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...