EnRoute
With the liveEnRoute, recorded at New York's Blue Note, guitarist John Scofield returns from the jam-band wars in challenging high style, leading a trio for the first time on record in more than 20 years. With his strong blues and funk sensibility, Scofield has always been the jazz guitarist most likely to succeed among rock listeners, and fans from both camps will be drawn to this purer improvisational enterprise. Teamed here with longtime drumming associate Bill Stewart and veteran bassist Steve Swallow (who was featured on those early-'80s trio albums), he's still jamming, but there's a sharpness of focus and a locked-in intensity among the musicians that you rarely encounter in jam-band settings--including his own. Emptying out his bag of much-imitated tricks--the sighing pedal tones, slab-like chords, shimmering lyrical lines, and controlled screams--Scofield romps through the bop classic, "Wee," and delivers a diaphanous reading of "Alfie." The album also features a pair of remakes: "Name That Tune," Swallow's bounding remake ofDuke Ellington's "Perdido," and the leader's strutting "Over Big Top," based on "Bigtop" from his 1995 album,Groove Elation. From whatever perspective you choose, it's Scofield's best album sinceTime on My Hands, his 1990 quartet date with saxistJoe Lovano.--Lloyd Sachs