T A B L E__T A L K

Get down! Share your groovin', funky dance picks in the Music area of Table Talk

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R E C E N T L Y

Henri Dikongué
C'est La Vie
Tinder
(04/08/98)

Propellerheads
Decksanddrumsandrockandroll Dreamworks
(04/07/98)

Various Artists
"The Horse Whisperer" Soundtrack
MCA
(04/06/98)

Cornelius
Fantasma
Matador
(04/03/98)

Mingus Big Band
Que Viva Mingus
Dreyfus Records
(04/02/98)

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BROWSE THE
MUSIC ARCHIVES

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V O W E L L

Sound Salvation
By Sarah Vowell
Fritz the cast
Like a beaten-up body cast, pop music holds its shape despite Ralph Bakshi's and VH1's attempts to unravel it
(04/03/98)

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F E A T U R E

Tammy Wynette
1942-1998

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BY EZRA GALE

If jazz guitarist John Scofield had met the organ, bass and drums trio of Medeski, Martin & Wood through a personal ad, the resulting collaboration might be the kind of "meet your perfect match" success story used in subsequent advertisements. On his funky new album "A Go Go," Scofield and his backing trio mesh so tightly, it's hard to believe this is their first recording together.

Scofield, whose résumé includes such legends as Miles Davis and Charles Mingus, is an enormously talented player whose work has sometimes been tainted by a kind of slickness that mars many contemporary jazz recordings. He's got chops to burn, but has sometimes failed to light a fire. By contrast, Medeski, Martin & Wood -- whose improvisational live shows have garnered them a huge (by jazz standards, anyway) post-Grateful Dead following -- have no trouble generating heat, but they sometimes don't know where to go with it.

On "A Go Go's" 12 tracks (all written by Scofield specifically for this album), Scofield and MMW push and pull each other through new terrain, and it does them both a world of good. With one exception, the introspective "Kubrick," "A Go Go" is an all-out groove-fest, with every backbeat-driven tune opening up for extended solos from Scofield and organist John Medeski. The approach works, even when the material isn't exactly original: "Chank" is a retread of James Brown's "Cold Sweat," while "Southern Pacific" and "Boozer" sound almost like they were lifted whole from an early '70s Meters album.

Prodded by his backing group, Scofield unleashes some of the most restrained and varied playing of his career. The album is sprinkled with chunky and abrasive rhythm guitar feats that are miles from anything Scofield has done previously; on "Southern Pacific" he even resorts to scraping and scratching his guitar strings over a rump-shaking vamp -- with sumptuous results. Elsewhere, Scofield lays down some of his most lyrical playing, particularly during his bluesy, melodic solo on "Chicken Dog" and the Wes Montgomery-style lead on "Jeep on 35," where he gets creative in the studio with a delicately overdubbed acoustic guitar.

The partnership works wonders for MMW as well. The unit is enormously flexible; it's equally comfortable in the straight-ahead funk of "Chank" as it is with the New Orleans shuffle of "Boozer." Each member's individual playing is a delight -- drummer Billy Martin lights up the two distinctly different grooves in "Hottentot," and Medeski's searing solo on the same tune is one of the high points of the album. In the mainstream jazz world, where it sometimes seems as if the only thing that varies is the degree of conservatism, there will doubtless be jazz purists who are offended by this album's funk rhythms. The rest of us, however, will crank up "A Go Go" and devour it as we would a greasy, home-cooked meal. How could something so good possibly be bad?
SALON | April 9, 1998