John Scofield Last Night - Unbelieveable !!

[Freeker]

Totally dude, couldn't agree more. Last night show was epic, a truly complete musical experience...At times I had to look up at the Parliment Buildings just to remember where I was, COULD SOMETHING THIS GOOD REALLY BE GOING ON IN OTTAWA!??!!??! But hey if Bluesfest has taught me anything its never underestimate this city! I, like Jay had never seen Scof with just his band, my only experience with the jazz guitar god was when he kicked the shit outta me at the Beacon this past Dec. with the Mule. I had never really seen anyone step out in front of Warren before, at first I was pissed but after I saw what he was doing and where he was leading the band and us, I was more than ready to strap in and brace for the G's.

Last night performance had the same killer pace and imagination. The crowd was huge, bigger than I expected based on the weather that night....but it was ALL lawn chairs, cept for a smattering of heads on either side of the stage. John kicked it into overdrive right from the start and only really paused to intro the band (repeatedly) or confab with our own Skank resident Jay Hamilton, who turned out to be an integral part of the show Highlights for me had to be "Watch Out For PoPo" "Up All Night" and of course "Uberjam" great way to end it, although I was begging with him for some Sco-mule all night!!!

I would serious recommend to anyone, to go check out Scofield live, he 's that wicked mix of technical proficiancy which ya just gotta see up close, combined with stellar grooves perfect to just shut your eyes and shake your ass too, throw in the fact he's the most animated man on stage ever (Sorry Punk) his plethora of guitar induced "fuck faces" had me laughing my ass off, buy hey you gotta do what you gotta do to channel that cosmic shit, and I for one am super grateful, Thanks John!!!

[B & Z]

Sco was amazing, bringing his jazz chops to the groove. Shame on all those who missed it.

Great use of effects too. Not a cheesy note in the bunch (which can happen when jazzers turn on). Not Sco though! Tasteful, technical and talented. Wow.

Steve

[Pootie Tang]

For any of you Skanks who were able to make it out last night for the John Scofield Band's Ottawa Jazzfest Performance, one word...@#%@#%@% amazing!! I'd seen John Scofield a few times before sitting in with various people and playing their tunes (ScoMule 12-30-02) comes to mind but never have I seen him with his full band. Let me tell you, last nights Ottawa Jazzfest performance was by far one on the coolest heavy hitting flavorful performances I had ever seen by any band!! The boys came out and hit the crowd up immediately getting us moving, you could tell the lawn chair fools who didn't know Scofield were taken by surprise big time, it wasn't anywhere like the traditional jazz they were use to hearing, some left during the show, most got their asses up and grooved to it. A combination of phat phat bass, sweet rythm guitar, ever mixing drum changes, digital turntable sampling, and of course Scofields blazing guitar runs kept me moving the whole night. Theres no real way to describe the music, it was jazz, funk, disco, mid eastern, african, al mixed in the same bowl, and the taste was perfectly balanced. There were points in some of the songs where the boys would go off, lead by Scofields guitar, and build the most intense music peak it was surreal how music could sound like that. A lot of tunes of Uberjam and Up All Night came out and were throughly jammed out much free'er than the studio versions we hear. All in all one of the coolest shows I've ever seen, I recommend this guy to anyone who hasn't heard this stuff yet, it is truely an amazing blend of musical adventures, and espically the freeform jazz jamming they do over these songs, truely amazing. Get into this stuff!!

[MuleMomma]

And Andy Hess, contender for bass spot in the rebirth of Gov't Mule, was on bass - go Andy!