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John Scofield

John Scofield’s guitar work has influenced jazz since the late 70’s and is going strong today. Possessor of a very distinctive sound and stylistic diversity, Scofield is a masterful jazz improviser whose music generally falls somewhere between post-bop, funk edged jazz, and R & B.

Born in Ohio and raised in suburban Connecticut, Scofield took up the guitar at age 11, inspired by both rock and blues players. He attended Berklee College of Music in Boston. After a debut recording with Gerry Mulligan and Chet Baker, Scofield was a member of the Billy Cobham-George Duke band for two years. In 1977 he recorded with Charles Mingus, and joined the Gary Burton quartet. He began his international career as a bandleader and recording artist in 1978. From 1982–1985, Scofield toured and recorded with Miles Davis. His Davis stint placed him firmly in the foreground of jazz consciousness as a player and composer.

Since that time he has prominently led his own groups in the international Jazz scene, recorded over 30 albums as a leader (many already classics) including collaborations with contemporary favorites like Pat Metheny, Charlie Haden, Eddie Harris, Medeski, Martin & Wood, Bill Frisell, Brad Mehldau, Mavis Staples, Government Mule, Jack DeJohnette, Joe Lovano and Phil Lesh. He’s played and recorded with Tony Williams, Jim Hall, Ron Carter, Herbie Hancock, Joe Henderson, Dave Holland, Terumasa Hino among many jazz legends. Throughout his career Scofield has punctuated his traditional jazz offerings with funk-oriented electric music. All along, the guitarist has kept an open musical mind.

Touring the world approximately 200 days per year with his own groups, he is an Adjunct Professor of Music at New York University, a husband, and father of two.


Tags

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Multiple Reviews

Scary Goldings and The Adam Deitch Quartet: Funky But Chic

Read "Scary Goldings and The Adam Deitch Quartet: Funky But Chic" reviewed by Doug Collette


Having learned to find and make a place for himself in the bands of George Duke and Miles Davis, John Scofield has gone on to perform similar magic with artists as disparate as Medeski Martin & Wood and Phil Lesh & Friends. His latest affiliations once again find the guitarist/composer displaying his uncanny ability to sublimate himself in a group setting, while still retaining his distinctive persona as a musician: that singular style emanating from that perfect sweet spot between ...

Live Review

John Scofield Trio al Roma Jazz Festival

Read "John Scofield Trio al Roma Jazz Festival" reviewed by Mario Calvitti


John Scofield Trio Auditorium Parco della Musica Roma Jazz Festival 2023 Roma 2.11.2023 La nuova edizione del Roma Jazz Festival si è aperta con il trio del chitarrista John Scofield, attualmente in tour per la presentazione del suo nuovo album di fresca pubblicazione, Uncle John's Band, registrato durante l'estate in compagnia di Vicente Archer al contrabbasso e Bill Stewart alla batteria, che sono al suo fianco anche in questa occasione. ...

Album Review

John Scofield: Uncle John's Band

Read "Uncle John's Band" reviewed by Mario Calvitti


Dopo la parentesi del primo disco realizzato in completa solitudine, il chitarrista John Scofield torna alla formazione per lui più abituale del trio, ma non lo stesso con cui aveva inciso Swallow Tales sempre per la label tedesca. Al posto di Steve Swallow troviamo infatti il contrabbassista Vicente Archer, mentre alla batteria siede nuovamente il fido Bill Stewart. È una nuova formazione per Scofield, anche se i tre insieme al pianista e organista Gerald Clayton avevano registrato Combo 66 nel ...

Previews

Fassa Wonders

Read "Fassa Wonders" reviewed by Paolo Peviani


Fassa Wonders Milano Organics SkyGarden Rooftop 7.11.2023 Preceduta da un set del quartetto della chitarrista e cantante Francesca Bertazzo, con Roberto Gorgazzini al pianoforte, Beppe Pilotto al contrabbasso, Enrico Tommasini alla batteria, si è tenuta a Milano, nella bella cornice dell'Organics SkyGarden Rooftop, la presentazione delle iniziative per la stagione 2023/24 della Val di Fassa. Filo conduttore della stagione: Fassa Wonders. Titolo evocativo delle meraviglie di questa parte delle Dolomiti (Sasso ...

19
Album Review

John Scofield: Uncle John's Band

Read "Uncle John's Band" reviewed by Ian Patterson


John Scofield's entire oeuvre can be roughly divided into groove-based or straight-ahead recordings. Yet even in maximum groove propulsion, as on A Go Go (Verve, 1998), to cite one stellar example, Scofield's grounding in straight-ahead jazz is never far from the surface. On the flip side, his most conventional jazz is always rhythmically vital. Uncle John's Band, the guitarist's third ECM album as leader, following Swallow Tales (2020) and John Scofield (2022), falls squarely in the latter category. And it ...

20
Album Review

John Scofield: Uncle John's Band

Read "Uncle John's Band" reviewed by Neil Duggan


Phil Lesh, Grateful Dead's bassist for over 30 years, claimed their basic inspiration came from the musical unions he saw in the Miles Davis Quartet along with the John Coltrane Quartet from the early 1960s. John Scofield and Lesh have played together on many occasions. So perhaps it is no surprise that the Grateful Dead anthem, “Uncle John's Band," written by guitarist Jerry Garcia and lyricist Robert Hunter, originally released on their album, Workingman's Dead (Warner Bros. 1970), should serve ...

2
Radio & Podcasts

John Scofield Band, Michael Manring, Jeff Lorber Fusion, Mark Lettieri

Read "John Scofield Band, Michael Manring, Jeff Lorber Fusion, Mark Lettieri" reviewed by Len Davis


Our program today begins with the John Scofield Band Live in 1990 with Dennis Chambers and Gary Grainger. A live recording in Melbourne from 2007 with Frank Gambale = 6931}, {{m: Virgil Donati and Ric Fierabracci, Live In Australia. Scott McGill, Michael Manring and Vic Stevens live from 2001. Michael Manring from The Book of Flame and drummer Michael Shrieve from Two Doors 1998. Some excellent progressive rock from bassist Antoine Fafard from Sphere and some jazzy sounds from the ...

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3

Website

All About Jazz Top 10 Songs: October 2023

All About Jazz Top 10 Songs: October 2023

Source: All About Jazz

All About Jazz features a free song every day spanning all genres of jazz, and of the songs featured in October, these ten represent our reader's favorites as indicated by total listens. Musicians and record labels can submit full length MP3s for consideration here. Enjoy! Top Songs Uncle John's Band John Scofield From: Uncle John's Band 06:27 Some of the Things You Are Zubin Edalji From: Four Windows ...

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: John Scofield

Jazz Musician of the Day: John Scofield

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating John Scofield's birthday today!

When I first got into jazz — around 1969, I came from playing R&B and Soul in High School. Jazz Rock was in its infancy stage and I was lucky enough to be around to experience the Golden Age of both Rock and Soul and see Jazz embrace that movement while I was trying to learn how to play straight-ahead Jazz. A lot of my early chances to actually gig were ...

1

Interview

Interview: John Scofield, Solo

Interview: John Scofield, Solo

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

John Scofield has one of the most distinct and fascinating guitar sounds in jazz. Notes are picked and bent, creating a pizzicato-like, jagged sound that meows in places and lingers in others. John and I have been long-time e-mail pen pals and he's a regular reader of this blog, just as I am an avid John Scofield fan and listener. Dating back to 1977, John has recorded more than 40 albums as a leader and is a three-time Grammy winner. ...

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: John Scofield

Jazz Musician of the Day: John Scofield

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating John Scofield's birthday today!

When I first got into jazz — around 1969, I came from playing R&B and Soul in High School. Jazz Rock was in its infancy stage and I was lucky enough to be around to experience the Golden Age of both Rock and Soul and see Jazz embrace that movement while I was trying to learn how to play straight-ahead Jazz. A lot of my early chances to actually gig were ...

1

Recording

John Scofield: Swallow Tales

John Scofield: Swallow Tales

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

The first time guitarist John Scofield recorded with bassist Steve Swallow was on drummer Bill Goodwin's Solar Energy in March 1979. Then came John's Bar Talk, with John, Steve and Adam Nussbaum on drums in 1980. Even 40 years ago, John and Steve were made for each other. The title was a wonderful play on words—relaxed talk at the bar over drinks and talk within musical bars. On the album, John and Steve kibitz on their instruments, pecking and plucking ...

9

Crowdfunding Campaign

INSIDE SCOFIELD: A film about master guitarist and jazz legend John Scofield

INSIDE SCOFIELD: A film about master guitarist and jazz legend John Scofield

Source: All About Jazz

Over the course of his long and successful musical career, John Scofield crossed paths with people like Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, Gerry Mulligan, Herbie Hancock, Joe Henderson and Chet Baker. With his unique style and sound he became one of today’s most influential master guitarists of jazz and fusion music. INSIDE SCOFIELD is a feature length documentary—an entertaining in-depth portrayal of the life of the popular touring musician, composer and family man. Narrated from his personal perspective Scofield himself will ...

1

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: John Scofield

Jazz Musician of the Day: John Scofield

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating John Scofield's birthday today!

When I first got into jazz — around 1969, I came from playing R&B and Soul in High School. Jazz Rock was in its infancy stage and I was lucky enough to be around to experience the Golden Age of both Rock and Soul and see Jazz embrace that movement while I was trying to learn how to play straight-ahead Jazz. A lot of my early chances to actually gig were ...

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: John Scofield

Jazz Musician of the Day: John Scofield

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating John Scofield's birthday today!

When I first got into jazz — around 1969, I came from playing R&B and Soul in High School. Jazz Rock was in its infancy stage and I was lucky enough to be around to experience the Golden Age of both Rock and Soul and see Jazz embrace that movement while I was trying to learn how to play straight-ahead Jazz. A lot of my early chances to actually gig were ...

1

Recording

John Scofield: Combo 66

John Scofield: Combo 66

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

John Scofield is a gentle, soulful guy. When we talk by email, he's as kind and as thoughtful as a fence-fixer in the middle of rural Vermont or Wyoming eager to provide driving directions. That's quite a contrast from the monster guitarist you hear on his recordings. But that's the beauty of John. When John and I write each other, he reminds me of guitarist Jim Hall, who also played with enormous edge and had a neighborly, relaxed demeanor when ...

Recording

John Scofield Quartet: Combo 66

John Scofield Quartet: Combo 66

Source: Rifftides by Doug Ramsey

John Scofield, Combo 66 (Verve) “I Can’t Dance,” guitarist Scofield proclaims by way of his new album’s opening track. It may be the rare listener, however, who won’t be moved by his quartet’s rhythmic blandishments. It is difficult not to boogie around the room—or at least groove in place—as Scofield, pianist and organist Gerald Clayton, bassist Vicente Archer and drummer Bill Stewart expand on nine Scofield compositions that merge down-home verve with the sophistication he has perfected in decades as ...

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Photos

Concerts

Mar 24 Sun
John Scofield
Ebertbad
Oberhausen, Germany
Apr 4 Thu

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

That You Not Dare To...

Legacy Recordings
2023

buy

Uncle John's Band

ECM Records
2023

buy

Roll The Tape

Golden Wolf Records
2023

buy

John Scofield

ECM Records
2022

buy

Nora

Enja Records
2022

buy

Lay It Back

From: Roll The Tape
By John Scofield

Uncle John's Band

From: Uncle John's Band
By John Scofield

Ivory Forest

From: Ivory Forest Redux
By John Scofield

Slinky

From: New Morning: The Paris Concert
By John Scofield

Videos

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