John Scofield
Flat Out

John Scofield (b 1951 USA) is among the few guitarists, in the vast musical landscape, capable of 'giving' their instrument a distinctive, original, and unmistakable sound.

After attending Berklee School of Music in Boston, he moved to New York and played with C Mingus and then with G Burton's quartet, furthermore, collaborating and touring with the 'electric shaman' M Davis. Notable are also the albums with B Frisell in Bass Desire and his artistic partnership with P Metheny with a more 'Jazzed' album. Later, the musician will experiment with the acoustic guitar and work on cool sounds, but his relentless musical quest will not stop here and will continue in many other artistic and collaborative directions.

As previously mentioned, his style is unique, although slightly influenced by J Hall and G Benson, almost always his works are meticulously detailed and well 'packaged'.

The album consists of ten tracks totaling about fifty-one minutes (Gramavision 1989) and is produced by S Swallow, with the title track noted in the cover notes as an extra bonus track. Scofield is accompanied by a group of excellent musicians, namely: A Cox (acoustic bass), J Vidacovich (drums), Terri L Carrington (drums) the latter appears only in three tracks and D Grolnick (Hammond b-3 organ). The entire album is played magnificently, and there are never any drops in inspiration, the music is infused with a positive creative tension rarely heard in other works. The album offers quite varied pieces, alternating more rhythmic instrumentals such as: "Cissy Strut," an explosive and intriguing Blues-Rock-Jazz as brief as it is irresistible, "Softy," "The Boss's Car," in this track the presence of double drums definitely gives greater substance to an already solid and well-structured piece, "Flat Out" and "Rockin' Pneumonia," notable are the splendid organ passages, but also more meditative pieces like: "Secret Love," "Science and Religion," "Evansville," and the almost ironic "In the Cracks." I would also like to point out that Scofield, besides possessing remarkable guitar technique, also has the rare gift of having great inventiveness and an almost inexhaustible 'creative vein.' I wrote 'almost' because, unfortunately, nothing is eternal, apart from perhaps the inexorable passage of time, but that's another story.

The cover featuring the Artist wearing an ultramarine blue-green jacket with his Ibanez is decidedly mischievous. The booklet is sparse, containing some notes about the tracks and on the back, four micro-photographs of the musicians accompanying John. It is certainly (in my opinion) an undeniable work of both technical and compositional value and is therefore recommended to all fans of these musical genres and particularly those of Scofield. Album rating: 4.3 out of 5 (guitars).