Elson wrote:
>Surprised no one's mentioned it here (which is why I hadn't found out until
>recently).
>Turns out fusion guitarist extraordinaire John Scofield has been bitten by
>the groove bug and released an acid-jazz album, with a little help from
>these three musicians...I think they go by the name of Medeski, Martin and
>Wood or something. :)
>
>Anyway, the drummer from my band has been raving about this thing. I think
>it's cool, though not as thrilling as, say, Charlie Hunter, but Scofield
>and MMW seem to complement each other nicely; Scofield's guitar work gives
>MMW a dimension that was previously missing in previous MMW efforts, and
>the raw grooves of MMW save Scofield from corny status (a typical condition
>when contemporary fusion artists want that acid jazz sound).
>
>At least this will give me and my Scofield-worshipping guitarist friends
>something to agree about.
>
Still haven't heard this one, but I'm looking forward to it. Scofield
hasn't been doing "fusion" in that 70s/80s
guitar-wanker-playing-really-fast-licks kinda way for ages now .. many of
his last few albums have been in a soul-jazz vein, and pretty damn good I
reckon. Don't be put off by the cheesy cover art and his rep as a
"guitarist" .... Hand Jive and Groovelation, for example, had some heavy
duty soul jazz sizzlers on em, a featured Larry Goldings on the B3 Hammond
(who plays also with Maceo Parker, and who I've raved about on this list
before). As a guitarist Scofield has a really nice touch, but his stuff
aint just for other guitarists .... and hey, being a guitarist, I oughta
know ;-).
peace all,
Kurt
PS I may be inviting flames, but I actually much prefer listening to
Scofield than most of Charlie Hunter's stuff. One time I saw Hunter live
on a holliday in NYC, the crowd was filled with guitarists with their
toungues on the floor saying "*how* does he do that?!" I kinda thought it
was technically very clever and all but didn't have as much feel as I
woulda liked... just my two cents.