ÜBERJAM DEUX

I'll be short since I'm not very familiar with this guitarist's output. Two albums from the 90's were more up to my taste, especially I Can See Your House From Here (1994) with Pat Metheny, who is one of my fave jazzmen. The other album featured Bill Frisell, and also this one happens to be a collaboration with a guitarist, this time with Avi Bortnick (never heard). Hmm, is this very typical for Scofield in general? Why always a guitarist? Five tracks feature organ or mellotron of the guesting John Medeski, otherwise there are just guitars, bass and drums. The music is bluesy, groovy, not very prog- or fusion-like at all. There are slight dub / chill-out flavours, and the track 'Dub Dub' is rather nice for that matter. The other track I liked was 'Curtis Knew' which sticks out from the boring whole as more melodic and sensual than the rest.

The playing is professional, what else, but the compositions - several of them written with Bortnick - feel too jam-like (well, see the album title...) and uninspired for repeated listening. In fact this was among those borrowed CD's that I don't care to listen to even once without using the skip button. All in all, safe background feel-good music if one enjoys instrumental, light-grooved blues-jazz. I felt like these are songs that would be more interesting with a ballsy female vocalist. Now they were just boring, sorry. And since I believe this is not a recommendable John Scofield album for any average prog listener, two stars will do.