Track By Track: Medeski, Scofield, Martin & Wood _Juice_
Juice is the fourth recording that pairs heralded jazz guitarist John Scofield with John Medeski, Billy Martin and Chris Wood. Scofield explains that MSMW entered the studio with the intention to record “music from the different rhythms of the African diaspora, by which you can say jazz, rock and roll, Afro-Cuban and Brazilian—all of which comes from the African root. We also said, ‘Are we really gonna stick to this?’ and then decided, ‘No, let’s let it go wherever it goes.’” Scofield details the journey that ensued as he discusses the 10 tracks on Juice, which is set for release on September 16 via Indirecto Records.
Sham Time
“Sham Time” was a song that John Medeski knew from a Willie Bobo record, a real old ‘60s Latin jazz record. We heard it and said, “Oh, cool, let’s do that” because it would give us a chance to do our thing with this boogaloo kind of beat that MMW and I have done a lot. So we recorded it and then we found out after the fact that Eddie Harris, the jazz saxophonist and one of the greats of what became acid- jazz, had written it. Eddie Harris is someone I used to play with, and I got him to be the special guest on my record Hand Jive. We didn’t know it was an Eddie Harris tune until after the fact because John had it on his iTunes, which does not include composer credits.
North London
That’s my tune, and originally, the piece of paper had “Brazilian Boogaloo” as a working title. I knew about Airto Moreira’s early music because I had played with him in about the very first jazz gig I ever played. Airto came to Boston around 1973 and needed a band to do a tour with him and his wife, Flora Purim. He hired me, Kenny Werner and a bunch of guys. We opened for Cheech and Chong—it was hilarious. He was from the generation that invented samba jazz and this was my version. Then we started playing it, and I realized that there was a certain kind of Mersey beat thing to it. It reminded me of when I first got into music, listening to The Dave Clark Five. And then I thought, “Well, they weren’t from Liverpool. They were from North London.”
Louis The Shoplifter
That’s Billy Martin’s tune—his kind of Latin jazz-blues. I love the way John uses the acoustic piano on this track. It really sets a mood. All of MMW approach instrumental tunes with an unspoken concept of what they should play that gives each song a certain character. I love that about them. So many jazz musicians just play generic jazz, and the songs don’t have any character—they’re just jazz. But MMW are special that way and that’s what John and Billy and Chris do to every track.
Juicy Lucy
This is the one tune that we put together in the studio. We had one vamp that ended up being the second section of the song and then, I started to play the three-chord guitar lick to “Louie Louie.” I changed it minutely but, basically, that’s what it is. And then, we just put it together. John plays a fantastic Latin piano on it and Chris is playing this wild African dub bass—real muted.
I Know You
“I Know You” is my composition, and it’s, for lack of a better word, a bossa nova tune—a real slow one. I love the way MMW played it—they got so into it. Billy Martin plays this beautiful brush beat that sounds like anybody can do it but, let me tell you, nobody can do it. It’s a very simple thing, but to keep that going and to not be tempted to play busy, and to keep it going but still groove and to do little punctuations, is very difficult. Billy Martin is as great a groove drummer as he is a free, absolutely no-holds-barred conceptualist.
Helium
This is Chris Wood’s original composition and it’s really out. It sounds, to me, like he was listening to Frank Zappa. It has all these different elements, and he completely arranged it. I like the solo section after the written melodies because John and I improvise together—we sort of trade-off—and it wasn’t worked out at all. We just tried, “You blow a little, I blow a little.” We listened to each other and had this conversation.
Light My Fire
I told Susan, my wife, that we recorded “Light My Fire” and she said, “That’s in the category of the five songs I hope I never hear again in my life.” [Laughter.] Chris Wood had the idea to do this tune. He wrote it out in musical notation for us. There’s the intro that the organ plays, but we immediately thought, “It’s gonna sound stupid if John plays it on the organ.” So I played the intro on the guitar. We changed it up that way. This is the real rock track on there. We didn’t try to Afro-Cubanize it or anything—we just rocked it.
Sunshine of Your Love
This is a real long piece—the longest tune on the album. Billy did a reggae-dub-type beat, which MMW do really well, and there are all kinds of weird jammy things that happened. John did this two-handed organ thing where he played the guitar lick, almost like it’s in two different keys, where you get this bubble effect. It was mixed and remixed by this great engineer, Danny Bloom, and it’s so obscured I’ll bet a lot of people wouldn’t know this was “Sunshine of Your Love,” even if they knew the tune.
Stovetop
That’s my tune, again. I see this as coming back from my early days with Airto. It’s a straight- up Brazilian jazz samba type thing. Some of this is the most jazzy stuff MMW’s ever done, in a certain way. I brought in some real melodic things—I love to hear them play that music and they were kind enough to accommodate me by doing it.
The Times They Are A-Changin’
I just thought it’d be great to hear MMW play this. I think we all agreed we needed one song on the record that was really quiet. MMW’s just so great at keeping a mood. They listen all the time and that’s the key. What makes the magic is when we all listen and become one.
