Russell Carlson      John Corbett      Julian Cowley      Stefan Gijssels      Walter Horn      Hugh Jarrid      Chris Kelsey      Budd Kopman      Jon Morgan      Harvey Pekar      Alexandre Pierrepont      Massimo Ricci      Derek Taylor      Dan Warburton      Kevin Whitehead     

publications   Signal to Noise, Cadence

personal contacts   I met Jon when he contacted me for an interview. He stayed at my house overnight, talked to me for hours, until I refused to continue, and then told me that he didn’t have a publication for the story. He was just hoping to find one and never did.

Some time later I invited him to watch my ensemble rehearse, record, and perform my composition “96 Gestures.” The idea wasn’t so much that he needed to write about the project, but that it would bring him in contact with the musicians, including Joseph Jarman, Myra Melford, Rob Mazurek, Matt Turner, Dylan van der Skyff, Francois Houle, and others.

He didn’t take a single note during the five days that he observed us. He barely spoke to anyone. When he returned to Minneapolis he spammed all 13 of the musicians with a long questionnaire. The result was a flood of what-the-fuck? emails from the musicians to me. Nothing came of this visit either.

A couple of years later Jon told Signal-to-Noise that he would write a profile of me and asked for a stack of my CDs they had in a queue to be reviewed. Did the same with Coda, but never wrote for either and both publications then couldn’t review the CDs because he wouldn’t return them. I will someday punch him on his upturned nose.

reviewed   Disaster at Sea, Five Frozen Eggs

bias   Avant-garde jazz.

reviewership   Ultimate slacker amateur. Would give him 0.5 upturned nose, but I’ll throw in an extra for the nice label he used to run. 1.5 upturned noses.

musicianship   Unknown.

aggregate rating   1.5 upturned noses.

from Five Frozen Eggs   Context is the operative for success regarding Scott Fields’ musical vision. While capable guitarists are a dime a dozen, only a handful compose and improvise in a challenging setting with the consistency of Fields. By surrounding himself with players of the highest caliber, Fields’ group suggests a finely tuned, living entity. This quartet serves as an important reminder of what creative improvised music has to offer. In this case, a nimble musical vehicle with all-wheel drive.