Meeting Steve Peskoff Again

Steve Peskoff Trio at Beit Haamudim

The first time I met Steve Peskoff was at the Jerusalem Cinematheque in the fall of 1987. I was playing a regular weekly gig there on Sunday nights, backing up the singer Libi on guitar. Libi knew everyone in the Jerusalem music scene, and would call up different musical guests each time to sit in with us. One Sunday day night, she called up Steve Peskoff, as I took a break and sat down in the front row to listen. Now, for the sake of full disclosure, I did have a little bit of 'weed' earlier in the evening, but that certainly should not diminish my estimation of Steve's playing, quite the opposite, it may have made my reaction to his playing much more extreme...

• Steve Peskoff with Deborah Neasouli (Steve's solo starts at 03:00 min)

As I watched this tall skinny man and his Pedulla custom guitar playing through a few changes and going into a long solo, I suddenly found myself in total awe. He seemed to be saying something to himself over and over as he got deeper immersed in the music, maybe chanting or even praying to himself. After about 20 minutes, I said to myself: "I'm going to go home, burn all of my guitars, and never ever play another note, ever!

Steve Peskoff Trio at Beit Haamudim

Well, as the years passed, and I got to know Steve, and performed with him on stage from time to time, I sort of relaxed, and of course, didn't burn my guitars, and continued to play. On one or two occasions where I managed to put together some sort of band, and invited Steve to be a part of it, having him next to me on stage felt like I had a safety net under me - like I could do no wrong as long as he was there. That is just how good Steve is, but unfortunately, not very many people have heard him in the last 10 or so years, and not enough people really see what a gem of a musician and a person he really is.

• Steve Peskoff with Memelo (Steve's solo from 01:30 to 04:40)

After so many years of not seeing Steve in person, this evening I got to hear Steve performing live in a trio with his son Haim on drums, and Michael Edward on bass, and it was nothing short of refreshing and wonderful. (A new Jazz series has opened up at the Beit Haamudim on Rambam St. near Nahalat Binyamin, with shows every night of the week)

John Scofield - Blue Matter

Ok, so I'm driving home again after an annoying and tiring day at the office, where I also felt at one point like I had food poisoning from the onion soup at the vegetarian restaurant...I needed a cool kind of album to "chill out" on the way home.

I've got the windows down to enjoy some of the breeze of the fall night, as I slip in another of my favorite John Scofield albums - "Blue Matter" .
If "Still Warm" has a warmish texture to it, "Blue Matter" is a bit more cool and distanced, especially due to some of the seriously dated synthesizer sounds from Mitchell Forman - if there is one thing that seems to date an album more than anything else, it's the embarrassing synth sounds that are often used in many 70's and 80's recordings, in Fusion and modern Jazz in particular. Getting past that, this album still has some great tunes on it with a killer rhythm section in bassist Gary Grainger and super drummer Dennis Chambers.

I saw Dennis Chambers live once or twice, and he nearly stole the show the second time - he is such a powerful and funky drummer with an amazing groove, that I don't think anyone today can come near him in this niche, I mean he's like Steve Gadd, Billy Cobham, and Dave Weckl all in one, playing on amphetamines...

As I'm waiting for some of the congestion to clear up along the 2 1/2 lane boulevard that passes by the Yarkon river, I get a waft of the local sewage treatment station along the way - oh putrid!!! - gotta crank up the volume on "Now She's Blond" and try to ignore the olfactory affront. As I pass the Diamond Exchange business area, another waft of sewage comes up - you can also get that whnever you pass by the Sheraton City Tower on the highway heading north, it always seems to smell terrible around there, at least for the last 3-4 years...

I flip back to one of my favorites - "Blue Matter", the first track on this album and what originally sold me on it when I bought the fine German pressing of the LP around 20 years ago, and I used to sit with the album and try to pick out the tune on my own guitar.

Just a couple of years after that album came out, I managed to help persuade someone that it would be a good idea to have Scofield over here for a live concert or two, and I even got to meet my idol and get him to autograph my Ibanez guitar (a similar model to the one that he plays).

Cool, I've chilled out now...

John Scofield - Still Warm

On average,I have a 20 minute ride from home to work each day. Usually, this involves weaving in and out of high traffic areas and some driving on the highway. Every morning is a different story, and every morning there is a new set of "challenges" to face.
Music helps to take off the edge, to help me ignore or forgive the countless inconsiderate assholes and idiots out there on the road who are either a danger to you and everyone else, or just a nuisance for which you need supreme amounts of patience in order not to loose your cool...

This morning I placed in my CD player one of my all time favorite Jazz/Fusion guitar albums - John Scofield's "Still Warm" from 1986. I admit that I am a total John Scofield addict, and I have loved many of his albums over the years, but I keep coming back to "Still Warm". After all these years, I think that it has become a kind of classic. The different tones, colors, the rhythms, the mix of subtlety and boldness on this album are the result of an unusual team of players from different parts of the musical spectrum - guitarist Scofield and keyboard player Don Grolnick are from more mainstream and slightly traditional Jazz backgrounds, while drummer Omar Hakim and bassist Daryl Jones are from more commercial Jazz/Fusion/Rock origins.

As I'm winding through traffic on the main street in the city, I jump to track 5 - "Rule Of Thumb" which begins with a delicate keyboard rhythm, and then turns into a delicate but funky and upbeat collaboration between Daryl Jones lightly snapping the bass and Hakim on a solid funk riff, as "Sco" adds some pizzicato picking. As I am forced to weave in and out of different lanes to avoid the stupid rich-bitch that has double parked her car and has the door open - further obstructing the right hand lane...the music soothes my pain, makes it easier to grin and bear it 'till I actually get onto the highway.

The gentle but steady sounds of track 6 "Picks and Pans" begin, the fast pace of the traffic matches the music, and the idiots that can't seem to choose a lane to stay in are easier to ignore as I hold back a little and turn up the volume on Sco's long solo.

I flip back to track 2 "Still Warm", an up tempo but fairly quiet tune, very subtle and understated both in the playing and the harmonic composition - this is a great relaxation tune that doesn't put you to sleep. I'm rounding the corner now to the neighborhood of my office building, traffic seems fairly clear now, all the way up to a few meters from the entrance to the building - that's when all hell seems to break loose as all sorts of inconsiderate and impatient people are making U-turns and blocking traffic in both directions as other impatient people try to weave around them...all I can do is put up the volume a bit and wait in line...at least another 5 minutes before the mess resolves itself and I can make it into the parking garage as the first track "Techno" starts playing.

There, I made it safely to work once more,
another annoying morning in traffic,
but I had John Scofield to keep me company
and I managed not to blow my stack...