Key Of Grey

Photo courtesy of Alberto F.

May 17th, 2009 – John Scofield is an American jazz guitarist. I first came across his music through the drummer of my high school band. Before that, I had really only listened to big band jazz, and wasn’t used to the intimate style of small trios and quartets. At the time, I was only able to play the piano, but Scofield opened my eyes to a different guitar sound than I was used to; markedly different than the dirty, over-driven grunge sound I was used to.

Scofield was at once mellow and funky, with a smooth tone I’m sure that many have attempted to emulate. He also has a very unique melodic style for his solos that can be easily identified. Some prefer more histrionic performances in their jazz guitarists, but John Scofield has just the right amount of “surprise moments”; he doesn’t over do it. He often collaborates with another one of my favorite jazz groups Medeski, Martin, and Wood. I’ve embedded a video below of John Scofield playing with John Mayer below.