Frail Lumber

Frail Lumber captures guitarist and composer Scott Fields in full command of the hybrid language he has shaped since his formative years in Chicago. Influenced early by the AACM in his Hyde Park neighborhood, Fields moved from self‑taught rock beginnings into classical study, jazz theory, and contemporary composition — the foundation of his lifelong effort to fuse written form with improvisational freedom.

The Scott Fields Ensemble remains one of his central laboratories, drawing on a wide circle of collaborators including Marilyn Crispell, Hamid Drake, Joseph Jarman, Myra Melford, Jeff Parker, and Elliott Sharp. On Frail Lumber, Fields’ guitar acts as both architect and catalyst, guiding the ensemble through music where composed frameworks and spontaneous invention continually reshape one another. The result is a clear, concentrated statement of Fields’ ongoing pursuit: form that flexes, improvisation that thinks, and an ensemble sound rooted in the experimental spirit that has defined his work for decades.