It’s easy to have mixed feelings about guitarist John Scofield’s Überjam Deux. Back in 2002, the first installment refused to sit still: It beeped, buzzed, whirred and grooved. A year later, Up All Night felt like a rightful successor, continuing to retrace lines between jazz, funk and electronic music. Both albums demanded contemplation and dance. Ten years later, Überjam Deux seems like an afterthought. At any rate, it sounds like a pale echo of what came before.
Sequels always risk self-parody. Here, the danger is real. On the album’s third track, “Endless Summer,” six minutes of pure Scofield are injected with every confection a MacBook can muster: flangers, phasers, digital delay, a segue that sounds suspiciously like “Boom Boom Pow,” and the result is listlessness.
John Scofield: Uberjam Deux
JazzTimes may earn a small commission if you buy something using one of the retail links in our articles. JazzTimes does not accept money for any editorial recommendations. Read more about our policy here. Thanks for supporting JazzTimes.
Become a JazzTimes member to explore our complete archive of interviews, profiles, columns, and reviews written by music's best journalists and critics.
