John Scofield: EnRoute (2004)

With the live EnRoute, recorded at New York's Blue Note, guitarist John Scofield returns from the jam-band wars in challenging high style, leading a trio for the first time on record in more than 20 years. With his strong blues and funk sensibility, Scofield has always been the jazz guitarist most likely to succeed among rock listeners, and fans from both camps will be drawn to this purer improvisational enterprise. Teamed here with longtime drumming associate Bill Stewart and veteran bassist Steve Swallow (who was featured on those early-'80s trio albums), he's still jamming, but there's a sharpness of focus and a locked-in intensity among the musicians that you rarely encounter in jam-band settings--including his own. Emptying out his bag of much-imitated tricks--the sighing pedal tones, slab-like chords, shimmering lyrical lines, and controlled screams--Scofield romps through the bop classic, "Wee," and delivers a diaphanous reading of "Alfie." The album also features a pair of remakes: "Name That Tune," Swallow's bounding remake of Duke Ellington's "Perdido," and the leader's strutting "Over Big Top," based on "Bigtop" from his 1995 album, Groove Elation. From whatever perspective you choose, it's Scofield's best album since Time on My Hands, his 1990 quartet date with saxist Joe Lovano. --Lloyd Sachs

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EnRoute (RS) / EnRoute (HF) @ 320K

John Scofield: This Meets That (2007)

Following celebrated runs on the Enja, Arista, Gramavision, Blue Note and Verve labels, Scofield is proud to release his first project for Emarcy, This Meets That. The album finds Scofield once again in the company of what he calls his "A-Team"--bassist Steve Swallow and drummer Bill Stewart--the trio that released En Route in 2004. Added to that, the four-part horn section of Roger Rosenberg on baritone sax and bass clarinet, Jim Pugh on trombone, Lawrence Feldman on tenor sax and flutes and John Swana on trumpet and flugelhorn. A special treat, one tune also features special guest Bill Frisell on tremolo guitar-- a cover of "House of the Rising Sun."

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This meets that (RS) / This meets that (HF) @ 320K

Joe Lovano: Universal Language (1992)

One of the top saxophonists of the 1990s, Joe Lovano still seems to be improving. His tenor tone is based in the tradition but is fairly original and his chancetaking improvisations are both stimulating and refreshing. His father Tony "Big T" Lovano was a fine tenorman who played in Cleveland. Joe originally started on alto when he was six, switching to tenor five years later. He attended Berklee and then worked with Jack McDuff and Lonnie Smith. After three years touring with Woody Herman's Orchestra (1976-79), Lovano moved to New York, playing regularly with Mel Lewis's Big Band, Paul Motian's various groups (since 1981), Charlie Haden's Liberation Music Orchestra and (in the early '90s) John Scofield in addition to touring Europe with Elvin Jones (1987). Joe Lovano has recorded as a leader for Soul Note, Jazz Club, Label Bleu (reissued by Evidence), Enja, JSL (a date with his father) and a long string of very impressive outings for Blue Note. The 1995 Blue Note set Rush Hour features Joe Lovano and his wife, singer Judi Silvano in top form collaborating with Gunther Schuller on a challenging set of music. Trio Fascination followed in 1998, and a year later he teamed with Greg Osby for Friendly Fire. 52nd Street Themes appeared in the spring of 2000, finding Lovano working with a richly textured bebop nonet.

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Universal Language

Gary Burton, Pat Metheny, Steve Swallow, Antonio Sanchez: Quartet Live! (2009)

Quartet Live! is a revisited edition of the classic Gary Burton Quartet. The album features three original members and jazz legends Burton, Pat Metheny and Steve Swallow along with one new member, and perhaps one of the most prominent drummers of his generation, Antonio Sanchez. The eleven song album was recorded live at Yoshi’s Jazz Club in Oakland. The story begins in 1967 when bassist Steve Swallow joined with vibraphonist Gary Burton to form the original Gary Burton Quartet. In the early 1970s, then 19 year old guitarist Pat Metheny joined Burton’s band and one of the most celebrated careers in music began. This would be the start of a 35 year musical friendship between the vibist and guitarist that continues today. A decade ago Metheny discovered drummer Antonio Sanchez, inviting him to join The Pat Metheny Group, and the two have been playing together ever since. Metheny came up with the idea to revisit the Gary Burton Quartet, the band that had been his entry into the jazz world: "For me, as a teenager in Missouri just starting to appreciate jazz, Gary’s group was the most innovative band around". They decided to schedule a gig at the Montreal Jazz Festival in 2005. The musicians’ rapport and the freshness of playing at Montreal was so energizing that the musicians took the act on the road in Japan and the US in 2006 and 2007, and the group reunited again for a European tour in 2008. What we have here is four legendary musicians, improvisers and composers all, each at the top of his game, bringing modern jazz history to life on Quartet Live!.