Reviews

From United States:

"Scott DuBois is not your run-of-the-mill jazz guitarist. His thorny, diffuse, quick, hard-edged style is not reflective of any contemporary peer...a highly developed sense of harmonic acumen, a lithe and sinewy athletic tautness, and a brave attitude to play differently."
- Michael G. Nastos, All Music Guide, July 2008

"DuBois favors an asymmetrical approach, navigating oblique intervals with a nimbleness that would make Eric Dolphy proud...
Banshees is as hair-raising as the title suggests."
- Troy Collins, AllAboutJazz, June 2008 :: Read Full Review Here

"DuBois' music is highly emotional with an undertone of controlled intensity and intellect."
- Budd Koppman, AllAboutJazz, June 2008

"DuBois walks a line between abstraction and lyricism..."
- Nate Chinen, The New York Times, June 2008

"Modern jazz guitar great, Scott DuBois, is one of the finest guitarists to emerge from the downtown scene..."
-Bruce L. Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery, May 2008

"Scott DuBois is one of the best and most adventurous guitarists in New York."
- Bruce L. Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery, September 2007



"Exceptional...His extended lines bring to mind a combination of Joe Morris, Pat Martino, and a pit bull...faultless, a perfect gem."
- Charles Winokoor, Cadence Magazine, July 2007

"Fascinating...DuBois spins through tight orbits, unravels knots and creates brooding atmospheres on electric and acoustic guitars...Eastern or even Native American ideas, as they coalesce from low, processional rhythms to complex harmonics and concentrated intensity."
- Forest Dylan Bryant, Jazz Times, June 2007 :: Read Full Review Here

"DuBois favors a nervy flat-out attack; he relishes lots of notes and snug compartments of rhythm and line.¨
- Greg Buium, DownBeat Magazine, June 2007

"Captivating "experimental" music...for the more meditaitve thinker...fascinatingly erudite..."
- Ivana NG, AllAboutJazz New York, June 2007 :: Read Full Review Here

"Superb...again he triumphs with his spirited playing, diverse writing, and arranging...mysterious aura."
- Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery, June 2007 (Monsoon on DMG Best of 2005 List)

"(Scott DuBois) has begun to make waves…exploratory yet melodic sensibilities, serious compositional ambitions…cohesive looseness against complex subtleties…"
- Nate Chinen, The New York Times, September 2005




"Scott DuBois' Monsoon (Soul Note) is just the sort of album you'd expect to find saxophonist David Liebman showing up on. His expressive and spiritual sound fits right into this earthy set of DuBois originals that often comes off like a late-'60s Pharoah Sanders LP… it's dramatic music on the whole and a must-hear for those seeking the mystical sound."
- Russell Carlson, Jazz Times, March 2005

"There has always been talk about the state of jazz—where is it going and so on. Hearing Scott's music, I am sure the listener will feel the positive vibrations and conviction which is so obvious and a source of comfort when one thinks about the future of jazz. I can hardly imagine where Scott will be artistically in a few years. I look forward to that with great anticipation."
- David Liebman

"DuBois is a nimble, rapidfire guitarist, but he´s also a patient player, given to long silences: he waits like a hungry robin, head cocked, searching for the right moment to strike."
- Nate Dorward, Cadence Magazine, March 2005

"DuBois’s electric guitar sounds like a piano, stretching the tempo with well-placed pauses and timely fills and compressing time with effusive runs…When DuBois is unplugged, the fuses threaten to blow...Strumming, plucking and pulling strings as if he were rearranging them on the neck of his instrument…classical virtuosity...These originals favor group work that thrives on close listening and the youthful energy or players who have come up together…DuBois’ tunes favor the upper end of the scale and intensify air that’s already crackling with seriousness."
- Jeff Stockton, AllAboutJazz New York, December 2004

"DuBois cutting across the music elegantly, like flashes of light... I like DuBois' habit of firing lines off like darts then waiting & listening quite some time before he essays another one."
- Nate Dorward, JazzCorner.com, December 2004

"DuBois the writer clearly has an impressive command of harmony, rhythmic invention and melodic intrigue….He's clearly a distinctive player, with little to be found of the usual guitar influences. The result is a personal style…"
- AllAboutJazz.com

"Certainly unique, slightly avant-garde but quite enjoyable to listen to at the same time….I expect we'll hear more of him in the years to come."
- Guitar News Weekly

"Scott DuBois is a fine young jazz guitarist, with a keen understanding of dynamics and group interplay, and an equal ability to pen memorable new tunes and interpret standards in his own distinctive voice. Definitely a young talent to keep and eye-and ear-on!"
- Guitar World Magazine

"Scott DuBois shares with the listener a young, risk-taking, progressive sound. Please do yourself a favor. Come hear Scott. You can say you heard him when."
- RAM Magazine

From Ireland:

SCOTT DUBOIS Monsoon Soul Note ****

"DuBois is a gifted young guitarist/ composer leading a quintet of like-minded contemporaries - Loren Stillman (soprano and alto), Jason Rigby (soprano and tenor), Thomas Morgan (bass) and Mark Ferber (drums) - on this engrossing, adventurous and original CD. The music, much of which uses vamps and odd metres, has an Indian feel, while the guitarist's pieces possess a savoury linear distinction of their own. Saxophonist Dave Liebman replaces Rigby on four tracks, and it's indicative of the quality of the others, especially Stillman and DuBois, that they stand the comparison so well, reconciling freedom with order and structure with surprise. And there's a total sense of engagement about their work that makes these performances so compelling."
- Ray Comiskey, The Irish Times :: Read Full Review Here

From Italy:

"...ability to suprise the listener...excellent performance...a very personal sound..."
- Vincenzo Roggero, AllAboutJazz Italia, February 2007 :: Read Full Review in Italian

"It is amazing to hear a band of guys with a proper expressive conception and a very mature style in their improvisation and composition (all by Scott DuBois.) It’s about the inspired fashion of music, an infection of the world international scene but aims to look for their own precise identity and escape from current trends. It is a research into colors and complex rhythmic spaces that are very vast and this renders the listening experience very different and delightful… The compositions and the solos on the leader’s guitar, demonstrate an intelligent personality from which there is greatness that we will hear in the future."
- Vittorio LoConte, Musicboom.it, January 2005 :: Read Full Review in Italian

From Spain:

"One of the top modern jazz guitarists on the New York scene today"
- Arturo Mora Rioja, Tomajazz.com, 2006

"…refined technique, clear phrasing, fast and fluid as much on the electric as with the acoustic… Scott comes again to remind me of John McGlaughlin in the phrasing and with the rhythm, and with a cooler sound…I recommend this album to all the lovers of the new creative jazz and to discover a guitarist and musician that will give us great pleasure…a hopeful beginning, a present made reality, and a future to reach greatness."
- Enrique Farelo, Tomajazz.com, January 2005 :: Read Full Review in Spanish

From Greece:

A new guitar stylist
"It is profound that guitarists who are at the state of starting their career may be under the influence of the great stylists such as Bill Frisell, Pat Metheny, John Scofield and John Abercrombie. Some of them find it hard to make the transition from imitation to creation. That’s why it is a pleasure to find out that a young man has already evolved his own style right with his first album. Scott Dubois formed his quintet about five years ago with saxophonists Loren Stillman and Jason Rigby, bassist Thomas Morgan and drummer Mark Ferber. His debut’s great asset is the presence of Dave Liebman, one of the contemporary grand masters of soprano saxophone, who was Dubois’ teacher when he was studying at Manhattan School of Music. Apart from this helper contribution, “Monsoon’s” attraction is the compositional touch of Dubois as well as his original style mainly in classical guitar (the kind of guitar he uses in the larger part of the album) that combines the melodiousness of Django Reinhardt with John McLaughlin’s speed and Egberto Gismonti’s experimental mood. Most of the guitarist’s compositions step on unorthodox and asymmetric rhythms, while there are some clear references to Indian and eastern music, as the album title (“Monsoon”) states. Except for the inexhaustible David Liebman the two much younger than him saxophonists, who both recently released remarkable personal albums, sound in perfect form. “Monsoon” demands patience and repeated listening and preludes the arrival of a new stylist."
- Vangelis Aragiannis, Apopsy Magazine :: Read Full Review in Greek