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John Scofield

Past Present

Impulse!

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zZounds.com: An Interview with John Scofield
John Scofield Interview with Rick Beato
1 Slinky
2 Chap Dance
3 Hangover
4 Museum
5 Season Creep
6 Get Proud
7 Enjoy The Future!
8 Mr. Puffy
9 Past Present
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John Scofield updates his early-'90s quartet with drummer Bill Stewart and saxophonist Joe Lovano by recruiting bassist Larry Grenadier for his fetching, appropriately titled impulse! debut, Past Present. Between 1990 and 1992, the celebrated guitarist released three well-received discs – Meant to Be, Time on My Hands and What We Do – for the Blue Note label as the John Scofield Quartet. On those records, either Marc Johnson or Dennis Irwin played bass. Nevertheless, Grenadier also has history playing with Scofielld; he toured with Scofield in support of the 1996 disc, Quiet.

The nine exciting tunes Scofield penned on Past Present also reflects his philosophy on playing jazz music. He stresses the importance of being knowledgeable of the music's deep, complex roots while simultaneously being spontaneous and in the moment while performing it. For an artist with such a multifaceted discography as Scofield's, getting to the root of jazz means channeling the blues, as demonstrated on the disc's closing, titled-track. 

  • John Scofield's first ever solo guitar recording makes JAZZIZ: The Week in Jazz
    Posted At: May 24, 2022 12:00 AM
    With a career spanning over half a century, marked by influential collaborations with jazz greats like Miles Davis and Joe Henderson as well as several dozen genre-bending leader dates, it’s all the more striking that this is in fact John Scofield’s first ever guitar-solo recording. The long wait, however, pays off, as John is able to benefit from his decades of experience and charts an intimate path throug...
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  • John Scofield's 'Since You Asked' makes All About Jazz / Mondo Jazz: New Releases
    Posted At: May 21, 2022 12:00 AM
    With a career spanning over half a century, marked by influential collaborations with jazz greats like Miles Davis and Joe Henderson as well as several dozen genre-bending leader dates, it’s all the more striking that this is in fact John Scofield’s first ever guitar-solo recording. The long wait, however, pays off, as John is able to benefit from his decades of experience and charts an intimate path throug...
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  • John Scofield serves up an inventive, intimate set of solitary music making / jazz & blues report
    Posted At: May 11, 2022 12:00 AM
    With a career spanning over half a century, marked by influential collaborations with jazz greats like Miles Davis and Joe Henderson as well as several dozen genre-bending leader dates, it’s all the more striking that this is in fact John Scofield’s first ever guitar-solo recording. The long wait, however, pays off, as John is able to benefit from his decades of experience and charts an intimate path throug...
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  • John Scofield is alone with himself and the guitar on new ECM solo album / NDR
    Posted At: May 9, 2022 12:00 AM
    After a long time alone at home due to the pandemic, jazz guitarist John Scofield is releasing a solo album.

    NDR's Sarah Seidel writes….John Scofield turned 70 last December. The guitarist is one of the big names in American jazz, and his career has spanned more than 50 years. He has played with Miles Davis, George Duke, Billy Cobham and Steve Swallow. A musician at home in blues, rock, hard bop and ...
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  • John Scofield offers intimate self-portrait on first solo guitar album / Live For Live Music
    Posted At: May 9, 2022 12:00 AM
    With a career spanning over half a century, marked by influential collaborations with jazz greats like Miles Davis and Joe Henderson as well as several dozen genre-bending leader dates, it’s all the more striking that this is in fact John Scofield’s first ever guitar-solo recording. The long wait, however, pays off, as John is able to benefit from his decades of experience and charts an intimate path throug...
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  • John Scofield chats with radio france
    Posted At: May 9, 2022 12:00 AM
    With a career spanning over half a century, marked by influential collaborations with jazz greats like Miles Davis and Joe Henderson as well as several dozen genre-bending leader dates, it’s all the more striking that this is in fact John Scofield’s first ever guitar-solo recording. The long wait, however, pays off, as John is able to benefit from his decades of experience and charts an intimate path throug...
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  • On this album of smartly chosen songs, John Scofield could soundtrack the rest of your life / THE BIG TAKE OVER
    Posted At: May 4, 2022 12:00 AM
    With a career spanning over half a century, marked by influential collaborations with jazz greats like Miles Davis and Joe Henderson as well as several dozen genre-bending leader dates, it’s all the more striking that this is in fact John Scofield’s first ever guitar-solo recording. The long wait, however, pays off, as John is able to benefit from his decades of experience and charts an intimate path throug...
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  • Now that he's 70, its only right that John Scofield takes a victory lap with his first solo album / the arts fuse
    Posted At: May 3, 2022 12:00 AM
    the arts fuse - Allen Michie writes…John Scofield is one of those guitarists whose sound is identifiable within three notes, no matter whether he’s playing mainstream jazz, fusion, country, rock, or experimental music. He’s always had his own distinctive identity, even from his earliest recordings, which now date from almost 50 years ago. Scofield has a characteristic attack: he hovers his way into and out ...
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  • John Scofield - Trance De Jour is featured track on JazzFM: Mark Walkers Dinner Jazz
    Posted At: April 29, 2022 12:00 AM
    With a career spanning over half a century, marked by influential collaborations with jazz greats like Miles Davis and Joe Henderson as well as several dozen genre-bending leader dates, it’s all the more striking that this is in fact John Scofield’s first ever guitar-solo recording. The long wait, however, pays off, as John is able to benefit from his decades of experience and charts an intimate path throug...
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  • John Scofield stripping down for socially distanced solo sets at the Ridgefield Playhouse / The Newtown Bee
    Posted At: April 8, 2021 12:00 AM

    The Newtown Bee - John Voket writes.....Multiple Grammy-winning jazz guitar icon John Scofield describes his upcoming socially distanced shows at the Ridgefield Playhouse like the musical equivalent of a tightrope walk. But instead of balancing himself with a bar - he is doing it with a single guitar. While over the past few years, and for the first few times since he took up guitar and began serious...
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  • Steve Swallow wins JazzTimes: Critics Poll for 'Best Electric Bassist'
    Posted At: February 1, 2021 12:00 AM

    For this annual companion poll to our Top 50 Critics' Picks, our regular contributors participated in this survey based on our yearly Readers' Poll. Contributors were asked to focus on artists' achievements during 2020 rather than assessing entire careers. Steve Swallow wins for 'Best Electric Bassist.' A lauded bassist and composer, Steve Swallow is an influential performer who helped define...
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  • John Scofield - Swallow Tales makes 'JazzTimes: Top 40 New Jazz Releases of 2020'
    Posted At: January 11, 2021 12:00 AM

    JazzTimes writes......For our 2020 Year in Review section, we calculated the top 40 new releases and top 10 historical/reissue recordings of 2020 based on year-end lists by our writers. They were asked to choose the 10 best new releases and five best historical titles-i.e., albums and box sets consisting primarily of music recorded 10 or more years ago. Some discs may have slipped through the cracks, but...
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  • John Scofield - Swallow Tales makes 'Jazz Police: 20 from 2020 - the New Music that Helped'
    Posted At: December 23, 2020 12:00 AM

    2020 was the Year of the Rat which seems fitting for this year of plague. Concerts have been canceled, jazz clubs closed and it was a time when we needed music more than ever. If this dark cloud has a silver lining there must be serious wood-shedding going on right now and in 2021 after some normality returns we will witness a creative explosion of new music. But for now live streaming events help and bo...
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  • John Scofield - Swallow Tales makes The Guardian '10 best jazz albums of 2020'
    Posted At: December 21, 2020 12:00 AM

    Alongside archive recordings from Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane, and inventive new releases by Maria Schneider and Carla Bley, 2020 had plenty of spectacular fusions The partnership between guitarist John Scofield and electric bassist Steve Swallow goes back a long way, and they both have instantly recognisable identities on their respective versions of a guitar. Scofield plays jazz with a biting, ...
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  • John Scofield - Swallow Tales makes BBC Music Magazine's 'The best jazz recordings released in 2020 so far'
    Posted At: October 23, 2020 12:00 AM

    A list of the greatest jazz albums released so far this year, as chosen by the BBC Music Magazine critics includes; John Scofield - Swallow Tales, featuring; John Scofield (electric guitar), Steve Swallow (bass guitar), Bill Stewart (drums) ECM 2679 The electric guitarist John Scofield comes full circle with this fine trio release, revisiting original pieces from veteran bass player Steve Sw...
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  • HPR's 'All Things Considered' goes 'Off The Road With John Scofield'
    Posted At: September 15, 2020 12:00 AM

    Today All Things Considered Honolulu Host Dave Lawrence continues our Off the Road series of interviews with musicians sharing how the pandemic and other crises have touched them. John Scofield has earned a place in the world of jazz guitar over a career that began decades ago when he started performing professionally while still a student at Berklee College of Music in Boston. He went on to be part ...
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  • The Steve Swallow - John Scofield story / Something Came From Baltimore
    Posted At: August 20, 2020 12:00 AM

    Guitarist John Scofield celebrates the music of his friend and mentor Steve Swallow in an out going and spirited recording, made in an afternoon in New York City in March 2019-"old school" style as Scofield says, acknowledging that more than forty years of preparation led up to it. John was a 20-year-old student at Berklee when he first met and played with bassist Steve Swallow. Something came from B...
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  • 'A Neon Jazz Interview' catches up with John Scofield
    Posted At: July 30, 2020 12:00 AM

    Welcome to a new edition of the Neon Jazz interview series with Legendary Jazz Guitarist John Scofield. We caught up with him to talk abut his newest 2020 CD Swallow Tales that celebrates the music of his friend and mentor Steve Swallow made in an afternoon in New York City in March 2019 .. John was a 20-year-old student at Berklee when he first met and played with bassist Swallow, and they have continue...
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  • John Scofield fits between post-bop, funk, jazz & r&b / Montana Public Radio
    Posted At: July 29, 2020 12:00 AM

    Legendary jazz guitarist John Scofield speaks with host John Floridis and answers questions submitted by Musician's Spotlight listeners through social media. In addition to dozens of recordings under his own name, Scofield's recorded collaborations read like a who's who of jazz royalty: Miles Davis, Chet Baker, Charles Mingus, Gary Burton, McCoy Tyner, Herbie Hancock and his bass-playing mentor, Stev...
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  • WSUM: Madison & GreenArrowRadio chats with Steve Swallow about new John Scofield - ECM release
    Posted At: July 22, 2020 12:00 AM

    Friend of the proGram, John Scofield celebrates the music of his friend and mentor Steve Swallow in an outgoing and spirited recording, aply titled "Swallow Tales" – made in an afternoon in New York City in March 2019. John was a 20-year-old student at Berklee when he first met and played with bassist Swallow, and they have continued ever since, in many different contexts. I had the honor of ch...
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  • Steve Swallow tells tales on Hamilton Ontario's 101.5 The Hawk
    Posted At: July 14, 2020 12:00 AM

    Guitarist John Scofield celebrates the music of his friend and mentor Steve Swallow in an outgoing and spirited recording, made in an afternoon in New York City in March 2019 - "old school" style as Scofield says, acknowledging that more than forty years of preparation led up to it. John was a 20-year-old student at Berklee when he first met and played with bassist Swallow, and they have continued ever s...
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  • John Scofield and Steve Swallow... tell tales
    Posted At: July 6, 2020 12:00 AM

    Guitarist John Scofield celebrates the music of his friend and mentor Steve Swallow in an outgoing and spirited recording, made in an afternoon in New York City in March 2019 - "old school" style as Scofield says, acknowledging that more than forty years of preparation led up to it. John was a 20-year-old student at Berklee when he first met and played with bassist Swallow, and they have continued ever s...
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  • John Scofield visits with 'The Paul Leslie Hour'
    Posted At: July 1, 2020 12:00 AM

    John Scofield, known to many in the music world simply as "Sco," makes his debut appearance on The Paul Leslie Hour. He's one of the most influential guitarists around and a composer, performer and recording artist. Scofield has released a trio recording on ECM Records entitled "Swallow Tales." The album consists of 9 compositions by jazz bassist Steve Swallow. It is a great thing to sit down and convers...
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  • John Scofield & Steve Swallow is like one big guitar / CD HOTLIST
    Posted At: July 1, 2020 12:00 AM

    There are a few guitarists who are almost instantly recognizable by their tone: Richard Thompson, Bill Frisell, Pat Metheny - and John Scofield. It's not that his sound is idiosyncratic, it's just that it's personal. There's some chorus in there, and just a touch of distortion to rough up the very edges. But it's also the notes he plays, and the way that the blues are never far from him no matter how com...
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  • John Scofield chats with jazzcast on his 4 decade career
    Posted At: July 1, 2020 12:00 AM

    John Scofield's guitar work has influenced jazz since the late 70's and is going strong today. Possessor of a very distinctive sound and stylistic diversity, Scofield is a masterful jazz improviser whose music generally falls somewhere between post-bop, funk edged jazz, and R & B. Scofield's new ECM album celebrates the music of his friend and mentor Steve Swallow in an outgoing and s...
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  • John Scofield Interviews with 90.1KKFI: Kansas City
    Posted At: June 28, 2020 12:00 AM

    Guitarist John Scofield celebrates the music of his friend and mentor Steve Swallow in an outgoing and spirited recording, made in an afternoon in New York City in March 2019 - "old school" style as Scofield says, acknowledging that more than forty years of preparation led up to it. John was a 20-year-old student at Berklee when he first met and played with bassist Swallow, and they have continued ever s...
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  • John Scofield has great respect for the Steve Swallow compositions / Musicalmemoirs
    Posted At: June 20, 2020 12:00 AM

    John Scofield has long admired Steve Swallow, as a friend, a mentor and for his composer skills. A Libra, Swallow was born October 4, 1940 and is celebrated for his collaborations with Jimmy Giuffre, Gary Burton and Carla Bley.  He is lauded for being someone who stepped away from the upright bass and switched entirely to electric bass long before that was a popular decision for a jazz bassist to ma...
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  • This is an intelligent, inventively performed, be-boppish tribute to a composer I now know better than ever / the arts fuse
    Posted At: May 27, 2020 12:00 AM

    On the 1967 RCA Victor album Lofty Fake Anagram, vibraphonist Gary Burton recorded "Good Citizen Swallow," "in honor of his bassist Steve Swallow." Most bassists could be described in similar terms: they have chosen an instrument that, in jazz, is usually supportive and sits in the background. Bassists routinely tell jokes about people chatting throughout their instrument's solo. In contrast, for almost ...
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  • 'Hullo Bolinas' from John Scofield's 'Swallow Tales' leads off marlbank - track streams
    Posted At: April 6, 2020 12:00 AM

    As discussed back on 6 April John Scofield has a new Steve Swallow-themed album coming out soon. 'Hullo Bolinas' from the album is now streaming. Reactions? Well the piece, in 3/4 time, has an engagingly laidback feel, drummer Bill Stewart shuffling along while Sco delivers a very pretty treatment of the opening theme; Swallow takes a solo, softly rendered, around the 2mins 18secs mark and af...
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  • The Cornell Concert Series presents; John Scofield's Combo 66 / ithaca.com
    Posted At: March 6, 2019 12:00 AM

    Iconic GRAMMY Award-winning guitarist John Scofield teams up with pianist Gerald Clayton, bassist Vicente Archer, and drummer Bill Stewart in Combo 66, a new band that builds upon Scofield's long legacy of masterful improvisation and stylistic diversity. Scofield has been a major influence on jazz since the 1970's, continuously finding new and exciting avenues to reinvent himself as an artist. Scofield w...
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  • New Batiste, Scofield & Bennett/Krall recordings make 92.5TheX 'jazz programmer top 10s for 2018'
    Posted At: January 18, 2019 12:00 AM

    Jon Batiste is an internationally acclaimed musician, bandleader and composer, and with his band Stay Human, currently appears nightly on national television as the bandleader and musical director for "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert." HOLLYWOOD AFRICANS, a nod to the 1983 Jean Michel Basquiat painting by the same title, is both an indictment and reclamation of the long history of discrimination faced...
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  • John Scofield's Combo 66 is a masterpiece of subtlety / Jazz da Gama
    Posted At: December 6, 2018 12:00 AM

    John Scofield is every bit the force of nature he was in his earliest days when he set the guitar alight with then-Young Turks such as Larry Coryell and Philip Catherine on Charles Mingus' Three or Four Shades of Blues in 1977 or around the time he released his earliest (eponymously titled) work, which was preceded by the John Scofield Live album on the German Enja label.  Combo 66, helps not on...
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  • John Scofield's Combo 66 will satisfy jazz and jam band fans alike / The New York City Jazz Record
    Posted At: December 4, 2018 12:00 AM

    Grammy Award-winning jazz guitarist, band leader and composer, John Scofield recently released his new album, Combo 66, marking his 66th birthday, via Verve Records. The album, which features long-time drummer Bill Stewart, bassist Vincente Archer and pianist/organist Gerald Clayton, combines jazz with genre-defying elements, allowing Scofield to find new modes of expression. Scofield has been on a serio...
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  • What the electric guitar can do for John Scofield / stereophile
    Posted At: November 7, 2018 12:00 AM

    Electric guitarist John Scofield, winner of multiple Grammy Awards, has a knack for staying a step ahead of musical trends. In hundreds of jazz settings, "Sco" and his signature Ibanez AS200 guitar and Fender Reverb amplifier have created a unique style and sound that have earned him a popularity beyond jazz's usual audience. "It doesn't feel like I'm ahead of the [curve] at all," Scofiel...
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  • Combo 66 is so dynamic, so driving forward, so playful, that it may be John Scofield's best album in years / jazzandrock.com
    Posted At: October 18, 2018 12:00 AM

    If someone like John Scofield calls his new album - Combo 66, then it has a reason. Yes, he turned 66. But the exceptional guitarist does not become wistful about it. Of course, there are also the associations with Route 66 and the golden sixties of jazz. So a certain idea of freedom? A look back? In any case. Nevertheless, Scofield does not fall into a nostalgic melancholy with his album. On the contrar...
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