Guitarist John Scofield performing in the Jazz24 studios on October 28. Credit Justin Steyer / KPLU
John Scofield is one of the most innovative and genre-bending guitarists in jazz. Over the years, his great talent and eclectic tastes have garnered him a huge international following; a following which includes a lot of people who didn’t know they liked jazz until they heard Scofield.
On a recent swing through Seattle, Scofield, along his pianist Michael Eckroth, stopped by our studios for a duet performance, hosted by Abe Beeson.
Scofield’s latest CD is ballad-oriented and so was this performance. He and Eckroth gave us lovely renditions of two standards, Stella By Starlight and My Foolish Heart, as well as one of his original compositions called Simply Put.
Among other topics, John did a little reminiscing about his years with Miles Davis. Abe called Miles ‘the coolest guy in the world’ and Scofield heartily agreed, saying, “Brezhnev wanted to hang out with Miles…it was kind of this cultural zenith.”
But after you listen to the great music and interesting conversation in this session, you might come away thinking that Scofield is hot on Miles’ heels on the world-wide “cool” index.