The smoothness of John Scofield"s guitar is amazing. I certainly don"t listen to his music for the vocals, which are hardly ever there, or for John himself. Keep in mind he"s not the prettiest of fellas. Nah it"s the smoothness, for a jazz guitar player being smooth is being cool, and John Scofield is one of the coolest guys ever. This fact alone should justify his place in the legendary Miles Davis" hard bop/jazz-fusion group. If that doesn"t work for you then might I suggest his technicality, every solo for Scofield is a journey, jumping from fret to fret and making it sound freaking amazing is just another talent of his. On this particular album, A Go Go, John finds himself working with Fusion/trip-hop trio Medeski, Martin and Wood. They, in essence, are just as smooth, rather just as cool as John himself, but in a different manner, mixing Avant-jazz piano/organ with tight worldly drums and upright hip-hop bass lines. Coincidentally these are the three instruments missing to turn Scofield"s one man guitar assault into a full-blown jazz-rock quartet.
Of course, when combining M,M&W"s brand of insane jazz with Scofield"s smooth more conventional post bop style the parties must encounter many musical compromises. Mostly the taming of Medeski, Martin and Wood, although Scofield"s music suffers a tad. Used to free open Jazz scapes, His guitar tone often sounds a little too crunchy and staccato when thrown into a mix of claustrophobic drums and frantic keyboards, like on "Chank". The fusion is definitely a refreshing taste for fans of both artists, perhaps the best combination of the two dueling forces is the ultra chill "Jeep on 35", featuring some red hot work from John as well as a cool bass line for Chris Wood and a short, but interesting organ solo for John Medeski. Whereas most of the organ solos on this album are uncomfortably jarring this one works just fine and creates a very creative atmosphere for John to lay down some crazy chords. Another perfect example of M,M&W"s take on John Scofield comes in between the funky fresh sounds of "Hottentot", a jittery bass heavy funk tune featuring John"s mellow yet spicy riffs, alternating between heavily effected and dry for about 7 minutes of wholesome goodness.
John Scofield"s music is generally pretty happy and tends to hardly venture in to anything I would describe as dark or depressing, but MM&W sure bring him there on the short, but sweet ode to filmmaking genius, "Kubrick". Though it consists of acoustic guitars, bass, sound effects and dark, effected drums this song oozes of jazz brilliance. On the other side of the spectrum, "Chicken Dog" is an extremely up-lifting song, featuring very little piano and extensive bass work by Wood. The drumming on the song is fairly intense, made up of mostly fills, but with a little 1982 cowbell thrown in. Haters may make the point that all jazz music sounds similar, but the point is it really doesn"t, except when it"s poorly written. Track #7, Green Tea, seems like a very cool and perfectly reasonable piece of jazz guitar, until you realize it is almost exactly the same as the album opener, title track A Go Go, just with a lot less creativity. For A Go Go it seems the highs are HIGH and the lows are LOW. The album ends with a song in the middle of the spectrum, Deadzy. The song features the album"s weirdest guitar work, along with a walking jazz bass line and mellow drumming. Deadzy continues the habit of having no organ to speak of, something MM&W are known for, but rather very un-orthodox string arrangements, a first for the album.
Overall the album is a refreshing departure from what I tend to listen too, but overall not too impressive within the genre. It"s smooth and features some of Scofield"s signature guitar work, but not his best. For Medeski, Martin and Wood they hardly fall out of Scofield"s shadow and as a result show off a more bland side. Though they commit fully with the grooves, compared to the solo stuff (read: without Scofield) it"s nothing to great. For this I give A Go Go a 3.5/5.
-Joe
