John Scofield’s roots in rock and R&B show themselves in his self-proclaimed “straight-ahead record” Works For Me. But this is not all bad news, since most of Mr. Scofield’s audience was bred in the rock vernacular. Besides he is coming back to his listeners after taking a dip into the jam-band phenomena on the 1999 Disc Bump, with its heavy beats and sampling menu ...
Continue ReadingJohn Scofield: Steady Groovin'
by AAJ Staff
By releasing Steady Groovin' , Blue Note is sending out a reminder. Steady Groovin' contains no new tracks. What it does contain, though, are 11 of John Scofield's funk-based compositions from his 6 Blue Note CD's, two of which are based solely on his recently recognized mastery of the jazz jam groove: Groove Elation and Hand Jive.The reminder?That John Scofield has been creating a consistent style for the decade he has been recording for ...
Continue ReadingJohn Scofield: Bump
by Scott Morrow
John Scofield, who's played with everyone from Miles and Mingus to Medeski Martin and Wood, has finally gone and done released a classic of 21st century groove jazz. Not exactly the Hammond-style soul jazz of it's predecessor A Go Go, Bump -- one of those rare cases where the sequel surpasses the original -- attains pure groove nirvana, and pretty much straight-ahead gratis . Also, for the first time he really experiments with sonic possibilities, tweaking timbre with sparingly sprinkled ...
Continue ReadingJohn Scofield: Bump
by C. Andrew Hovan
Ever since he signed with the Verve label a few years back, guitarist John Scofield has been on the upswing of the trendy movement we’ll call, for lack of a better term, the “Acid Jazz" scene. He scored really big with A Go Go, his critically-acclaimed 1998 collaboration with the supergroup Medeski, Martin, and Wood. Now Bump enters the ring and it becomes immediately evident from the opening strains of “Three Sisters" that this one’s going to be another knockout. ...
Continue ReadingJohn Scofield: Bump
by David Adler
John Scofield continues to venture deeper into simple, stripped-down groove music — and farther away from jazz. Bump is practically a dance record. Mark De Bli Antoni’s keyboard sampler even appears on several tracks; on “Drop and Roll" it’s poorly integrated and sounds like filler. Don’t get me wrong: Boundary-smashing experimentation is good for jazz, and good for music in general. Scofield’s done some of his best work during his electric-fusion periods.But Bump just doesn’t come close to ...
Continue ReadingJohn Scofield: A Go Go
by Christopher Hoard
For those of us who found ourselves swept away by the funk and soulful precision of early seventies releases like the Crusaders' Chain Reaction, John Scofield's latest offering will find a grateful audience too long spoon fed and spiritually starved on lush over-productions. A Go-Go gets down to business with no-nonsense production values and grooves. Scofield's strings sing through melodies laden with R&B hooks and southern fried blues, wailing, jibing, taunting, and preaching to us the gospel of urban funk. ...
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