Guitar great John Scofield talks to Graham Reid about a shining career that has seen him play with some musical legends
Sad but true, admits jazz guitarist John Scofield. When he gets together with his peers, like Pat Metheny and Bill Frisell, they do get guitar-nerdy and the ladies are long gone by that point.
“There's an unspoken code between us for sure, but we're geeks like everybody else. We talk about pickups, strings and picks and all that same stupid music stuff we've all gone through our whole lives.
“And if somebody plays something there's nothing wrong with asking, 'How did you do that?'"
Not that you'd think anyone could teach Scofield, 56, much when it comes to playing guitar. A graduate of Berklee College of Music in Boston, he has played with jazz greats such as trumpeter Chet Baker and saxophonist Gerry Mulligan, recorded with Charles Mingus, and in 1982 joined Miles Davis's band to play sky-scaling rock licks and low-down funk on albums such as Star People, You're Under Arrest and Decoy.
He has also had an illustrious recording career under his own name - more than 20 albums since 1977 - and it would an unwise person who tried to pigeonhole him: he has played fusion and funk, pure blues and classic jazz, collaborated with the avant jazz outfit Medeski Martin & Wood, did a tribute album to Ray Charles, has album tracks with titles like The Beatles and is quite at home with drum 'n' bass.
Sad but true, admits jazz guitarist John Scofield. When he gets together with his peers, like Pat Metheny and Bill Frisell, they do get guitar-nerdy and the ladies are long gone by that point.
“There's an unspoken code between us for sure, but we're geeks like everybody else. We talk about pickups, strings and picks and all that same stupid music stuff we've all gone through our whole lives.
“And if somebody plays something there's nothing wrong with asking, 'How did you do that?'"
Not that you'd think anyone could teach Scofield, 56, much when it comes to playing guitar. A graduate of Berklee College of Music in Boston, he has played with jazz greats such as trumpeter Chet Baker and saxophonist Gerry Mulligan, recorded with Charles Mingus, and in 1982 joined Miles Davis's band to play sky-scaling rock licks and low-down funk on albums such as Star People, You're Under Arrest and Decoy.
He has also had an illustrious recording career under his own name - more than 20 albums since 1977 - and it would an unwise person who tried to pigeonhole him: he has played fusion and funk, pure blues and classic jazz, collaborated with the avant jazz outfit Medeski Martin & Wood, did a tribute album to Ray Charles, has album tracks with titles like The Beatles and is quite at home with drum 'n' bass.
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