By Paul de Barros | Published July 2022
The isolation induced by the pandemic has been harsh, but for many it has also afforded a positive opportunity for reflection and reassessment. John Scofield’s first-ever solo album, his second as a leader for ECM, fits that bill. Spare, honest and true to his wide angle view of American music, it taps deeply into jazz, pop, rock and folk. And it works, because Scofield is as fluent in the glow-and-flow language of stinging bebop as he is in the plangent effects and curling cries of blues and rock. When he mixes both in the same solo, there’s no one quite like him.
On a menu of five originals and eight covers, the uptempo swingers are especially savory. Scofield slips pre-recorded comping beneath vaulting, cliché-free solos on American songbook standards “It Could Happen To You” and “There Will Never Be Another You” as well as his own springy blues “Elder Dance.” Early rock gets the nod on Buddy Holly’s “Not Fade Away,” with a second voice duetting in real time via looper, and on the keenly twanging delta prison classic “Junco Partner.” From Hank Williams comes a break-your-heart wistful “You Win Again.” Scofield’s Monkish eight-bar classic “Since You Asked” is hypnotic.
Scofield opens the album in an appropriately contemplative mood with Keith Jarrett’s harmonically intriguing early ballad “Coral,” letting the melody emerge like a gradually developing photograph. The drily amplified open chords of “My Old Flame” resonate with nostalgia. Every note here feels as if it came from the bottom of Scofield’s heart.
John Scofield: Coral; Danny Boy; Elder Dance; Honest I Do; It Could Happen To You; Junco Partner; Mrs. Scofield’s Waltz; My Old Flame; Not Fade Away; Since You Asked; There Will Never Be Another You; Trance de Jour; You Win Again. (53:55)
Personnel: John Scofield, electric guitar, looper.
Ordering Info: ecmrecords.com
