{"id":22380,"date":"2022-01-29T05:30:18","date_gmt":"2022-01-29T10:30:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=22380"},"modified":"2022-01-28T15:58:02","modified_gmt":"2022-01-28T20:58:02","slug":"album-review-scott-t-jones-fictional-characters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2022\/01\/29\/album-review-scott-t-jones-fictional-characters\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Scott T. Jones &#8212; Fictional Characters"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/scott_jones.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-22381\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/scott_jones.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"350\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/scott_jones.jpg 350w, http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/scott_jones-300x300.jpg 300w, http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/scott_jones-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/><\/a>If your tastes run toward fusion \u2013 not the watered-down Weather Channel background music, but the muscular, virtuosic but melodic stuff \u2013 then you might well be frustrated with the current state of the form. Giants like <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2017\/08\/15\/the-allan-holdsworth-interview-part-one\/\">Allan Holdsworth<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2014\/06\/18\/a-chat-with-larry-coryell-part-one\/\">Larry Coryell<\/a> have left us, and it might seem there are relatively few in line to follow on pursuing such musical paths.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m happy to report a recent discovery that flies in the face of that pessimism. St. Louis-based Scott T. Jones has just released <i>Fictional Characters<\/i>, an album that serves u pall the fire, fury and finesse of classic fusion. Jones\u2019 lyrical lead playing on the album\u2019s eight cuts \u2013 including an ace reading of Holdsworth\u2019s \u201cAtavachron\u201d is masterful and melodic. \u201cThe Long Night\u201d hints at the style of U.K., but (in this case) the <i>post<\/i>-Holdsworth configuration of that band.<\/p>\n<p>Romain Labaye\u2019s thundering electric bass deserves special mention; like any good jazz\/fusion bassist, he\u2019s serving up lines that work both as musical anchors and countermelodies. Archibald Ligonni\u00e8re\u2019s drumming is nimble, precise and \u2013 most importantly \u2013 musical all on its own. And Steve hunt\u2019s keyboard work \u2013 glistening acoustic piano, sinewy electronics \u2013 fits seamlessly into the mix, shining when it needs to, supporting the music the rest of the time. His blazing run on \u201cHuman Music\u201d are thrilling.<\/p>\n<p>And Jones\u2019 howling guitar skronk on that same track demonstrates that he isn\u2019t afraid to apply grit to the polish. \u201cShut Up and Dance\u201d is hard funk-meets-prog-meets&#8230;whatever. This is one ensemble that successfully combines the edge of rock with the precision of jazz. The results deserve to be heard and appreciated by fans of either style. And if you like \u2018em both, it\u2019s essential.<\/p>\n<p>Those who believe that fusion\u2019s moment came and went decades ago need only to spend time with <i>Fictional Characters<\/i> to be set right.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If your tastes run toward fusion \u2013 not the watered-down Weather Channel background music, but the muscular, virtuosic but melodic stuff \u2013 then you might well be frustrated with the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22381,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,40,42,49,65],"tags":[4761],"class_list":["post-22380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fusion","category-instrumental","category-jazz","category-new-release","category-review","tag-scott-t-jones","cat-32-id","cat-40-id","cat-42-id","cat-49-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22380"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22380\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22382,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22380\/revisions\/22382"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}