The guitarist John Scofield's jazz combines populism and iconoclasm. A member of the 1970s generation, weaned on fusion before bebop, he fills his music with hooks and raunchy blues echoes that always turn unexpected corners. Because MMW recently signed a contract with Blue Note, the trio's presence isn't made apparent on the album cover, but it deserves co-billing on a program that Scofield clearly fashioned with his collaborators in mind. Blues and Roots Just as new writers are advised to hook the reader on the first page, new bands pretty much have to put the best song near the beginning.
Older bands have the luxury of ordering their songs according to a governing aesthetic.
Veterans of Led Zeppelin, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant can record anything they want in any order they want and expect a full and careful listening. Even so, it's odd to hear an album that delivers its five least interesting songs first and then catches fire on the sixth song and sustains the burn through the twelfth and final cut. They need each other, and for seven songs here they actually find each other. By today's industry standard, their batting average would put them in contention for a title. Let's just say the new boys hold their own, and that's enough.