John Scofield - C/D, S&D

I was listening to the first Soulive album a while ago, and he guests on one track on there. Their guitar player is very talented, but Sco comes on this track and tears the place to pieces with this shredder of a solo--you almost feel embarassed for the guy.

D: I dunno, I remember his 80s stuff like 'Still Warm' sounding pretty corny, and from what I've 'Uberjam' sounded like he was fucking around and shredding a lot. And it's called Uberjam.

I myself thought Time On My Hands wasn't bad — s'pretty straight ahead.

https://www.wbgo.org/music/2022-05-05/a-homemade-solo-guitar-album-as-john-scofield-would-say-it-could-happen-to-you

There is also John Scofield's Tone: Classic Sound or Some Ol Bullshit

Love this, put it in the column of minimal, intimate pandemic records along with Jeff Parker, Brandee Younger, etc.

On the other side of the spectrum we have Harry Connick Jr's terrible pandemic record, where he basically tried to be a whole big band by himself.

Mentioned before on some other threads, but the album Hudson he did a few years back with Jack DeJohnette and some other neighbors was a great example of jazzy/fusiony guys playing rock tunes.

I loved that album at the time and saw that band live - they were great.

Finally got around to checking out Scofield's 2009 excursion into New Orleans music and gospel flavors "Piety Street". That record sounds ridiculously good. Being that it is based around gospel, it's not a full fledged New Orleans funk record, but it has some killer grooves.

It was also one of those records that just the sheer way it was recorded and detail was really amazing. You can tell they broke out the old organs as you can hear it in the growl and grunt. Just a killer drum record both by Shannon Powell's playing and the the sound.

Love that record. Too bad the studio (Piety Street) isn't around anymore.

The guy that recorded it's name is James Farber, which even as a liner notes nerd, the name never jumped out at me.

Looking the guy up, he's got a pretty eclectic and interesting discography of records he worked upon.

https://www.discogs.com/artist/82811-James-Farber

For you music writers, this is a dude that might make a killer interview.

Dude worked on Kurtis Blow and Philip Glass records and the Boss' The River among a boodle of others...
Just sayin' pro writer people around here.

Glenn Branca AND Al Jarreau AND a Jane Fonda workout record...

I think he has all those eclectic credits because he worked as an in-house engineer at the Power Station, which of course is/was a pretty busy place!

Pretty good (tech heavy) interview here:

https://josephbranciforte.com/publications/tapeop/james-farber

Cool, thanks. I've read Tape Op for years but do not remember this one. Guy definitely seems like a serious pro.

"And, of course, the people in the jazz business are the greatest. Aside from being super-talented, they're interesting and smart – great people to have a lunch break with. Conversations go everywhere. It's still a lot of fun. Sometimes I think back on it, and I wish that I had brought a camera around with me and documented all this stuff. I wasn't thinking along those lines while I was going through it all, but now reflecting on it, I'm pretty grateful for the experience."

Cool interview, I'd love to hear some of those Haitian compas records he talks about.

In that interview he talks about Madison a lot: "When I graduated college in '75 I hung out in Madison for a while and worked in listener-sponsored radio."

I thought it would be cool to ask a WORT (surely the station he's talking about) old-timer if they remembered him. Coincidentally, later that same day I was at a local festival and was introduced to a DJ who's been at the station for 50 years...and he did not remember James Farber, lol.