Saturday Night Jazz 10.31.15

On recent programs we’ve heard several cuts - on this show it’s “Hangover” - from guitarist John Scofield’s new quartet CD, Past Present. Scofield has gathered together the early 90s lineup he led with saxophonist Joe Lovano and drummer Bill Stewart, and added bassist Larry Grenadier. Scofield recently lost a son to cancer and the experience focused his sense of how vividly the past survives in the present. Thus the title of the new work. The recording displays his predilection for the blues, country music and soul-jazz he loved in his own youth. The smoky soul theme, BB King-like figures and rugged chord vamp of Slinky are classic Scofield; Lovano is impetuously wayward on the hoedown Chap Dance; Stewart and Grenadier counter Museum’s bounce with postbop’s perambulations; and Get Proud has a soulfully Ray Charles-like drive. Scofield sounds warmer and more comfortable than he has for some time, but this set’s mellowness is constantly being creatively hounded by a quartet of superb improvisers.