Album Reviews
Movies
Concert Reviews

Top 10
Resources
Contact Us

The early returns on ScoLoHoFo, the veteran collective including John Scofield (guitar), Joe Lovano (sax), Dave Holland (bass), and Al Foster (drums) and its album oh! have been mostly respectful in tone but lackluster in praise. While, indeed, there is nothing ‘new’ here, the collaboration is still an interesting extension of contexts these musicians have developed over the past decade while showing, more clearly than ever, that the most influential jazz artist of our time is Holland, the British bassist who was recently voted the top bass player in a Downbeat critics poll.

On the surface, ScoLoHoFo appears to be an after-thought to what would be the next chapter in Lovano-Holland-Foster’s Trio Fascination series. The widely admired saxophonist has had numerous recording occasions with the guitarist, beginning with Scofield’s early Blue Note recordings and evolving into the always interesting Scofield Quartet that melded hard bop motifs with Scofield’s oblique, sometimes amusing, angles. The two played on Lovano’s album Universal Language and on the Quartet’s drummer Bill Stewart’s Think What You Think (Evidence). So, it was natural that the two longtime collaborators should find another way to extend their relationship.

As for the others, Holland, who has become the bassist de jour to a growing number of artists, worked with Scofield on Roy Haynes’ latest CD, Love Letters (Columbia). Foster, on the other hand, had his own guitar trio satisfaction playing on two worthy albums with the chromatically-charged Steve Kahn (both on Blue Moon) and also played with Scofield on the late Joe Henderson’s album So What (Verve).

So, these players knew each other intimately and were especially prepped going into the studio. But what kept this recording from being just another “John Scofield Quartet” outing is the professional and artistic respect the bassist and drummer get. Foster, who sounds like Billy Higgins doing Art Blakey, is a much more subtle, refined pounder who likes to use his tom-tomming as punctuation marks, whereas Stewart evinces rock influences in maintaining a smoother drive.

However, a close listening to oh! reveals Holland’s pervasive influence. The bassist, who first gained attention as a member of Miles Davis’ post-'60s quintet fusion band, has led his now-famous quintet by creating a Latin-tinged harmonic trope that infects all of his fellow musicians. Using Miles’ modern approach to arrangement, Holland composes more by snippets of notations, letting his mates interpret through improvisation while remaining keenly aware of setting up others’ solos to create an integrated musical quilt (kind of like writing a gospel based on a small piece of papyrus). Yet, there is no better bassist around who maintains the rhythm, pushing and pushing it until the disease infects each and every person. Listen to his work on Lovano’s “New Amsterdam”—even Foster is awakened into a splurge of runs.

The evidence is clearer on Holland’s “The Winding Way,” first heard on Dream of the Elders, an ECM quartet album prior to the development of Holland’s lauded quintet. Here, Holland sets the basic modality with a solo introduction, leading to Scofield’s melodic statement. The pace gets moving—one can feel the build up—and then Lovano seems to literally jump in, as though this train might move out of sight if he doesn’t do it NOW. One can clearly imagine Holland’s stage grin flashing upon the saxophonist’s hasty entrance.

Those who want the Scofield of the recent jam-band tradition will have to be satisfied with hearing what made John famous to begin with: luscious chords and nifty picking in the Charlie Christian mode. All the while, Scofield, clearly jazz’s most versatile guitarist, displays all of his straight-up chops—check out his solo on “Shorter Form”—including the tasty riffing behind Lovano’s solos; no wonder these guys like to play together.

Jeff Cebulski 7/29/2003