Guitarist John Scofield has the distinction of bringing taste and intelligence to everything he does. Whether the format is fusion or more straightahead jazz, Scofield avoids cliché while maintaining a varied and responsive tonal approach.
Scofield was born in Dayton, Ohio in 1951. He studied at Boston's famous Berklee School Of Music from '70 to '73 and soon after began showing up as a sideman with leading jazz figures--recording with a Chet Baker-Gerry Mulligan reunion group at Carnegie Hall as well as Charles Mingus and, by the early '80s, Miles Davis. Scofield was never less than an interesting presence on these dates, but it was the series of records he made under his own name, beginning in 1977, that really revealed his capabilities. Some of these sessions had a definite funk thing going on and the guitarist has always had a gritty rock/blues aspect to his playing--when it was appropriate. On other occasions his style became more conventionally jazz-oriented, the rock rudeness reigned in as he navigated the chord changes with thoughtful agility. Whatever the context, Scofield has a commodity which is becoming ever rarer in jazz: a personal voice. It's a style that suggests the presence of some sort of rock-jazz continuum--when playing funk/fusion he sounds exceptionally intelligent and when playing jazz exceptionally down-to-earth.
Scofield is still relatively young for a career jazz musician and it remains to be seen whether he'll approach the genre's pantheon. For while he has made several excellent records, his conceptual fluidity has prevented him from making very many definite statements.
This Biography was written by Richard C. Walls
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