Jazz Articles about John Scofield

About John Scofield

Album Review

Depending on your point of view, John Scofield is either hopelessly unfocused or boldly unpredictable. In 1999 he released Bump, a provocative yet ultimately perfunctory, jam-band-meets-electronica statement. Last year he did a 180 with Works For Me, a straight-ahead quintet offering featuring the likes of Brad Mehldau and Kenny Garrett. Now he returns with Uberjam, a project billed under the name of The John Scofield Band, and surely Scofield's most radical departure from jazz yet.Avi Bortnick, on rhythm ...

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Album Review

The John Scofield Band: Uberjam

Read "Uberjam" reviewed by Steve Robinson

by Steve Robinson
February 1, 2002

The opening seconds of “Acidhead, the first track of guitarist John Scofield's latest recording, Uberjam, are enough to alert the jazz purist that the road ahead might be bumpy. The tune opens with what sounds like a sitar""but with all the electronics on this recording, it could be a sample, a keyboard, or Scofield's guitar""soon giving way to a seriously funky groove laid down by drummer Adam Deitch and bassist Jesse Murphy, over which Scofield, et. al.(Avi Bortnick on rhythm ...

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Album Review

John Scofield: Works For Me

Read "Works For Me" reviewed by David Adler

by David Adler
March 1, 2001

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.

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Album Review

John Scofield: Works For Me

Read "Works For Me" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
February 1, 2001

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 ...

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Album Review

John Scofield: Steady Groovin'

Read "Steady Groovin'" reviewed by AAJ Staff

by AAJ Staff
November 1, 2000

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 ...

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Album Review

John Scofield: Bump

by Scott Morrow
June 1, 2000

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 ...

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Album Review

John Scofield: Bump

by C. Andrew Hovan
April 1, 2000

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. ...