By: Bill Meredith
uitarist John Scofield breaks no new ground on his new CD, "Bump". Then again, he doesn't have to. As one of the guitar's most distinctive stylists in jazz/fusion history, he's entitled to coast occasionally. And like nearly all the other alumni from one of music's greatest unofficial universities - that of the late trumpeter/bandleader Miles Davis - Sco does whatever he wants, critics be damned. Bump is a collage of Scofield's last three CDs: Groove Elation ('95's New Orleans boogie release); Quiet ('97's understated, Gil Evans-like orchestral jazz album), and last year's funky A Go Go (with the backing trio of Medeski, Martin & Wood). The guitarist's alternately biting and wash-tones highlight the opening "Three Sisters" because they're always steeped in be-bop humor. "Chichon" takes a step closer to jazz, but keyboard sampler player Mark De Gli Antoni (from the recently-defunct alt-rock act Soul Coughing) always walks it back. Bassist Chris Wood is re-borrowed from MMW to play electric bass on "Beep Beep" (which sounds like Groove Elation after spiked brownies) and "Kelpers" (a funk piece reminiscent of the classic '70s work by another Davis alum, keyboardist Herbie Hancock). Lesser-known players like bassists Tony Scherr and David Livolsi, drummers Kenny Wollesen and Eric Kalb and percussionists Johnny Almendra and Johnny Durkin alternately highlight explorative funk pieces like "Groan Man" (with vintage Scofield rhythm playing) and "Blackout," with Sco's wah-wah pedal manipulations. Yet Scofield can't resist mixing Wood's acoustic bass and De Gli Antoni's soundscapes ("Fez"), or Scherr's acoustic bass with samples during the Quiet-like "Kilgeffen." The guitarist sticks to the electric to close out Bump, mixing tonal absurdities with impeccable technique on "We Are Not Alone" and understating it perfectly for the walking-tempo "Swinganova." Scofield proves he's the master of the implied rhythm with his barely-audible chicken-picking driving "Drop and Roll," then plays a haunting minute of melody in a duet with Scherr on "Kilgeffen (reprise)." It's a fitting coda to Bump, a summation of the Sco rules.
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