JOHN SCOFIELD- “SO SUE ME”
Tuesday, October 20th, 2009Well, the more i listen to Scofield’s record, TIME ON MY HANDS, the sicker it sounds to me. the blend of his guitar with Joe Lovano’s saxophone is really sweet. the contrasting timbres combine in so many intriguing ways. i like that Scofield leaves so much to the imagination in his comping. Charlie Haden’s bass lines are a subtle but insistent catalyst, plotting the harmonic direction of the other voices. he never fails to make the right choices, he plays harmonically and melodically at the same time. he’s truly one of a kind… Jack DeJohnnette’s drums are like a surging river full of cross currents, inviting the soloists to dive in and try to stay afloat. i can’t say that i’m a fan of how his drums were recorded, but i can get past that. “So Sue Me”- such a great piece of music. there’s so much going on. the melody is a collage of melodic and rhythmic motifs set against each other in such a way as to keep the ear constantly unsettled. the feel of the melody is situated somewhere between two rhythmic poles, each exerting its influence to blur the edges of the lines. melodic ideas are piled on top of each other like a house of cards, and threaten to implode until the final release into the blowing section. definite echoes of Ornette Coleman’s music, bluesy, balls-to-the-wall, a compacted orchestral movement, constantly evolving. what makes this music so great is that there’s an element of mayhem, chaos is always lurking in the back of the room, ready to pull the rug out from under everything, but the musicians, who sound to me as if they are really pushing themselves to draw outside the lines, always know where the lines are, and push forward and pull back as the music demands. and they really seem to be enjoying themselves. this, to me is the beautiful thing about improvised music. what a great record..!
Honestly, i’ve never been a big fan of guitars drenched in electronic effects or, as i call them, affected guitars, in largely acoustic settings. but that’s never stopped me from enjoying a lot of John Scofield’s work. there’s the great record, “So Near, So Far”, led by Joe Henderson, which was featured in an earlier post. there’s also his date, 
Hat”. like “Goodbye”, “Since” is an understated, bluesy ballad with a 12/8 feel. it has an AABA form, starting out with Scofield alone on the first section. the band then joins him for the rest of the tune. the melody moves beautifully, especially during the bridge as the harmony wanders toward Amaj but never quite makes it there. then there’s Lovano, who, with his dark, woody tenor that serves a great contrast to Scofield’s ethereal soundbending, just seems never to sound bad. he delivers a quiet, lyrical chorus full of beautiful altissimo work… so, here’s a sketch of “Since You Asked” along with a transcription of Lovano’s blowing. once again, the changes? i think they’re pretty close but i’ll leave you make the call…