Live At Montmartre

This matchup looks really good on paper: a guest shot by fluid, flexible guitarist John Scofield in the full flush of his first inventive phase with the quartet whose inside/outside mastery should have defined mainstream jazz in the 80s (if there was any justice, which we all now know there isnt). But Live at Montmarte really doesnt live up to expectations, in part because the first two tracks hit tempos that go beyond breakneck to become frenetic and one big technical gaffe. The culprit there is Cameron Browns bass, which is miked so high it sounds like hes playing bass guitar on the first three tracks. It distorts the instrumental balance, bombing out on the octave drops driving the near Compared to What-groove opening Flame Games and pulling attention from Don Pullens strong solo on Well, I Guess Well Never Know because of the loud, fat bass tone. I.J. is too rushed to effectively lock in as George Adams strews about tenor sax notes and Flame Games breaks into an energetic, near-fusion theme that sometimes works and sometimes doesnt, with equally sporadic moments in the solos. Things improve tempo-wise with Well, I Guess Well Never Know, enabling the group to finally achieve some cohesion and give a pretty muted Dannie Richmond his only (and brief) bit of solo space. With Browns technical troubles resolved, the ballad-based final tracks are fine, with Adams and Scofield doubling on the pretty gorgeous, vaguely Arabic-tinged melody to Forever Lovers. Adams goes for a Trane-like tone and flurries in his solo but still crams in a few too many notes, Scofield smoothly picks up the solo thread, and Pullen goes off with cluster swirls before bringing it back home. Song Everlasting features a mellifluous tenor melody before Pullen takes over, followed by Adams and Scofield, both sounding far better playing at these more relaxed tempos. Live at Montmarte isnt all it could have been, but sometimes things just dont happen. It sounds like Scofield and the group never found a truly comfortable common ground. They dont clash, but it never feels like theyre totally in sync, either, at least not enough to reach the greater-than-the-sum-of-the-quartet-with-guest-soloist-parts level. The live albums by the George Adams-Don Pullen Quartet, itself, are better choices -- as are most of the other strong discs that the group released on Timeless during the 80s when the U.S. jazz industry didnt want to know. ~ Don Snowden