WORTH A LISTEN
Rating: 
At first listen, This Meets That seems awfully similar in concept to Scofield’s earlier Grace Under Pressure date, which was a trio with an occasional assist from Bill Frisell, plus a horn section. On This Meets That, Scofield uses his usual bassist and drummer, Steve Swallow and Bill Stewart, respectively. Frisell even appears on a cover of House of the Rising Son.
On This Meets That, the compositions are even simpler than on Grace Under Pressure, hewing to modified R&B grooves for the most part. That feels like a calculated move on Scofield’s part. That way, he can experiment all he wants with guitar tones and techniques, and arranging techniques for a horn section, which includes flutes this time out, without the risk of alienating the broader audience he’s been building since A Go Go.
On the album opener, Low Road, Scofield starts off with a guitar part that flirts with noise. It seems like he wants to see how far he can push the guitar in the direction of percussion. Scofield also uses a technique I first noticed on Uberjam, a kind of squiggly sound produced from, I would guess, vibrating the left hand very quickly between the frets on the note that he’s playing.
On Strangeness In The Night, Scofield uses non-functional harmony at various times in both the guitar part and the horn parts.
In general, the horn parts on This Meets That have much more variety than they did on Grace Under Pressure. Scofield uses horn hits, line writing and riffs in the flutes, as well as the sort of close horn voicings he’s been using at least since Quiet.
I’m at a bit of a loss to describe why I don’t enjoy This Meets That more. It sure isn’t the musicianship, not when you have pros like Steve Swallow and Bill Stewart on hand. I guess one reason is that Scofield totally emphasizes experimentation with tone, both on his guitar and in the horn section, more than compositions. I really enjoy Scofield’s compositional style — at least I used to. These days Scofield seems to be content to write simpler forms, so he can concentrate on areas he’s more interested in. Or maybe it’s a calculated move to retain a larger audience. I dunno.
It’s not like I dislike This Meets That — it just doesn’t thrill me.
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Related posts:
- I Can See Your House From Here - John Scofield/Pat Metheny
- Quiet - John Scofield
- Meant To Be - John Scofield
- Grace Under Pressure - John Scofield
- Hand Jive - John Scofield
