Home » Jazz Musicians » Scott Fields
Scott Fields
Tags
Scott Fields Ensemble: Barclay
by Glenn Astarita
Guitarist Scott Fields' distinctive approach to composition marches to the next level on this third installment of the Beckett Trilogy," where he uses additional Samuel Barclay Beckett (1906-1989) plays as an inspiration for these three extended works, based on the novelist's text/plots. The ensemble seemingly weaves some of Beckett's black comedy and humor into concise and rather spirited statements via geometric, non-linear and asymmetrically paced grooves with incongruent slants, offering some brain candy for your psyche to nibble ...
read moreScott Fields Ensemble: Samuel
by Troy Collins
The works of Samuel Beckett have been a recurrent source of inspiration for guitarist Scott Fields. Samuel is Fields' second effort at conveying the master's prose through pure sound, following Beckett (Clean Feed, 2007). Transposing the original text of Beckett's plays into precise pitches, chords and time signatures, Fields transforms Beckett's wordplay into melodies and harmonies that share more than a passing resemblance to jazz. Despite their cerebral origins and abstruse character, the ensuing works are in fact fairly accessible.
read moreScott Fields: Bitter Love Songs
by Troy Collins
While the sardonic album title alludes to a session fraught with rancorous despair, guitarist Scott Fields' Bitter Love Songs is, perhaps ironically, one of his most accessible efforts. Born in Chicago, but now based in Cologne, Germany, Fields recorded this date in his new home town with German bassist Sebastian Gramss and Portuguese drummer Joao Lobo. An iconoclast who favors unusual instrumental combinations, this is his first guitar trio recording since Mamet (Delmark, 2001), with bassist Michael Formanek and drummer ...
read moreScott Fields: Bitter Love Songs
by Clifford Allen
The Freetet is ostensibly Cologne-based guitarist Scott Fields' traditional blowing vehicle," and Bitter Love Songs is his first in the guitar-bass-drums format since Mamet (Delmark, 2001), with bassist Michael Formanek and drummer Michael Zerang. On Bitter Love Songs, he's joined by German bassist Sebastian Gramss and Portuguese drummer Joao Lobo. What makes this date a semi- departure for Fields is that, in the last six years, most of his work has been for chamber ensembles with unique instrumentation; improvised but ...
read moreScott Fields Ensemble: Denouement
by Troy Collins
Chicago-based guitarist Scott Fields most successful projects, such as Mamet (Delmark, 2001), and Beckett (Clean Feed, 2007), offer a novel merger of structured improvisation inspired by literary sources, this album included. Recorded in 1997 and previously available only on Fields' own tiny Geode label, this session sat dormant for ten years before this Clean Feed reissue.
Denouement features a unique double ensemble; two electric guitar trios playing in tandem, but rarely in unison. In 1997, Fields' working trio ...
read moreScott Fields Ensemble: Beckett
by Troy Collins
Beckett follows in the conceptual footsteps of Mamet (Delmark, 2001), guitarist Scott Fields' previous project inspired by an author. Tracking the thematic similarities between Beckett's writing and Fields' compositions is a tenuous prospect, like any project that yields inspiration from a divergent art form. Nonetheless, the album provides a challenging and rewarding listen on its own, with or without knowledge of its genesis.
From aleatoric excursions to blistering, jittery free-bop, Fields has an ear for adventurous, unconventional sounds. ...
read moreScott Fields Ensemble: Christangelfox
by Jerry D'Souza
Three musicians gather to make music. Each plays an instrument and percussion that comes in a set of four. Their percussion comprises scrap metal, stone, and wood, all of which float on foam slabs. They begin and then go on for the next hour playing the composition of Scott Fields.
The music on Christangelfox is influenced by Asian cultures, but as Fields notes in the liner notes, that intention is not formal. But it does give a pith ...
read moreElliott Sharp and Scott Fields - Afiadacampos (Neos, 2010) ****
Source:
Free Jazz by Stef Gijssels
By Paul Acquaro According to Scott Fields' website, this recording with Elliot Sharp, Afiadacampos, came out in 2010, which on the cusp of 2012, makes me a little more than fashionably late. Apologies for my tardiness, however, I am pleased to report the music has not aged a bit. I think the first thing that stuck out to me on this recording is just how nicely recorded the steel string acoustic guitars sound. Since they are rather indistinguishable sonically, the ...
read more
Scott Fields, Matthias Schubert - Minaret Minuets (Clean Feed, 2111) ****
Source:
Free Jazz by Stef Gijssels
By Paul Acquaro There is a great deal of space for electric guitarist Scott Fields and tenor saxophonist Matthias Schubert to fill on this recent duo outing. Clean Feed offers this description on their site: In the Minaret Minuets system there are two separate but equal branches: the electric guitar and the tenor saxophone. Composer slash instrumentaliststhose roles smearScott Fields and Matthias Schubert find myriad methods to blend and contrast, to appear to be at one moment a larger ensemble ...
read more
Scott Fields Freetet - Bitter Love Songs (Clean Feed)
Source:
Master of a Small House
Mordant wit and caustic self-deprecation have always been reliable elements in Scott Fields' creative expression. From the pithy brickbats of semi-fictional critic Hugh Jarrid to the admirable, if puzzling, practice of publishing pans right alongside praises on his website, the guitarist has never shied away presenting the whole package of his persona, prickly pear portions and all. Even by Fields' archly candid standards this new Clean Feed outing stands out. His liners read as a suite-like screed, pillorying a succession ...
read more
482 Music to Release New Scott Fields Ensemble CD September 21st
Source:
All About Jazz
AVON, CT -- 482 Music is proud to announce the forthcoming September 21st release of the Scott Fields Ensemble's christangelfox (482-1029). This latest incarnation of the eclectic multi-instrumentalist/composer's continually evolving signature group features Fields, and frequent collaborators Guillermo Gregorio (clarinet) and Matt Turner (cello), in a nuanced trio performance of his hour-long title work.
I wrote 'christangelfox' for specific musicians playing, at times, particular instruments, in this case small percussion arrays, each with four pieces of scrap metal, four pieces ...
read more