Search - The John Scofield Band :: Up All Night

Fast becomming one of my favorites

Jan P. Dennis | Monument, CO USA | 05/28/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"John Scofield is one of few players equally at home in the worlds of straight-ahead acoustic jazz and electro-jazz-funk. I prefer him in the former setting (e.g., Works for Me, Scolohofo), but I'm coming to appreciate his work in the latter almost as much (e.g., Uberjam, Up All Night).This strikes me as Sco's most successful electro-funk outing to date. To my ears there's more of interest going on here: check the subtle interplay on "Creeper," and the deep groove of "Whatcha See Is Whatcha Get." Avi Bortnick has become an even more amazing rhythm guitarist in the intervening year and a half since Uberjam. Sounding distinctly like one of the all-time greatest rhythm guitarists, Steve Erquiaga, on "Thikhathali," my favorite cut, which comes across something like a faux-Egyptian-Caribbean-surf number (Dick Dale meets Andy Narell via some weird Middle-East connection?), Bortnick stamps this number with a hip musical sensibility that's absolute perfection.Several of the numbers feature a killer horn section. Most notable of these is "Four on the Floor," an impossibly bubbly-funky number with a slow burn perfectly suited to the punchy horn approach. Of special note is the dreamy ballad, "Like the Moon," with Bortnick again contributing some very effective guitar support, this time lots of long tones and bent strings. While the entire number is very atmospheric, there's a killer middle section that redefines the term ethereal, leading into a way cool outro.The more I listen to this, the more I think Up All Night's a breakthrough for Sco. Whereas his previous electro-funk outings sometimes seemed heavy-handed and half-baked to these ears, everything here's smart, hip, and creative. A continuation of some of the nattiest jazz releases ever in the first half of any single year."

Another Fine Scofield Recording

Max S. | USA | 06/20/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

""Up All Night" is a very fine recording. Since "Up All Night" and "Uberjam" are essentially the same line ups (John Scofield Band), it is natural to compare the two recordings. Admittedly, I think "Uberjam" is my favorite of the two recordings. When I first heard "Uberjam," it really caught my attention. As other reviewers have noted, "Uberjam" had some memorable melodies, cool musical twists, turns and textures, and tidbits of hidden treasures, such as in-and-out exchange of real drums and techno drums, interesting deep-sounding distorted bass lines and unique sound samplings. "Uberjam" was one of most exciting CD's I have purchased in recent years. When "Up All Night" was released, I was expecting something similar in energy and surprise to "Uberjam." "Up All Night" has its exciting and intense moments and is similar to "Uberjam" in its style, but as a whole it is more subdued, atmospheric and sets a certain mellow, dreamy mood. Also, some of the songs tend to meander a bit with drawn-out, repetitive rhythyms and groove beats. The songs reflect the concept of the title of the album--it is the kind of dreamy music a person would listen to if they were "Up All Night" in the wee hours of the morning.... Although not quite as eye-opening as "Uberjam," I still highly recommend "Up All Night" to any listener--it is another remarkable effort by John Scofield."

Takes some time to get into

resident_out_of_touch | Schenectady, New York United States | 01/01/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"another dude already said it best, what seems to be "lacking" in terms of melody etc on this album is made up for with rhythm and texture.. i cant really compare to other scofield albums, ive heard tons of his stuff but this is the only album i own and am familiar with, and its certainly not what i expected when i happily grabbed up my first scofield band record. i was expecting the sort of music you sit down and listen to for the enjoyment of skilled musicians cutting loose in the context of romping funk, full of long extended solos and wierd chord changes and obscure rhythms etc. this album has all of that, but its sort of subdued in a wash of effects and abstraction. when scofield starts goin off, its not the sort of solo you can sit there and listen to in the usual sense of a guitar solo, its just another layer of sound over the whole rhythmic mess (so to speak). so really this album i would say is more geared towards a dance/hip hop/electronic mentality than jazz, since the melodies and harmonies that usually drive jazz are deeply overshadowed by all manner of dirty audio tweaks and thunderously locked in grooves banged out by the drums and bass. approaching this album from a more "traditional" viewpoint, it understandably is kind of hard to take. first listen i was highly unimpressed, the beats were great and all but it was just too wierd. once you stop worrying about the general melodic aspect and listen to it more in the context of drum and bass or trip hop, you realize just how trippy and awesome an album it is. even so i think it takes some time to sort of tune into the abstraction of it, the sharp grittiness of the bountiful effects processing and the sort of unpredictable abstraction that john often goes off into, dousing long, incomprehensible, dizzying guitar runs with auto-wah and filtering etc.. once you get a feel for just what the band is doing it becomes an extremely fun listen however, awesome for background music, chill rooms at parties, spacing out on headphones, bumping out of car systems, all that good stuff.... definitely reccomended to abstract/experimental fans as well as electronic music peeps, those into the wierder manifestations of dnb, trip hop and breaks"