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Scott Fields

Fields has produced music on and off since the 1960s, first in Chicago, then in other places scattered about North America, Europe, and Asia. Cologne is now his base, if perhaps not quite yet his home. Fields' musical education was haphazard, to say the least. In a case of the blind leading the blind, at first he taught himself guitar. Later he was introduced to music theory in ad hoc study groups, attended theory and compositions courses at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and tested the patience of a half-dozen or so private guitar teachers. As a composer he first wrote simple folk songs (this is age 12 stuff), then rock songs, then parodies of rock songs (these reflected his self-loathing of his insistence on continuing to perform as a rock guitarist just for the attention), then jazz head tunes, all of which led to his current mish-mash of material that, although he has scant interest in taxonomy, could be fairly called New Music or Avant-Jazz. Morphology has been his primary compositional interest in recent times, especially in how improvisational and compositional shapes fit together. In years past, through various pleading strategies, he has persuaded a remarkably diverse and skilled gang of musicians to participate in his amorphous ensemble. This wide-ranging posse feeds smaller groupings, from duos (or, if you want to get silly about it, Fields solo) to improvising chamber orchestras. Fields also jumps at the chance to work as a hired hand in the ensembles of other musicians.

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35
Album Review

Scott Fields Ensemble: Barclay

Read "Barclay" reviewed 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 ...

214
Album Review

Scott Fields Ensemble: Samuel

Read "Samuel" reviewed 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.

160
Album Review

Scott Fields: Bitter Love Songs

Read "Bitter Love Songs" reviewed 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 ...

184
Album Review

Scott Fields: Bitter Love Songs

Read "Bitter Love Songs" reviewed 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 ...

270
Album Review

Scott Fields Ensemble: Denouement

Read "Denouement" reviewed 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 ...

308
Album Review

Scott Fields Ensemble: Beckett

Read "Beckett" reviewed 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. ...

267
Album Review

Scott Fields Ensemble: Christangelfox

Read "Christangelfox" reviewed 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 ...

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54

Recording

Elliott Sharp and Scott Fields - Afiadacampos (Neos, 2010) ****

Elliott 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 ...

232

Recording

Scott Fields, Matthias Schubert - Minaret Minuets (Clean Feed, 2111) ****

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 instrumentalists—those roles smear—Scott Fields and Matthias Schubert find myriad methods to blend and contrast, to appear to be at one moment a larger ensemble ...

145

Recording

Scott Fields Freetet - Bitter Love Songs (Clean Feed)

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 ...

121

Recording

482 Music to Release New Scott Fields Ensemble CD September 21st

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 ...

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Barclay

Ayler Records
2019

buy

Minaret Minuets

Stash Records
2011

buy

Moersbow / Ozzo

Stash Records
2011

buy

What We Talk

Stash Records
2010

buy

Samuel

New World Records
2009

buy

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