I have two albums by Scofield, one by recommendation and one by dumb luck. This is the latter. I've mainly known Scofield as the guy who's name is not Marc Ribot that contributes guitar to various releases by Medeski, Martin & Wood albums. In fact you can usually count on some level of collaboration between the two on any album since A Go Go back in 1998.
Being a jazz guitarist in the 21st century poses its own unique problems. Just like when you bust out a saxophone on a rock track people suddenly call your music "jazzy", putting the guitar at the center of jazz recording can leave people wondering exactly how "jazz" you are. In fact, a lot of jazz guitarists (Grant Green, Wes Montgomery) got swept up into the fusion scene, probably because it was so easy to cross over to the most lucrative genre, even if it wasn't really their strength. Through the 1970's and 1980's jazz guitarists like John McLaughlin poured more fire into their playing, probably egged on by hard rock/progressive rock bands stretching that instrument's prowess as far as possible. On Überjam, Scofield doesn't play jazz in a style sense, but more in a structured sense, using styles borrowed from a wide array of genres, even tossing in a little jungle, which is really unusual for a jazz artist to tackle.
My overall verdict: pretty good album, but terrible cover! Überjam Deux came out last year - I'll have to check that one out.
No comments:
Post a Comment