# CD review: John Scofield – John Scofield 2022: Video, CD cover

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2022/05/11/cd-review-john-scofield-john-scofield-2022-video-cd-cover/
- Published: 2022-05-11T16:30:10+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**John Scofield has gone in many different directions during the course of his storied
fifty-year-plus career, but one route he’s never taken is the one leading to the
recording of a true solo guitar album. But his second outing for ECM Records is 
the optimum opportunity for such a trek, if for no other reason than on his 2020
debut for the label, Swallow Tales, he may have deferred a bit too much (though 
perhaps understandably) to bassist Steve Swallow and drummer Bill Stewart, two of
his most long-standing collaborators. **

This rightfully self-titled LP, however, is where Sco makes up for that arguably
subservient role, vigorously exercising his well-honed technique as means to demonstrate
healthy reverence for the material he’s so carefully chosen.

These baker’s dozen selections run the gamut of the eclecticism Scofield has displayed
in leading his own projects and in collaborating with others over the years. Interpreting
songs by Buddy Holly (“Not Fade Away”), Keith Jarrett (“Coral”), and Hank Williams(“
You Win Again”), John demonstrates the uncommon dexterity whereby he can evoke, 
in turn, the sensations of revelry, dignity, and humility. Remarkably too, these
covers not only remain of a piece with each other, but also with the guitarist’s
own compositions such as “Trance Du Hour” and “Elder Dance;” with tracks ranging
in duration from less than three minutes to almost six, Scofield never makes the
mistake of belaboring his points.

On the contrary, he hits the sweet harmonics at the close of “Junco Partner” with
the utmost ease, then lets the notes ring in the air. Not surprisingly, that uniquely
deft touch on the fretboard—at the very sweet spot of blues staccato and jazz fluidity—
comes to the fore prominently on his originals as well. Scofield has developed his
personal style of guitar as much by working with the esteemed likes of Miles Davis,
Billy Cobham, and Phil Lesh as by leading his own groups like the Uberjam Band, 
so it’s no coincidence his instrumental means of expression of emotion is honest
and forthright, even without any words aside from song titles on, for instance, “
Honest I Do” and “Mrs. Scofield’s Waltz.”

Then there are the familiar likes of “Danny Boy,” a bonafide standard that sounds
utterly fresh tendered through Scofield’s pliant fingerwork. As he picks and strums
so distinctively, there arises a quietude that places this record squarely in the
ECM oeuvre that producer Manfred Eicher established over a half-century ago, an 
atmosphere that prevails even at those times the venerable guitarist utilizes looping:
recording and mastering by Tyler Semiarid and Christoph Stickel, respectively, reveals
the delicate layers of sound that create the illusion the man’s accompanying himself.

While that approach seems a natural progression in Scofield’s evolution as an instrumentalist,
composer, and recording artist, the ease with which the man plays never subsides.
John doesn’t reach for his music any longer but instead lets it come to him, so 
the deceptively casual air that informs tracks like “Honest I Do,” mirroring the
inviting tranquility of the album cover graphics, is exactly the quality that renders
this record so accessible.

1. Coral (2:53)
 2. Honest I Do (4:16) 3. It Could Happen To You (5:58) 4. Danny
Boy (4:57) 5. Elder Dance (3:59) 6. Mrs. Scofield’s Waltz (4:21) 7. Junco Partner(
3:44) 8. There Will Never Be Another You (2:52) 9. My Old Flame (2:37) 10. Not Fade
Away (5:43) 11. Since You Asked (4:41) 12. Trance De Jour (4:24)

![Jazz Album Review: Guitarist John Scofield -- A Solo Album, Finally - The  Arts
Fuse](https://i0.wp.com/cdn.artsfuse.org/q%3Ai/r%3A1/wp%3A1/w%3A313/u%3Ahttps%3A//
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2C640&ssl=1)

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