John Scofield is one of my favorite guitarists,
jazz,
funk,
rock or otherwise, sideswise or upside-downwise...
He is
the shit. I got turned on to Sco when I was working at
KLCC radio in
Eugene,
Oregon. The music director there knew of my love for
MMW and
Phish and he said to me one day..."do you know Sco?" I said, "no who the mumbly heck is Sco?" He handed me a cd and that's when the love affair started.
Sco has moved away from straight-up jazz guitar and is more rooted in the jamband thing these days. Whatever the
jamband thing is.
birthdate 12.26.1951
birthplace
Ohio
grew up in
Connecticut
attended
Berklee 1970-73
Here is a blurb from Sco's homepage that describes the man and his story better than I ever could.
___________________________________________________
How I Got From There to Here in 704 Easy Words
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 straightahead Jazz. A lot of my early chances to actually gig were in various Jazz/Rock idioms. I got to play "real" jazz with Gary Burton and Gerry Mulligan but my real first "big time" gig was with the Billy Cobham/George Duke band. We got to play in gigantic concert halls and rock venues for excited people who were not necessarily jazz aficionados, but loved the music.
After that band ended, I stayed home in NYC and worked on playing acoustic jazz with my own groups and people like Dave Liebman. I also started an ongoing musical relationship with bassist Steve Swallow that continues to this day. As a jazz bassist and real songwriter (not just a composer) Swallow has influenced me as much as anyone.
In 1982, I joined the
Miles Davis Band, answering the call of funky jazz once again. My stint with Miles made me sure that there really was a kind of music that was both funky and improvised at the same time.
After playing with Miles for over three years and making a few more records of my own, I hooked up with ex-
P-Funk drummer
Dennis Chambers, and we made a group that really utilized funk rhythms. Dennis and bassist Gary Grainger were masters of that "
James Brown/
Earth Wind and Fire/
70's thing". It was great having that underneath my tunes.
When I signed with
Blue Note Records in 1989, I decided to explore more "
swinging" avenues. I got together with my old Berklee School buddy, genius saxophonist
Joe Lovano. We had a group and made three albums for Blue Note -- four counting a
bootleg from
Europe -- that are probably my very best "jazz" endeavors. Part of that can also be attributed to the magnificent drumming of
Bill Stewart, who is as good a musician as I've ever met.
Then I felt the urge to get into a
soul-jazz thing. I'd been really influenced by the music of
Eddie Harris and
Les McCann from the sixties. I invited Eddie to guest on the album
Hand Jive. This was about the same time that
Larry Goldings entered my music on
Hammond Organ. With the collective possibilities of these musicians, I began to allow jazz to blend with
New Orleans type rhythms to
make the music groove.
Around this period, I also worked and recorded some with
Pat Metheny -- one of the great guitarists. He and
Bill Frisell are my favorite guitar players to play with and listen to. But then there's also
Jim Hall and
Mike Stern and Jim Hall and
John Abercrombie and Jim Hall and
Kurt Rosenwinckle and Jim Hall and
Peter Bernstein... not to mention Jim Hall. And then there's also
Albert King and
Carlos Santana and
Tom Morello and all the other ones I can't summon the names of right at the moment.
When I heard
Medeski, Martin and Wood's record "
Shack Man", I knew I had to play with them. They played those
swampy grooves and had a
free jazz attitude. These guys are serious conceptualists and are able to take the music to beautiful and strange places. I love what they did on
AGoGo. In the last couple of years, I've heard some great young players that remind me often of what it is that I like so much about the music of
sixties R&B.
Now I'm able to take that music and mix it with jazz all over again. I'm having more fun playing now than I ever have and I feel like I can finally really learn to play the guitar. Now, after having the chance to play with many of my musical idols -- I'm getting inspiration from younger musicians. I'm as excited about writing and playing music as I ever have been.
-- John Scofield--------------------------------------------
Thank's John, very eloquently said.
Here's a partial discography of John's solo albums. I recommend that you check him out if you like any of the artists he's performed with or
jazz guitar or
funk guitar or
soul guitar in general. For a full discography see his website:
www.johnscofield.com
Works For Me 01/30/01 Verve
Bump 4/00 Verve
A Go Go 4/98 Verve
Quiet 9/96 Verve
John Scofield/Pat Metheny
Summertime 7/94
Bugsy Records
I Can See Your House From Here 12/93 Blue Note
Hand Jive 10/93 Blue Note
What We Do 5/92 Blue Note
Grace Under Pressure 12/91 Blue Note
Plays Live 91 Jazz Door
Meant To Be 12/90 Blue Note
Time On My Hands 11/89 Blue Note
Flat Out 12/88
Grammavision
Pick Hits Live 87 Grammavision
Loud Jazz 12/87 Grammavision
Blue Matter 9/86 Grammavision
Still Warm 6/85
Enja
Electric Outlet 5/84 Grammavision
Shinola 12/81 Enja
Out Like a Light 12/81 Enja
Bar Talk 8/80
Novus
Who"s Who 79
RCA/Novus
Rough House 11/78 Enja
John Scofield 8/77
Storyville
First 8/77
Venus