Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular Music
SCOFIELD, John
(b 26 December 1951, Dayton OH) Jazz guitarist. He grew up in Connecticut, took up guitar in high school, attended the Berklee School of Music 1970-3 and immediately hit the big time. He recorded live at Carnegie Hall with Gerry Mulligan and Chet Baker in 1974; played in the band of drummer Billy Cobham for two years, and recorded with Charles Mingus in 1977.
Scofield joined Gary Burton, then led his own quartet, and played in the Dave Liebman quintet in the late 1970s-early '80s, then with Miles Davis (on albums Decoy, Star People, You're Under Arrest). He also recorded with Jay McShann on Atlantic, with Paul Bley, the George Adams/Don Pullen Quartet, and others.
His own albums began with Live and Rough House '77-8 on Enja and Who's Who on Arista/Novus, then with a trio including bassist Steve Swallow and drummer Adam Nussbaum for albums Bar Talk on Arista/Novus, Shinola and Out Like A Light on Enja. Solar '82-3 turned up on a Westwind CD with John Abercrombie, George Mraz on bass and Peter Donald on drums, the rhythm section often laying out while the two guitars played duo. He switched to Gramavision for Electric Outlet while he was still playing with Miles, then Still Warm (with drummer Omar Hakim, bassist Darryl Jones, Don Grolnick on keyboards) and Blue Matter in 1986; there were other albums as well as compilations.
Steeped in blues and R&B from an early age, he was at home in fusion, with a rhythm section including drummer Dennis Chambers (ten years with George Clinton's Parliament/Funkadelic circus), Gary Grainger (ex-Pockets) on bass, and Mitch Forman on synths. With lots of fans among guitarists, he was one of the people who had to try to decide what jazz-rock fusion should be, on Blue Note keeping it on the jazz side of the fence: quartets Time On My Hands '90 and What We Do '92 included Joe Lovano; an ingenious septet Grace Under Pressure '91 had Bill Frisell on second guitar, and Frisell co-led a gossamer quartet set I Can See Your House From Here in 1993. A quintet Hand Jive in 1994 had Eddie Harris; he went back to fusion with the gruff soul of Blue Matter. A nonet album Groove Elation in 1995 included Randy Brecker, trombonist Steve Turre, and drummer Idris Muhammad. Quiet in 1996 on Verve was a ballad album, a septet with acoustic guitar and mostly his own tunes. Still on Verve, his new album in 2006 was That's What I Say, covering tunes made famous by Ray Charles.