Alex Henderson

John Scofield
 
By Alex Henderson
 
Some jazz musicians are content to stay in their comfort zones; they rarely change from one album to the next, and they believe that musical challenges are to be avoided. But not John Scofield. Not only is the influential guitarist unafraid of challenges—he thrives on them and refuses to become predictable. That’s why his current Verve release, Works for Me, is a major departure from his last album.

Recorded in 1999, Bump favored a gritty, groove-oriented blend of jazz, funk and rock. But Works For Me, which was produced by Richard Seidel, finds Scofield leading a straight-ahead jazz quintet that boasts Kenny Garrett on alto saxophone, Brad Mehldau on acoustic piano, Christian McBride on upright bass, and Billy Higgins on drums. From the tranquillity of “Mrs. Scofield’s Waltz” to the hard-swinging exuberance of “Do I Crazy?,” Works for Me is the epitome of straight-ahead post-bop jazz.

Jazz doesn’t get any more straight-ahead than “Not You Again,” a congenial number that is based on the chord changes of the well known standard “There Will Never Be Another You.” Ever since the birth of bebop in the mid-1940s, the chord changes of popular standards have been a source of inspiration to jazz composers—and just as Miles Davis was thinking of the standard “How High The Moon” when he wrote “Solar” and “Half Nelson,” Scofield uses “There Will Never Be Another You” to make a musical statement of his own.
Scofield, however, doesn’t actually perform any standards on Works for Me. Every song on the CD is a Scofield original, and his versatility as a composer is impossible to miss.

Boasting some of Scofield’s most lyrical playing, “Mrs. Scofield’s Waltz” is a thoughtful piece that the guitarist wrote for his wife Susan. In addition to being warm and affectionate, the song has a very tranquil, peaceful quality. And a sense of calm also defines “Love You Long Time,” a mid-tempo item with a very inviting, good-natured melody.

While “Heel To Toe” is the CD’s most bluesy offering and “Hive” is angular and cerebral, the intriguing “Loose Canon” underscores Scofield’s affection for Ornette Coleman’s writing. Listeners might hear some parallels between “Loose Canon” and Coleman’s famous “Ramblin’”, although “Loose Canon” has an appealing personality of its own.

Those who don’t know a lot about Scofield’s background may be surprised that someone would follow an album as funky and groove-oriented as Bump with a project as straight-ahead as Works for Me. But anyone who has followed Scofield’s career over the years knows how unpredictable he can be.

“I play jazz, but I have always had rock & roll and R&B roots—and Bump reflected that,” explains the 48-year-old Scofield.  “Bump and the album I did before that, A Go-Go, were very funky. But that wasn’t what I was going for on Works for Me . This album is meant to be very straight-ahead, and I couldn’t have asked for a more appropriate group of players.”

Indeed, all of Scofield’s sidemen on Works for Me have strong credentials when it comes to playing acoustic-oriented jazz. Higgins is among the most in-demand drummers of the last 40 years, and few of today’s young alto saxophonists can claim to be as fresh-sounding and recognizable as the 39-year-old Garrett. Meanwhile, the Bill Evans-influenced Mehldau and the talented McBride were among the busiest young straight-ahead players of the 1990s. The ages of the musicians vary considerably—at 28, McBride is the youngest person on the album, while Higgins celebrates his 64th birthday on October 11, 2000. Higgins’ resume is a long one; the veteran drummer is famous for his work with the trailblazing Ornette Coleman Quartet of the late 1950s and early 1960s, but he has also backed everyone from Thelonious Monk, Sonny Rollins and Dexter Gordon to Art Pepper, Lee Morgan, Milt Jackson and Pat Metheny.

“Billy Higgins is a true jazz musician,” declares Scofield, who lives near New York City in Katonah, New York with his wife and two kids. “He is one of the remaining legends from the Golden Era of Jazz, and you can really hear that in his playing. A lot of people know Billy for his work with Ornette Coleman, but Ornette was really an exception for Billy because most of the stuff he has done over the years has been mainstream jazz.”

One of the things that sets Works for Me apart from many of the other albums in Scofield’s sizable catalogue is its use of an acoustic pianist. Scofield notes: “I have recorded some other albums with piano, but not that many. On this album, I wanted a quintet sound with a lot of piano. I really wanted Brad Mehldau because I love the way he plays; he’s very intuitive and very swinging.”

Garrett, meanwhile, gets along well with Scofield because both of them have such eclectic taste in music. Like Scofield, Garrett is far from a jazz snob and also has a strong appreciation of rock and R&B. In fact, he probably would have fit in perfectly on Bump if Scofield had decided to use a saxophonist on that album. But Works for Me, of course, called for straight-ahead playing, and Garrett brings as much passion to this post-bop project as he brought to the electric fusion that he played with Miles Davis in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

“Musicians who truly love music tend to check out a lot of different styles in their lifetime,” Scofield stresses. “By the time I was 17, I knew that I wanted to be a jazz musician, but I didn’t grow up in a jazz bubble. You could have lived in a jazz bubble in the 1930s and 1940s, but how could you grow up in a jazz bubble in the 1960s and 1970s? I came up in an era in which rock & roll and R&B ruled. Even though I play jazz, I enjoy other styles of music.”

Born in Dayton, Ohio on December 26, 1951, Scofield learned to play the guitar in high school and went on to study at the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston. After graduating from Berklee, he spent two years in the 1970s fusion powerhouse the Billy Cobham/George Duke Band but demonstrated that he was equally capable of backing everyone from Charles Mingus to Gary Burton. Scofield started recording as a leader in the late 1970s, and as the 1980s progressed, he became more and more influential. In 1995, Scofield signed with Verve, where he recorded Quiet in 1996, A Go Go in 1997, Bump and now, Works for Me.

Through it all, the guitarist has insisted on keeping an open mind. As Scofield sees it, everything from country to hip-hop has its place as long as it’s well done.

“When I evaluate music,” Scofield asserts, “I try not to listen to the style—I listen to the artist. In any genre of music, you will hear good artists and bad artists. There are some country/western singers that I really like; there are some country/western singers that I don’t like.”

Scofield continues: “It’s all related: the rhythms in jazz and the rhythms in hip-hop, funk and rock & roll are all related. The rhythms on Bump and the rhythms on Works for Me are related, although they’re two very different albums. Whether I’m doing a funky album like Bump or a straight-ahead jazz project like Works for Me, I look for the best musicians I can find. And whatever type of album I do, I’m always looking for quality.”♦
 
Works for Me released on January 31, 2000.