A Go Go - John Scofield

Mar

30

A Go Go - John Scofield

≡ Category: 1990s, Jazz Funk, Music Reviews, Recommended |
≅ Written by: Michael Kydonieus

JAZZBO NOTES RECOMMENDED RECORDING

Rating:

The first of a series of jam-based boogaloo recordings, A Go Go features Medeski Martin & Wood as Scofield’s rhythm section, which gives A Go Go a sort of updated guitar and organ trio feel. Medeski Martin & Wood provide a charming, witty backdrop for the leader, a groovilicious bed for Scofield’s chicken picking. Long gone are Scofield’s fluent scalar runs and fat tone from his 80s fusion albums, replaced by short melodic statements that pay as much attention to rhythm and tone as to harmony.

Scofield chokes some of the notes by damping them with his right hand. He also plucks notes at different places on the fretboard to vary his attack. He varies his attack still more by using the volume knob on the guitar, his effects pedals, or a whammy bar. Sometimes he’ll slide up into a note, or he’ll slide DOWN into it. Other times he’ll bend into it. Still other times he’ll achieve a different effect by the use of hammer ons. You get the feeling that he’s using all of these different techniques quite consciously, that he’s become very concerned with how things sound, sometimes to the exclusion of exploring harmony.

All of this has the result of making his sound much more accessible, especially to non-musicians. For us nerdy musician types, there’s always pleasure to be had in Scofield’s clever songcraft, which again is oriented more in the direction of groove and rhythmic patterns than harmony these days, but surely nothing to sneeze at. (You’ll be humming alot of these tunes, which tend to have hooks that snag in your brain.)

Overall, A Go Go is certainly a fun record. Maybe not a great record, but a fun record.