The John Scofield Überjam Band Thrills The Massry Center

On a cold September Sunday evening, John Scofield brought his Überjam Band, consisting of Andy Hess, Tony Mason, and Avi Bortnick, to the Massry Center on the campus of The College of Saint Rose.  The small crowd was rewarded by a show they were in complete awe of, as all of the musicians were on fire the entire evening.  This band has been on the road for the majority of the summer and it showed in the way that all of the jamming seemed to come so easy.

John Scofield was in great spirits all night, joking with the crowd between songs about the music, but also about the hit television series Breaking Bad, asking the crowd what they were doing at the concert and not watching the third to last show of the series, as he is a fan of the show as well.  He seemed to be awestruck by the rapturous response he got from the crowd after every song.  Andy’s bass playing all night was a magnificent constant thumping, while Tony’s drumming was a force to be reckoned with from the beginning of the first song until the end.  Avi’s guitar playing was tremendous, as were his loops that he set from a computer all evening.

“Al Green Song” and “Curtis Knew” were beautiful pieces early on in the set that had wonderful solos from Scofield.  “Jungle Fiction” started off with some crazy loops and became more and more abstract as the song went on, with the rest of the music layered on top of them. “Monster Bootie” saw old hip hop breaks being used as the loops to be mixed with the rest of the music the band was playing and gave the song a different flavor from everything else played throughout the night.  The show was pure fire and the band could be seen having a great time throughout the performance.

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