But the distinction of Swallow is truly his bass; around 1970 he dumped his acoustic stand-up for an electric and never looked back. In doing so, though, he never dropped his be-bop tendencies. He plays typically at the high end of the register and plays very much in tune with the harmony. This could be construed as saying he plays like Paul McCartney, but he doesn't sound like Macca at all; his style is more like a plugged-in Scott LaFaro.
Swallow tends to play a different melodic line than the leader, but somehow makes it fit within the overall song. The wandering "Jean The Bean" is a perfect example of the bass player doing his own thing while listening carefully to what Scofield is playing at the same time. It's chemistry that only comes from playing together for a while.
The only cover of this set, Jackie McLean's "Dr. Jackle" finds Sco cutting loose playing some demonic bop lines while Swallow walks his bass up and down with precision. Nussbaum gets an opportunity to solo, too, and he takes good advantage of it.
It's right at the end where Sco uncorks a curveball to the audience: the brief, all-out rocker of the title song that puts the "power" in power trio and reveals that underneath all the straight bop that Scofield has carefully woodshedded for, he's still a rock 'n' roll guy at heart.
Shinola used to be a nearly impossible CD to find; the one I managed to score at a Berkeley, Calif. record store about ten years ago has liner notes that are useless unless you can read Japanese. Even today it's still only sporadically available compared to Scofield's much better known recent records. But if you've mined Scofield's repertoire of the last 20 years and are ready to delve into his work as a burgeoning, 20-something talent, Shinola is the one to go for first. It wouldn't be a bad idea to go exploring some of Swallow's own works as well.
Article comments