Big-city-style gig for guitar hero John Scofield on his second of three Jazz Kitchen nights

 

The master returns for six shows.

John Scofield's visits to Indianapolis have been just infrequent enough to whet the appetite for his next return to town, and this time the guitarist and his quartet, dubbed Combo 73, are in the middle of three nights at the Jazz Kitchen. But in between there is always enough new Scofield music on record to keep fans engaged and not reliant on good memories alone.

Seeing the first show Saturday night in the jam-packed dining room, I was impressed by the easy internal rapport of the quartet, whose other members are Gerald Clayton, piano; Vicente Archer, bass, and Bill Stewart, drums. 

Note for note, Scofield has one of the strongest personalities among current guitarists. Though he is generous in acknowledging his sidemen and visibly appreciative of their contributions, it's worth remembering that one of his inspired CD titles is "Works for Me."

The colloquial heft of that expression includes an offhand acceptance of one's environment, its rewards and challenges, as well as a declaration as to who's the boss. Of the three musicians under his current touring charge, the most exemplary colleague remains the drummer. Stewart and Scofield have decades of affinity in evidence of their simpatico partnership.

Case in point Saturday: in an original piece whose title I didn't catch, after statements of a theme with short phrases and divided among guitar, bass, and piano, Scofield launched a solo. Soon it became clear that Stewart's comping was fully reciprocal. The guitar flights were more than supported; they were matched by the percussion, accents and brief figuration alike. And quite naturally, a drum solo grew out of the duo magic. It was a logical position for such a deft showcase.

As inspired as Clayton's and Archer's work seemed to be, especially in "Boulez Saal," a piece commissioned for a Berlin engagement, there was nothing in the concise set at the level of what Stewart contributed. Spontaneous melody is a consistent feature of Scofield's playing, but sometimes he unleashes fragmentary stuff I have difficulty understanding. When that happened Saturday, I told myself to shift my focus to what Stewart was doing. And he always made sense of what I heard coming from the guitar. An ah-ha moment: Oh, so that's it!

Just before the piece I'm celebrating for its Scofield-Stewart magic, there had been an enchanting trip through the set's one standard, "But Beautiful." That was sufficient confirmation of Scofield's affection for real tunes, which perhaps reached its peak in the CD "Country for Old Men." To be sure, his own writing has had a unique cast calculated to showcase his inimitable sound, and it's a special body of work. 

There's always something worth celebrating in hearing what's new with him. But I don't mind auditing a seminar with Stewart as guide. Works for me.

[Photo by Rob Ambrose]