Download Central: Jazz, pure, past and present

Jazz guitar maestro John Scofield has the ability to ace it with his guitar work in a variety of genres, from jazz and rock to the blues.

I’m sitting here on a Saturday evening and writing this in Vaasa, a city on the west coast of Finland. It has a population of 66,000; is walkably small; and the temperature at 5pm outside is around 10 degree Celsius. Inside, the heating makes it nice and comfortable and, I’m sipping a cup of chamomile tea.

A note of melancholy: John Scofield’s new album was composed by him in memory of his son who died a few years back of cancer in his twenties. That added a tinge of sadness to my listening session.

Why I’m saying all this is because there’s another thing about Vaasa or, perhaps, about all of Finland and most of Scandinavia – it is the quiet; the near total absence of noise or sound. It’s almost as if you’ve a pair of noise cancelling headphones jammed on your head. That’s why I’m listening to music sans my trusty earphones. I’m playing them through a moderately powerful wireless speaker system and my selection for this evening has begun with jazz. More specifically, it is John Scofield’s new album, Past Present.

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