John Scofield
b. 26 December 1951, Ohio, USA. From an early background of playing with local R&B groups, guitarist Scofield attended the renowned Berklee College Of Music in Boston during the early '70s. He recorded with Gerry Mulligan and Chet Baker and eventually received an invitation to join Billy Cobham as replacement for John Abercrombie. Following a two-year stint he played with Charles Mingus, Gary Burton, and Dave Liebman. His early solo work built slowly and steadily into a style that is uniquely his. SHINOLA was recorded live and is a mellow album, bordering on the lethargic, and features the bass playing of Scofield's acknowledged mentor Steve Swallow. Between 1983 and 1985 Scofield was an integral part of Miles Davis' band, playing on a number of recordings including DECOY and YOU'RE UNDER ARREST. Following this exposure, Scofield had accumulated a considerable following. During the mid-'80s he played with McCoy Tyner, Marc Johnson and the French National Orchestra. ELECTRIC OUTLET showed that Scofield had now created his own uniquely rich and creamy sound, and STILL WARM capitalized on this burst of creativity and became the first of a series of outstanding albums on Gramavision. Great excitement preceded its release, following a giveaway record in Guitar Player magazine. The album became a big seller and was a flawless work. He continued in a similar funky, though less jazzier, vein for BLUE MATTER and LOUD JAZZ, the former featuring some impressive drum work from Dennis Chambers. FLAT OUT featured diverse and interesting arrangements of standards like Sammy Fain/ Paul Francis Webster's Secret Love and Jerome Kern/ Oscar Hammerstein, II's All The Things You Are. A live offering, PICK HITS, brilliantly encapsulated the best of Scofield's recent work, and demonstrated his growing importance as a class player. TIME ON MY HANDS was a critics' favourite and another strong seller. For many, it was the jazz album of 1990. Scofield's playing had now reached a point where he was regarded as one of the world's top guitarists. His compositional skills continued to blossom; his interplay with Charlie Haden and Jack DeJohnette was imaginative and uplifting. Maintaining an extraordinarily prolific musical peak, he delivered another superb record in the shape of MEANT TO BE and toured with the Mike Gibbs Orchestra during 1991, where his accessible and rich jazz guitar blended harmoniously with Gibbs' innovative compositions. GRACE UNDER PRESSURE and WHAT WE DO continued his run of first-rate and highly popular albums. Jim Ferguson, writing in Guitar Player, perceptively stated that Scofield's solos are ‘like the chase scene in The French Connection—incredibly exciting, intense and constantly flirting with disaster, but rarely out of control’.