John Scofield updates his early-'90s quartet with drummer Bill Stewart, saxophonist Joe Lovano and bassist Larry Grenadier for his impulse! Debut, Past Present. For an artist equally adept at jazz fusion, funk, blues, soul and rock getting to the root of jazz means channeling the blues. Scofield describes "Past Present" as "futuristic blues": he and Lovano craft unison melodies before separating then intertwining invigorating improvs.

Japanese remastered pressing. Solid Records. 2020.

Guitarist John Scofield and bassist Dave Holland, two of jazz's contemporary masters, have played together over the years in contexts including projects with Herbie Hancock and Joe Henderson and a spirited co-led band with Joe Lovano and Al Foster. Memories of Home is their first duo album. The album includes Scofield's "Icons at the Fair," "Meant to Be," "Mine Are Blues," "Memorette," and "Easy for You," and Holland's "Mr. B," "Not for Nothin'," "You I Love" and "Memories of Home."

Guitarist John Scofield and bassist Dave Holland, two of jazz's contemporary masters, have played together over the years in contexts including projects with Herbie Hancock and Joe Henderson and a spirited co-led band with Joe Lovano and Al Foster. Memories of Home is their first duo album, made at NRS Studios, in Catskill, New York, last year, after extensive touring activity. John Scofield: "The record, like our live shows, features tunes each of us composed, some new, some old. We share decades of common references musically. The similarities and differences in our approaches make for a more interesting collaboration, I think." The album includes Scofield's "Icons at the Fair", "Meant to Be", "Mine Are Blues", "Memorette" and "Easy for You", and Holland's "Mr. B", "Not for Nothin'", "You I Love" and "Memories of Home."

Double 180gm vinyl LP pressing. John Scofield's quartet with tenor saxophonist Joe Lovano was one of the premier modern jazz groups of the 1990s and the guitarist's second Blue Note album, Meant To Be, put all the band's firepower and nuanced musicality on full display with an 11-song set of Scofield originals, featuring bassist Marc Johnson and drummer Bill Stewart. This Blue Note Classic Vinyl Edition is stereo, all-analog, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original master tapes, and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal.

Classical Music

2022 release. 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 through the styles and idioms he has traversed up until today. He is not entirely all on his own on this endeavour though: the guitarist enters into dialogues with himself, soloing to his own tasteful chordal and rhythmic accompaniment via loop machine. John's main emphasis throughout the years, however, has remained his deep commitment to the jazz tradition, and here he grabs a number of standards off the rack and gives them unique interpretations.

Two CDs. Named for the Grateful Dead song that concludes this inspired double album, Uncle John's Band features masterful guitarist John Scofield at his most freewheeling. Wide ranging repertoire finds his trio with Vicente Archer and Bill Stewart tackling material from Bob Dylan to Neil Young, from Leonard Bernstein to Miles Davis. The red thread through the program is the trio's improvisational verve. "I feel like we can go anywhere," says John Scofield of the group's multi-directional versatility.

A new trio album from veteran guitarist John Scofield, who released his first career solo album last year. Vicente Archer replaces Steve Swallow on bass, and old friend and stablemate Bill Stewart takes over on drums. A change from his solo work released last year, Scofield, who says he loves bands, plays freely and uninhibitedly throughout the album on this two-disc set. He tackles a wide range of repertoire, from Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man" to Neil Young's "Old Man," from Leonard Bernstein's "Sam Whore" from "West Side Story" to Miles Davis' classic "Badu. Jazz standards such as "Kizashi to Hoshi e no Kizashi" and "Raise Idea," along with seven Scofield originals with a variety of tastes including swing, funk, and folk, stand side by side with the album's title song, the Grateful Dead's "Uncle John's Band" to close the show. Uncle John's Band. The red thread that runs through the work is the trio's improvisational momentum. We feel like we could go anywhere," Scofield says of the trio's versatility. This guitar work will appeal to a wide range of jam band fans and jazz fans alike.