John Scofield
Scofield at the Moers Festival in 2021
Background information
Born	(1951-12-26) December 26, 1951 Dayton, Ohio, U.S.
Genres	Jazz, jazz fusion, acid jazz[1]
Occupation(s)	Musician, composer
Instrument(s)	Guitar
Years active	1970s–present
Labels	Enja, Gramavision, Blue Note, Verve, EmArcy ECM
Website	www.johnscofield.com

John Scofield (born December 26, 1951)^[2] is an American guitarist and composer whose music over a long career has blended jazz, jazz fusion, funk, blues, soul and rock.^[1] He first came to mainstream attention in the band of Miles Davis, and has toured and recorded with many prominent jazz artists, including saxophonists Eddie Harris, Dave Liebman, Joe Henderson and Joe Lovano; keyboardists George Duke, Joey DeFrancesco, Herbie Hancock, Larry Goldings and Robert Glasper; fellow guitarists Pat Metheny, John Abercrombie, Pat Martino and Bill Frisell; bassists Marc Johnson and Jaco Pastorius; and drummers Billy Cobham and Dennis Chambers. Outside the world of jazz, he has collaborated with Phil Lesh, Mavis Staples, John Mayer, Medeski Martin & Wood, and Gov't Mule.^[3]

Biography

Although he was born in Ohio, his family moved to Wilton, Connecticut, where he discovered his interest in music.^[4] Educated at the Berklee College of Music, Scofield left school to record with Chet Baker and Gerry Mulligan. He joined the Billy Cobham/George Duke Band soon after and spent two years playing, recording, and touring with them. He recorded with Charles Mingus in 1976 and replaced Pat Metheny in Gary Burton's quartet.^[5]

In 1976 Scofield signed with Enja, which released his first album, John Scofield, in 1977. He recorded with pianist Hal Galper on Rough House in 1978 and then on Galper's album Ivory Forest (1980), where he played a solo rendition of "Monk's Mood" by Thelonious Monk.^[6] In 1979 he formed a trio with his mentor Steve Swallow and Adam Nussbaum which, with drummer Bill Stewart replacing Nussbaum, became the signature group of Scofield's career.^[7]

In 1982, he joined Miles Davis, with whom he remained for three and a half years. He contributed tunes and guitar to three of Davis's albums, Star People, Decoy, and You're Under Arrest.^[8] After he left Davis, he released Electric Outlet (1984) and Still Warm (1985)

He started what is referred to as his Blue Matter Band, with Dennis Chambers on drums, Gary Grainger on bass, and Mitchel Forman, Robert Aries, or Jim Beard on keyboards. The band released the albums Blue Matter, Loud Jazz and Pick Hits Live. Marc Johnson formed Bass Desires with Peter Erskine, Bill Frisell, and Scofield. This "most auspicious [pairing] since John McLaughlin and Carlos Santana"^[9] recorded two albums, Bass Desires (1986) and Second Sight (1987).

Onstage in 2004

At the beginning of the 1990s, Scofield formed a quartet that included Joe Lovano with whom he recorded several albums for Blue Note.^[10] Time on My Hands (1990), with Joe Lovano, Charlie Haden, and Jack DeJohnette, showcased Scofield's guitar and Mingus-influenced writing. Bill Stewart became the group's drummer and played on Meant to Be (1991) and What We Do (1993). In 1992, Scofield released Grace Under Pressure, featuring guitarist Bill Frisell, with Charlie Haden on bass and Joey Baron on drums. Stewart rejoined Scofield and Steve Swallow for I Can See Your House from Here, a collaboration with Pat Metheny.

Near the end of his time with Blue Note, Scofield returned to a sound that included more funk and soul jazz. In 1994 and 1995, he formed a group with organist/pianist Larry Goldings, bassist Dennis Irwin, and alternating drummers, Bill Stewart and Idris Muhammad. The group toured extensively, and the albums Hand Jive and Groove Elation feature this funk/groove/soul-jazz dimension in Scofield's music with tenor saxophonist Eddie Harris, percussionist Don Alias, and trumpeter Randy Brecker. He recorded the 1997 album A Go Go with avant-garde jazz trio Medeski, Martin & Wood.

Also during this period he began to work with British composer Mark-Anthony Turnage. He appeared as a soloist on Turnage's Blood on the Floor: Elegy for Andy. They collaborated on Scorched, an album of Turnage's orchestrations of Scofield's compositions, largely from the Blue Matter period. John Patitucci and Peter Erskine performed at the live premiere of Scorched at the Alte Oper in Frankfurt in September 2002 with the Radio-Symphony-Orchestra Frankfurt and the hr-Bigband. The performance was recorded and released by Deutsche Grammophon.^[11]

Scofield released Überjam in 2002 and Up All Night in 2003, two albums on which he experimented with drum and bass. He recorded in Europe with the Bugge Wesseltoft New Conception of Jazz in 2001–2002 and 2006. In 2004 EnRoute: John Scofield Trio LIVE was released with Steve Swallow on bass and Bill Stewart on drums. It was recorded live at the Blue Note Jazz Club in New York City in December 2003. This was followed the next year by That's What I Say: John Scofield Plays the Music of Ray Charles. This led to performances with Mavis Staples, Gary Versace on organ, John Benitez on bass, and Steve Hass on drums. After sitting in for two engagements in December 2005 with Phil Lesh and Friends, Scofield has since played numerous shows with the band.

At the International Jazz Festival, Enschede, 2007

On September 26, 2006 he released Out Louder, his second collaboration with Medeski, Martin & Wood.^[12] The group, known collectively as MSMW, toured worldwide in 2006 and 2007. Scofield performed in a duo with John Medeski named The Johns and in a trio with Medeski and drummer Adam Deitch. He recorded music inspired by gospel on the 2009 album Piety Street with Jon Cleary and George Porter Jr.

On September 18, 2007, EmArcy released This Meets That, an album recorded with Steve Swallow, Bill Stewart, and a horn trio. In 2011 EmArcy released A Moment's Peace, recorded with pianist Larry Goldings, bassist Scott Colley, and drummer Brian Blade. Scofield's 2010 album 54 had its origin in the 1990s when Vince Mendoza asked him to play on his first album. As director of the Metropole Orchestra, Mendoza collaborated with Scofield on arrangements of Scofield's compositions that were performed by the orchestra.

Scofield has been an adjunct faculty member in the Jazz Department in the Steinhardt School of Education at New York University.^[13]

Inside Scofield, a film by Joerg Steineck, a feature-length documentary about Scofield, was released in 2022.^[14][15]

Guitars

Scofield's first electric guitar was a Hagstrom; his "workhorse" is an Ibanez AS200 from 1982.^[16] He endorses Ibanez, and the company has a line of semi-hollow guitars named for him.^[17] Steve Vai uses one on the road, for one of the songs from Inviolate.^[18]

Awards and honors

• 1997: Honorary Doctorate of Music from Berklee
• 1998: Miles Davis Award, Montreal International Jazz Festival
• 2002: Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Jazz Album: Überjam^[19]
• 2004: Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Jazz Album: Scorched, and Best Jazz Instrumental Solo for "Wee"^[19]
• 2006: Grammy nomination for Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Individual or Group: Trio Beyond – Saudades^[19]
• 2010: Grammy nomination for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album: 54 featured with Metropole Orkest conducted by Vince Mendoza^[19]
• 2010: Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, French Ministry of Culture^[20]
• 2016: Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Album: Past Present, and nominated for Best Improvised Jazz Solo: "Past Present"
• 2017: Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Album: Country for Old Men
• 2017: Grammy Award for Best Improvised Jazz Solo: "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry"

Discography

As leader and co-leader

Date	Album title	Line-up	Label	Notes
1977	John Scofield Live	Quartet	Enja	Live recording from Munich
1978	John Scofield	Trio plus Terumasa Hino on two tracks	Trio (Jp)	Recorded in Tokyo; Re-released as East Meets West on Black Hawk in 1987
1978	Rough House	Quartet as John Scofield Quartet	Enja
1979	Who's Who?	Quintet and two quartet tracks	Arista Novus	Re-released 1990 with the four originals from Bar Talk as bonus tracks
1980	Bar Talk	Trio w/ Steve Swallow and Adam Nussbaum	Arista Novus
1981	Shinola	Trio w/ Swallow and Nussbaum	Enja	Live recording from Munich
1981	Out Like a Light	Trio w/ Swallow and Nussbaum	Enja	Live recording, third day from the same concert venue as Shinola
1984	Electric Outlet	Quintet w/ David Sanborn and Ray Anderson	Gramavision	Scofield plays also bass and DMX drum machine
1984	Solar	with John Abercrombie, duos and three quartet tracks	Palo Alto
1985	Still Warm	Quartet	Gramavision
1986	Blue Matter	Quintet and sextet, first w/ Gary Grainger and Dennis Chambers	Gramavision
1987	Loud Jazz	Quintet	Gramavision
1987	Pick Hits Live	Quartet	Gramavision	Live recording
1989	Flat Out	Quintet	Gramavision
1990	Time on My Hands	Quartet w/ Joe Lovano	Blue Note	Acoustic jazz supergroup featuring Charlie Haden and Jack DeJohnette.
1991	Meant to Be	Quartet w/ Joe Lovano, Marc Johnson, and Bill Stewart	Blue Note	First Scofield record to feature drummer Bill Stewart.
1992	Grace Under Pressure	Quartet w/ Bill Frisell plus horn section on half of the tracks	Blue Note	Frisell and Scofield had previously partnered in Marc Johnson's Bass Desires.
1993	What We Do	Quartet w/ Joe Lovano, Dennis Irwin, and Bill Stewart	Blue Note
1994	Hand Jive	Sextet	Blue Note	Soul jazz session featuring saxophonist Eddie Harris two years before Harris's death.
1994	I Can See Your House from Here	with Pat Metheny, quartet	Blue Note
1995	Groove Elation	Quartet plus horn section and percussion	Blue Note	Soul jazz session featuring the New Orleans style drumming of Idris Muhammad and organ by Larry Goldings .
1996	Quiet	Trio plus horn section, feat. Wayne Shorter on three tracks	Verve	Scofield plays exclusively acoustic guitar, focus on arrangements, some light jazz waltzing and bossa nova, appropriate title
1998	A Go Go	with Medeski Martin & Wood	Verve	First collaboration with avant-jazz-funk organ trio
1999	Old Folks	with Kenny Garrett, Michael Brecker and David Friesen	West Wind	Conceptual compilation of equally dealt four leaders
2000	Bump	Duo to quintet in altering constellations	Verve	Scofield plays acoustic guitar on some tracks and adds more sound effects, opens further up to (slightly) younger musicians like Tony Scherr, Kenny Wollesen and Mark De Gli Antoni introducing electronica
2001	Works for Me	Quintet w/ Kenny Garrett and Brad Mehldau	Verve	Contemporary post-bop line-up and repertoire
2002	Überjam	Überjam quartet up to sextet as The John Scofield Band	Verve	New band, first time with Avi Bortnick and Adam Deitch plus John Medeski, even more effects, reaching into dub reggae, jungle grooves, rap and samples
2003	Oh!	as ScoLoHoFo w/ Joe Lovano, Dave Holland and Al Foster	Blue Note	Acoustic jazz quartet
2003	Up All Night	Überjam quartet plus horns as The John Scofield Band	Verve	Überjam band with Andy Hess, bass guitar.
2004	Scorched	with Mark-Anthony Turnage	Deutsche Grammophon
2004	John Scofield Trio LIVE EnRoute	Trio w/ Swallow and Bill Stewart	Verve	Live recording
2005	That's What I Say: John Scofield Plays the Music of Ray Charles		Verve
2006	Saudades	as Trio Beyond w/ Larry Goldings and Jack DeJohnette	ECM	one-time Tony Williams tribute band
2006	Out Louder	as Medeski Scofield Martin & Wood	Indirecto	First recording of Medeski, Scofield Martin & Wood partnership with co-equal contributions from Scofield and Medeski Martin & Wood
2007	This Meets That	Trio w/ Swallow and Bill Stewart plus horn section	EmArcy
2009	Piety Street	Quartet feat. vocals	EmArcy
2011	A Moment's Peace	Quartet	EmArcy
2011	MSMW Live: In Case the World Changes Its Mind	as Medeski Scofield Martin & Wood	EmArcy	Live recording
2013	Überjam Deux	Überjam	EmArcy	Follow-up to Überjam from 2002 and Up All Night
2014	Juice	as Medeski Scofield Martin & Wood	Indirecto
2015	Past Present	Quartet w/ Joe Lovano, Larry Grenadier and Bill Stewart	Impulse!
2016	Country for Old Men	Quartet w/ Larry Goldings, Steve Swallow and Bill Stewart	Impulse!	Literally old men embracing country
2017	Hudson	Quartet w/ Jack DeJohnette, Larry Grenadier and John Medeski	Motéma
2018	Combo 66	Quartet w/ Gerald Clayton, Bill Stewart and Vicente Archer	Verve
2020	Swallow Tales	Trio w/ Steve Swallow and Bill Stewart	ECM
2022	John Scofield	Solo	ECM
2023	Uncle John's Band	Trio w Vicente Archer and Bill Stewart	ECM

John Scofield in 2017

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to John Scofield.

• Official site
• Inside Scofield (2022), documentary on John Scofield