Up All Night - John Scofield

Feb

17

Up All Night - John Scofield

≡ Category: 2000s, Fusion, Highly Recommended, Jazz Funk, World Fusion |
≅ Written by: Michael Kydonieus

JAZZBO NOTES HIGHLY RECOMMENDED RECORDING

Rating:

It’s hard to explain why Up All Night is a bit of a letdown.

Up All Night (on the Verve label) is the follow up to Uberjam, one of my favorite John Scofield records. Both feature the same band. As on Uberjam, Scofield uses modern R&B rhythms borrowed from hiphop as the basis for the music. In a way, he’s taking a page from his old employer Miles Davis, who pursued a similar strategy on albums like Decoy, and less successfully, on Marcus Miller led efforts like Tutu.

Don’t get me wrong, Up All Night is quite good, but it’s not as brilliant as Uberjam. The tunes aren’t as ingenious, for one thing. They rely a bit too much on grooves for my taste, although the grooves are very cool. I have a feeling that these tunes were worked out on the road instead of being through composed by Scofield. The result is that the tunes tend to flow organically, but they don’t have as many hooks as we’re accustomed to with Scofield compositions.

I also miss John Medeski’s organ work, which helped to put Uberjam over the top for me. Scofield makes up for that a little by including a horn section on many of the selections. Although the horn section isn’t integral to the compositions, it adds some welcome flavor.

Once I got over my initial disappointment that Up All Night wasn’t as awesome as Uberjam, I found there was a lot to enjoy and admire on Up All Night. On Watch Out For Po-Po, Scofield lets rip with an awesome processed guitar solo. On Creeper, Scofield indulges in the sort of scalar runs that made his old Gramavision releases like Blue Matter and Still Warm so memorable.

On Thikhathali, the tune starts out with a typical funk-based groove and then, without warning, we get some very creditable West African Highlife. The rest of the tune goes back and forth between the two styles. What a nice surprise.

From a groove based perspective, Up All Night benefits from time on the road with guitarist Avi Bortnick, bassist Andy Hess, and drummer Adam Deitch. If anything, the sense of interplay is even stronger than it was on Uberjam, which is saying something.

While there is very little on Up All Night which is memorable enough to stick in your brain, it is so enjoyable while it’s playing, it seems churlish to complain too much.