Search - Jeff Parker, Scott Fields :: Song Songs Song

Pushing the limits of jazz improvisation

Troy Collins | Lancaster, PA United States | 10/12/2004

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Quite possibly one of the most adventurous records yet to emerge from the highly respected jazz and blues label, Delmark, "Song Songs Song" pushes the limits of what can easily be considered traditional jazz improvisation. Jazz guitarists Jeff Parker and Scott Fields play with and against each other in a studio session that will certainly be remembered for its risk taking elements.



Guitarist Jeff Parker, known for his work with numerous projects including Tortoise, Isotope 217, The Chicago Underground pairs up with Scott Fields, a free jazz guitarist and composer who has hovered around the avant garde jazz scene since the late 1960's. These two play a sequence of pieces that run from the melodic to the downright dissonant.



Book-ended by Parker's more delicate pastoral pieces, the bulk of the record finds the two guitarists in stop and go pointillistic free debate. Volume pedal swells, scraped strings and distorted chromatic runs all fly by as the guitarists play an endless game of cat and mouse. Melodic fragments emerge from the pieces, but are just a quickly discarded to explore more textural territory. Call and response improvisation is the conceptual backbone of this session. One can almost visualize the two sitting side by side, copying runs from one another then abstracting them, before turning them inside out and playing them back again.



Not an easy listen for those with pre-conceived notions of what jazz improvisation should sound like, "Song Songs Song" is a brave release on Delmarks part and makes for perfect blindfold test material. Play this one for your guitar geek friends and see if they can guess even one of the players."