Although guitarist John Scofield may be one of the instrument's finest handlers-especially given the volume of work that has been issued by him over the past decade-most of those recordings were bound in a short creative range. Though skilled in almost every facet of the fretboard, Scofield has been only been comfortable in a small musical span, prone to ricocheting between electric fusion outbursts and soft, slow-motion acoustic outings. It wasn't until he met up with groovemasters Medeski, Martin & Wood, when they mentioned to him that they were happily astonished by the jamhead audiences that were literally flocking to their set of woolly bullies.

Remarking to Scofield in the latest issue of Signal To Noise, "Yeah, we play all these Deadhead festivals because the audience actually likes it when you stretch out and improvise." Scofield's answer was something like, "Oh, really?" Really. Scofield's previous disc (“A Go Go”) was a funky collaborative summit with MMW, a meeting that was clearly bound in the trio’s favor (both member-and groove-wise), but provided the trio with some alluring guitar punch, while bringing a few of their fans into Scofield's fold.

While “Bump” continues with the roll-‘em vibe, the music here is more string-oriented and rock-based, with Scofield clicking in real time with a couple different rhythm teams (featuring MMW’s Chris Wood with Tony Scherr and Kenny Wollensen from Steve Bernstein’s Sex Mob, and Eric Kalb and Johnny Dunkin from the Connecticut-based jamband Deep Banana Blackout) while including (Soul Coughing’s) Mark De Gli Antoni’s keyboard samples as a studio aperitif. Overall then, the album exposes more of Scofield’s energy, taking a more aggressive tact with the jams, but allowing him to explore more of the pedal effects on his wiry string bends and curls. It also allows him to be funky (“Blackout”) and occasionally metalish (“Drop And Roll”) without having to superimpose any fusion skills into the settings. As a result, Scofield sounds more open-minded (and maybe a tad daring) with this approach, while tackling some darker, out-there moments (like the dissonant atmospherics that arise during “Kilgetten”) to break up the timing and momentum. And for someone of Scofield’s seasoned stature, it’s been very interesting to see his reaction to this improvisational new breed. And it will be even more interesting to see where he goes with it.