31 March:  John Scofield.  State Theater, Falls Church, Va.  

While much of the economic supremacy of the United States in the 20th Century can be attributable to its growth as a consumerist society, as much driven by mass industrialization and the triumph of the automobile as anything else, the car will be the death of American society.  The very social fabric of the country as well as its physical existence has become subservient to the motor car and the availability of cheap gasoline. 

Well, that's part of the theory of a book I've just been reading called The Geography of Nowhere - The Rise and Decline of America's Man-Made Landscape by James Howard Kunstler (one time editor of Rolling Stone). 

So we are driving out to Northern Virginia, one of the nation's fastest growing areas thanks tot he rise of high-tech and specifically the Dulles corridor.  When Dulles Airport was built in the 60's some 30 miles out of the center of D.C. it was thought of as a white elephant.  Airlines were practically bribed to fly in there.  Now it's a major east coast hub for United and all the major European airlines want to fly there. 

Drive along the Access Road and you'll see offices of many dot com and telecommunications firm.  My bet is that they have to use dot matrix displays to change the name as the dot com millionaires buy and sell companies with alarming regularity.  (Well it seems that the bubble may have burst this year.) 

Falls Church is well short of Dulles.  But, what was once a nice little town 20 minutes from the Mall is now a choking suburb.  It's old fashioned downtown cross-roads is threatened by mini-mall and fast food joint.  Please don't let it become another Seven Corners - a sea of asphalt parking fields, cheaply built breeze block shopping centers the size of NASA space shuttle hangers. 

A pleasure therefore that the State Theater, for several years derelict, has been transformed into a comfortable, modern music venue.  Pulling out the downstairs seats, replaced by three levels of tables for dining and a small dance floor the proprietors have created an active space or punters to enjoy a drink, an (overpriced) meal, a chat (distracting when you're trying to listen) or just groove along to Scofield and friends.  Upstairs, the old balcony has been retained.  If you don't get a table, you can sit upstairs and get quite a good view of the stage. 

Er, we could have taken the subway.  But, East Falls Church station is a mile away and as Kunstler says, suburban streets are not designed for pedestrians.  And, of course, the subway closes just after midnight and Scofield played until past 1:30 am. 

"New York's favourite funk band" - Ulu - kicked off a long evening.  A reasonable start, though I was left thinking it wasn't quite funk.  When the leader said this is our tribute to John Coltrane I went to the bathroom.  After that piss pore name check, I couldn't wait for this noodly keyboard based combo to truck back up I-95. 

Up next, after our lukewarm micro-pasta, came Tom Principato.  Never heard of this guy, but it was obvious from from his opening chops Principato was a veteran blues axeman.  He could easily knock spots off "Slow Hand".  This good fun trio spun through a lively flash licking set complete with Hendrix'sessesis "Gypsy Eyes. 

Scofield eventually appeared around 11:30 (we'd been in the venue since 7:00 ish).  But, it was not plain sailing.  For two or three numbers culled from the new release Bump, Scofield was obviously unhappy.  A switch of amplifiers seemed to do the trick - a self deprecating remark about guitarists to boot. 

It was back to the music. 

Scofield has built an unmatched reputation.  He is one of the two or three best jazz guitarists in the country.  He is at home bopping, grooving, funking up the house or laying down some heavy chops. 

This year's Bump comes after the excellent A-Go-Go outing in '98 with its rollicking organ and funked up backing from Martin, Madeski and Wood. 

Without MMW to back him on this night, some of the tracks from A-Go-Go lacked space.  But elsewhere, gaps were created by the tight rythym section for Scofield to fill as he pleased, running up and down the scales or wandering off to lick-land.  On straight-up-and-down tracks like "Three Sisters", for example, bass and drum sketch out the borders.  Scofield just has to fill in the middle.  And fill it he does with aplomb.  On the longer numbers, he goes space rock crazy. 

I read somewhere about a crisis in American jazz and how the Europeans are taking over.  Well, on the evidence of Bump and this rocking night, there's still life in the be-bop Yank style.  Shame that the rest of their society is going up in gas fumes. 
 
 

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