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Product details
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Track Listings
| 1. That's Enough |
| 2. Motherless Child |
| 3. It's a Big Army |
| 4. His Eye Is On The Sparrow |
| 5. Something's Got A Hold On Me |
| 6. The Old Ship of Zion |
| 7. Ninety Nine And A Half |
| 8. Just A Little While To Stay Here |
| 9. Never Turn Back |
| 10. Walk With Me |
| 11. But I Like The Message |
| 12. The Angel Of Death |
| 13. I'll Fly Away |
Product Description
Review
Modern jazz guitarist John Scofield has played alongside greats of the genre including Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, and Billy Cobham, bending his strings to a diverse range of styles with flexibility and technical flair. On Piety Street, however, Scofield turns his attention to a parallel 20th Century American popular music form - the blues.
This ain't the blues as played by blind pan-handlers or railroad hoppers, though: rather, these 13 tracks see a suite of gospel standards, traditionals and Scofield originals played in a clean, full-band jazz style featuring the personnel of pianist Jon Cleary, former Meters bassist George Porter Jr, drummer Ricky Fataar, vocalist John Boutté and Shannon Powell on percussion. It's a tight but tasteful set, one reverential to the religious spirit of the originals, if not always reverential to the form: the God-fearing message of Thomas A Dorsey's Never Turn Back gets a funky itch in its step, all scratchy guitar and trilling organ, while old folk standard Motherless Child shifts intuitively from jazzy swing into a reggae step in its closing minutes.
Does it work? Well, mostly. Occasionally, you're left with the feeling that Scofield and band's instrumental proficiency rather overwhelms the soul-stirring simplicity of the originals: His Eye Is On The Sparrow speeds up the gospel standard into something rather more suitable for a cocktail bar than a church. So perhaps Piety Street is at its best when the band tackle faith with a little fire in their belly. Indeed, it's one of Scofield's own - It's A Big Army - that's the album stand-out: a fun, upbeat cut of jazzed-up 12 bar blues that sees breathless group vocals and handclaps thrown into the pot. --Louis Pattison
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CD Description
It is a rare artist that can explore more than one kind of music with true fluency, virtuosity and sincerity. Guitarist John Scofield can, and he’s proven it once again with Piety Street--a powerful collection of blues & gospel renditions. Born in Ohio in 1951 and raised in Connecticut, Scofield took up the guitar at age 11, inspired by both rock and blues players. An early introduction to jazz guitar records sparked a lifelong love of jazz. His first recording as a leader 1977 established him as an influential and innovative player and composer. In 1982, he began a three-and-a-half-year stint touring with Miles Davis. Scofield’s compositions and guitar work appear on three of Davis’ albums.
With the release of Piety Street, Scofield takes his music to a new place. "I'm just shifting the balances for this one," he says. I've always wanted to record and tour a blues project. That's where I started as a guitarist and I'm feeling that music more than ever of late”.
With the release of Piety Street, Scofield takes his music to a new place. "I'm just shifting the balances for this one," he says. I've always wanted to record and tour a blues project. That's where I started as a guitarist and I'm feeling that music more than ever of late”.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
brave release,
By zargb5 (UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Piety Street (Audio CD)
I have every solo album Sco has released except "Bar Talk" which has been deleted for many years. Sco seems to be playing the kind of music he started out playing and enjoying it. He has an eclectic taste and has used these influences in all his explorations over the years.
I have found his output a bit disappointing over the last few releases, with "the music of ray charles" "this meets that" and now "Piety Street" This album like the previous 3 mentioned has consummate musicianship, good arrangements, great feel and musicality but it seems to lack the more adventurous or inquisitive spark which abounds in spades on his older albums and jazz albums. maybe because they are less jazz oriented than previously. Sco seems to have moved into the more lucrative climes of commercialism? Sco appears to have been heading towards this gospel album for a while especially after the Ray Charles cd. This collection of vocal gospel songs (which are amongst his favourite tunes) has only one instrumental track near the end (which comes as a breathe of fresh air) Sco tells us that he doesn't belong to any particular denomination and that he just loves the tunes. The tunes have a great feel to them. Maybe its my problem i feel uncomfortable with this album, being an atheist, the lyrics make me cringe while at the same time i can appreciate the music. Sco arranges the songs himself and plays some sensitive solos. There are some moments of bluesy jazz improv which are only limited by the stricter arrangement/architecture of the songs. His band also offer sensitive musical performances so this should really be a winner. This is no "Uberjan" "up all night" "Blue matter" or "What We Do" if you love Sco's music (like i do)you'll probably buy it anyway. If you are in any way religious and also love Sco's music you should love it. As sco says the music should do the talking so maybe the problem is with me. If you do buy it, it may be the album of Sco's that tends to get left on the shelf in preference to his others. Sorry John.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
scofield plays righteously well on this one,
By
This review is from: Piety Street (Audio CD)
This is absoluitely brilliant - Scofield is a guitarist's guitarist usually, but on this record there's plenty of awesome vocals and pious bass playing, and the band rock in the way only great gospel musicians can - hence Scofield is able to play against some solid foundations and boy does he do well - what is great is that he skirts around all the possible pitfalls of blues cliches and plays some fantastic tunes....and with such feeling - it really is one of favourite recordings of his, and one of the best CDs I've got in a few years - there's some very good youtube segments of this lineup playing, so if you don't believe me, go check them out, then buy this!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
John Scofield pay back to the roots,
By
This review is from: Piety Street (Audio CD)
John Scofield has during his time as performing jazzguitarist played a lot of styles, and I've enjoyed his music in 3 decades. "Piety Street" is probertly the best gospel/blues/New Orleans-mix i've ever heard. And what a group of musicians, it grooves......
Peter Wilkens
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