★★★★★
It's easy to have mixed feelings about guitarist John Scofield's Überjam Deux. Back in 2002, the first installment refused to sit still: It beeped, buzzed, whirred and grooved. A year later, Up All Night felt like a rightful successor, continuing to retrace lines between jazz, funk and electronic music. Both albums demanded contemplation and dance. Ten years later, Überjam Deux seems like an afterthought. At any rate, it sounds like a pale echo of what came before...
- jazztimes.com
2013-10-26
★★★★★
?????????? Überjam Deux provides proof positive of the chemistry of John Scofield's Überjam Band. Some ten years since they last worked together-actually under the moniker the John Scofield Band on Up All Night-this new studio set flows as effortlessly as the musicianship at its foundation. The album begins in leisurely enough fashion with "Camelus," a relaxed track that might not be wholly out of place on a set of more straight-ahead pieces like Sco's last recording A Moment's Peace...
- www.glidemagazine.com
2013-08-05
★★★★★
It's been a decade since Up All Night (Verve, 2003), John Scofield's second and, at the time it seemed, final album with his Überjam band, a group of younger players who, following his earlier forays into the territory?1998's first meeting with Medeski, Martin & Wood
Medeski, Martin & Wood
band/orchestra
, A Go Go (Verve), and the larger-casted Bump (2000)?placed the guitarist smack dab on the jam band map with a...
- www.allaboutjazz.com
2013-06-28
★★★★★
Ballads can be the most challenging tunes to play, because they can't be artificially energized by way of accelerated tempos or gratuitous displays of chops. Likewise, the absence of those elements keeps some listeners from warming to the form. John Scofield, not surprisingly given his range of abilities and musical interests, makes ballad playing seem easy and sound irresistible on A Moment's Peace...
- jazztimes.com
2011-10-31
★★★★★
It's a unique pleasure to follow John Scofield's recording career in recent years. He deliberately makes an effort not to repeat himself and consciously attempts to try new things. So a traditional jazz album (Works for Me) leads to a tribute to Ray Charles (That's What I Say) which is in turn followed by a (second studio) collaboration with Medeski Martin & Wood (Out Louder)...
- www.glidemagazine.com
2011-09-29
★★★★★
Fame is a strange thing for a real jazz musician in 2011. It isn't the same thing as critical acclaim, which is rare enough and somewhat prized but doesn't sell as much as a single disc. Fame suggests a public acknowledgment beyond the aficionados, a level of the magic and thrill that a pop star takes for granted. These days? Jazz instrumentalists would barely know fame if it spray-painted "Bird Lives" on their Selmer Mark VIs. But guitarist John Scofield comes pretty close...
- www.popmatters.com
2011-09-29
★★★★★
Emarcy John Scofield's follow-up to the gospel-driven Piety Street is a 180 degree shift: an album of ballads. This is not elevator muzak or instrumental versions of "adult contemporary." These 12 tunes are sublime selections, exquisitely touching because of the sensitive musicianship of Scofield's accompanists, Larry Goldings (piano/organ), Scott Colley (bass) and Brian Blade (drums). Scofield's five worthy originals (notably "Johan") stand confidently beside the standards...
- www.relix.com
2011-09-26
★★★★★
John Scofield must have enjoyed hanging out with Medeski, Martin and Wood, his bandmates on 1998's A Go Go, because he is back with another young-and-funky crew for his latest, Bump. On the new release, veteran jazz guitarist Scofield has brought together, in various combinations, members of the funk jam-band Deep Banana Blackout (from that funky-est of places, Norwalk, Connecticut), Sex Mob and Soul Coughing, along with Chris Wood (Medeski, Martin and Wood), back for another go-round...
- www.popmatters.com
2011-01-20
★★★★★
Filmed in High Definition, the footage captures eminent and highly-influential guitarist John Scofield with his quartet, largely performing within the progressive-jazz quartet mold, featuring longtime collaborator, drummer Bill Stewart. Captured at a Paris, France venue, Scofield's animated and poetic delivery is in full form as he perpetuates his expressive bop imagery in concert with funky acid-jazz interludes and soul-blues inflections...
- www.jazzreview.com
2011-01-10
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