Samuel
Jazz
| Aug 2009
Reviews
Fo
Reviewed 2009-10-10
Reviewed 2009-10-10
SCOTT FIELDS ENSEMBLE: Samuel
New World, 2009
AVANT-GARDE – OK, this is just amazing. In this mad-sounding quartet disc, guitarist Scott Fields takes the text of three plays by Samuel Beckett (spoken lines and stage directions alike) and transforms it all into a complex musical code, which the band renders instrumentally. The result sounds wholly spontaneous and yet clearly isn’t, reflects human speech cadences yet is unpredictably scattered, and is at once totally melodic and utterly bizarre. Fields has actually been working in this idiom for a while, so it also sounds quite polished.
Scott Fields - electric guitar
John Hollenbeck - percussion
Scott Roller - cello
Matthias Schubert - tenor sax
* * * * | Fo’s Picks: 1, 2
1. 24:16 – quick-paced, percussive and scribbly, like an extended argument. Doesn’t vary much, but the second half has a bit more space.
2. 19:35 – slow and atmospheric, surprisingly melodic: creeps quietly on a sort of walking bass line, falls into many open, abstract spaces.
3. 20:52 – broadly scattered and quiet with otherworldly harmonies, wide expanses; ever so gradually coheres into loud, coordinated motion
[ Fo ] 10/10/09
New World, 2009
AVANT-GARDE – OK, this is just amazing. In this mad-sounding quartet disc, guitarist Scott Fields takes the text of three plays by Samuel Beckett (spoken lines and stage directions alike) and transforms it all into a complex musical code, which the band renders instrumentally. The result sounds wholly spontaneous and yet clearly isn’t, reflects human speech cadences yet is unpredictably scattered, and is at once totally melodic and utterly bizarre. Fields has actually been working in this idiom for a while, so it also sounds quite polished.
Scott Fields - electric guitar
John Hollenbeck - percussion
Scott Roller - cello
Matthias Schubert - tenor sax
* * * * | Fo’s Picks: 1, 2
1. 24:16 – quick-paced, percussive and scribbly, like an extended argument. Doesn’t vary much, but the second half has a bit more space.
2. 19:35 – slow and atmospheric, surprisingly melodic: creeps quietly on a sort of walking bass line, falls into many open, abstract spaces.
3. 20:52 – broadly scattered and quiet with otherworldly harmonies, wide expanses; ever so gradually coheres into loud, coordinated motion
[ Fo ] 10/10/09
Recent airplay
Ghost Trio
Memory Select — Dec 08, 2009
Ghost Trio [excerpt]
Memory Select — Dec 01, 2009
Not I
Memory Select — Nov 17, 2009
Ghost Trio
Music Casserole — Nov 14, 2009
Eh Joe [cont'd], Eh Joe
Memory Select — Oct 20, 2009
Charting
2009-10-11 — 2009-12-13
Jazz
| Week Ending | Airplays |
|---|---|
| Dec 13 | 1 |
| Dec 6 | 1 |
| Nov 22 | 1 |
| Nov 15 | 1 |
| Oct 25 | 1 |
Track listing
| 1. | Not I | ||
| 2. | Ghost Trio | ||
| 3. | Eh Joe |