Scott Jones has taken elements of jazz and progressive music and combined them to compose Freedom, an album comprised of sixteen instrumental pieces. It becomes quickly apparent that he has done his homework on the opening track, "Muldaur's Search," which is a progressive number featuring guitar, keyboards, and a xylophone-like synthesizer loop. This song would fit in nicely with Liquid Tension Experiment or Platypus' work.
"Three From One" is more in the jazz vein, mixing in saxophone work from guest Bill Elrod. He is also featured on "One," "Heartland," and "Every Time." Jones does the rest, playing guitar and keyboards, and programming the rest. He tips his hat to some of the all time greats, shown in titles such as "S'Corea" and "Tito's Time." He also cites modern guitar greats Allan Holdsworth, Steve Vai, and Brett Garsed in the liner notes.
Jones shows good instincts, knowing when not to draw a track out too far, and yet keeping each number distinctive, so that each track can be enjoyed separately or as a unit. The standouts here are the aforementioned "Muldaur's Search" and "Chaos Theory," one of the three bonus tracks.
Scott Jones is looking for Freedom from being forced into one form of music, and he definitely finds it on this album.
4 tocks
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