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Metropole Orkest / John Scofield / Vince Mendoza: 54
by John Kelman
Metropole Orkest / John Scofield / Vince Mendoza 54 Emarcy 2010 Guitarist John Scofield's shared history with Vince Mendoza dates back to the composer/arranger/conductor's Start Here (World Pacific, 1990) and Instructions Inside (EMI/Manhattan, 1991)--two criminally out of print gems that provided early evidence of Mendoza's distinctive harmonic language, compositional perspicacity and innate ability to get the best out of an ensemble, regardless of the size. Now an in-demand, Grammy Award- winning producer/arranger who has worked ...
Continue ReadingJohn Scofield: Shinola
by Tom Greenland
John Scofield is documented in his pre-Miles Davis period on Shinola, a 1981 date with Steve Swallow (electric bass) and Adam Nussbaum (drums). The guitarist's distinctive style is highly developed even at this stage in his career, combining elements of rock and rhythm 'n' blues with post-bop leanings and an uncanny, 'left-handed' lyricism, all colored with a lightly distorted, subtly phase-shifted tone, his legato lines embellished with bent notes, picked octaves and sweet 'n' sour cluster chords. ...
Continue ReadingJohn Scofield: Piety Street
by John Kelman
Over the course of his four-decade career, guitarist John Scofield has maintained a successful dual career that alternates purer jazz with projects that skirt its edges and are aimed at a larger demographic. Not that there's anything wrong with that. His That's What I Say: John Scofield Plays The Music of Ray Charles (Verve, 2005) garnered critical and popular acclaim, keeping him on the road for the better part of a year, including a stellar performance in Gatineau, Quebec, near ...
Continue ReadingJohn Scofield: Piety Street
by Doug Collette
John Scofield's Piety Street is an exercise in musicology, but it's also much more than that. Without sacrificing the prominence of his electric guitar playing--just utilizing it from a different perspective--this gospel blues album further demonstrates how he has executed similar fusions, in altogether different contexts, throughout his extensive 36-album career.
Just as Scofield doesn't play in an obvious way, simultaneously staccato and fluid, so, too, does he pursue his renewed interest in blues from an unusual angle. “That's Enough" ...
Continue ReadingJohn Scofield: This Meets That
by Karen Hogg
Guitarist John Scofield's This Meets That is a trio record--sort of. While Scofield has old friends and collaborators Steve Swallow and Bill Stewart on board as his rhythm section, the guitarist also enlisted quite a horn section for this venture: Roger Rosenberg, Lawrence Feldman, Jim Pugh and John Swana add a harmonic lushness and punch to the arrangements. The originals on the disc are classic Scofield. While there is plenty to please jam-band fans, jazz guitar aficionados ...
Continue ReadingJohn Scofield at Jazz Cafe, London
by Frederick Bernas
John Scofield Trio + Horns Jazz CafeLondon, England March 29, 2008
How to begin a review of a concert at which one's musical outlook has been picked up, shaken about, flung around haphazardly and finally set back down in a completely different state?
John Scofield has enjoyed a rich and varied career, the nature of which is aptly mirrored in his guitar playing. Material from his latest album, This is That (Emarcy, 2008), was ...
Continue ReadingJohn Scofield: This Meets That And More
by R.J. DeLuke
Guitarist John Scofield is an unassuming chap, seemingly at ease with himself and most things around him. He's ever congenial. Clever and well-grounded. Catch him wearing spectacles, and his look is professorial.But don't, for a minute, think Scofield isn't serious about music. The status he's achieved in the music world was accomplished with hard work, listening to the people and sounds around him, absorbing many influences, then putting it forth—through his instrument and through composition—in a way that ...
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