John Scofield Biography

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When I first got into jazz -- around 1969, I came from playing R&B and Soul in High School. Jazz Rock was in its infancy stage and I was lucky enough to be around to experience the Golden Age of both Rock and Soul and see Jazz embrace that movement while I was trying to learn how to play straightahead Jazz. A lot of my early chances to actually gig were in various Jazz/Rock idioms. I got to play "real" jazz with Gary Burton and Gerry Mulligan but my real first "big time" gig was with the Billy Cobham/George Duke band. We got to play in gigantic concert halls and rock venues for excited people who were not necessarily jazz aficionados, but loved the music.

After that band ended, I stayed home in NYC and worked on playing acoustic jazz with my own groups and people like Dave Liebman. I also started an ongoing musical relationship with bassist Steve Swallow that continues to this day. As a jazz bassist and real songwriter (not just a composer) Swallow has influenced me as much as anyone.

In 1982, I joined the Miles Davis Band, answering the call of funky jazz once again. My stint with Miles made me sure that there really was a kind of music that was both funky and improvised at the same time.

After playing with Miles for over three years and making a few more records of my own, I hooked up with ex-P-Funk drummer Dennis Chambers, and we made a group that really utilized funk rhythms. Dennis and bassist Gary Grainger were masters of that "James Brown/ Earth Wind and Fire/ 70's thing". It was great having that underneath my tunes.

When I signed with Blue Note Records in 1989, I decided to explore more "swinging" avenues. I got together with my old Berklee School buddy, genius saxophonist Joe Lovano. We had a group and made three albums for Blue Note -- four counting a bootleg from Europe -- that are probably my very best "jazz" endeavors. Part of that can also be attributed to the magnificent drumming of Bill Stewart, who is as good a musician as I've ever met.

Then I felt the urge to get into a soul-jazz thing. I'd been really influenced by the music of Eddie Harris and Les McCann from the sixties. I invited Eddie to guest on the album Hand Jive. This was about the same time that Larry Goldings entered my music on Hammond Organ. With the collective possibilities of these musicians, I began to allow jazz to blend with New Orleans type rhythms to make the music groove.

Around this period, I also worked and recorded some with Pat Metheny -- one of the great guitarists. He and Bill Frisell are my favorite guitar players to play with and listen to. But then there's also Jim Hall and Mike Stern and Jim Hall and John Abercrombie and Jim Hall and Kurt Rosenwinckle and Jim Hall and Peter Bernstein... not to mention Jim Hall. And then there's also Albert King and Carlos Santana and Tom Morello and all the other ones I can't summon the names of right at the moment.

When I heard Medeski, Martin and Wood's record "Shack Man", I knew I had to play with them. They played those swampy grooves and had a free jazz attitude. These guys are serious conceptualists and are able to take the music to beautiful and strange places. I love what they did on AGoGo. In the last couple of years, I've heard some great young players that remind me often of what it is that I like so much about the music of sixties R&B.

Now I'm able to take that music and mix it with jazz all over again. I'm having more fun playing now than I ever have and I feel like I can finally really learn to play the guitar. Now, after having the chance to play with many of my musical idols -- I'm getting inspiration from younger musicians. I'm as excited about writing and playing music as I ever have been.

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On Traveling Mercies, Potter's second disc for Verve, the saxophonist reflects upon things he encountered on recent tours as a bandleader and as a sideman with such artists as Dave Holland, Dave Douglas and Steely Dan.

From the opening track, as Potter's tenor saxophone rises over a bed of electric keyboards and sampled sounds, Traveling Mercies marks a departure from his previous recordings. "The idea that I had thematically was to explore different ideas about American history and how they affect people living now, so the whole point is to understand the present," Potter says. "And in the present, there's electronica, there's music from all over the world influencing everybody, and there are all sorts of different sounds that people are exploring."

Traveling Mercies opens with "Megalopolis," a towering, teeming urban soundscape. "Snake Oil" was inspired by the old-time medicine shows that would roll into American towns to sell miracle cures. Each song on the album, including "Washed Ashore," "Migrations," and "Any Moment Now" is a Potter original, with the exception of Willie Nelson's spiritual "Just As I Am" and Potter's take on the traditional hymn "Children Go."

Potter is joined on his musical journey by bandmates with whom he has shared many of his experiences on the road: pianist Kevin Hays, bassist Scott Colley and drummer Bill Stewart. Two guitarists make special guest appearances: labelmate John Scofield and Adam Rogers.

Says Potter of his new recording: "I would like to dedicate this recording to the hope that, knowing where we've come from and where we want to go, we will make our decisions as a society out of respect and compassion for one another and the world we live in.

Raised in Columbia, South Carolina, Potter moved to New York at the age of 18 to study at the Manhattan School of Music. While a student, Potter began playing with Red Rodney's band. This proved to be the first of many high profile gigs for the saxophonist. His incredible resume includes tours and recordings with Jim Hall, Ray Brown, James Moody, Steve Swallow, Larry Carlton, Paul Motian, Steely Dan, and others. The youngest musician ever to receive the esteemed Danish Jazzpar Prize, Potter's work on Joanne Brackeen's Pink Elephant Magic earned him a GRAMMY nomination for Best Jazz Instrumental Solo.

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Stewart, Bill b. 18 October 1966, Des Moines, Iowa, USA. Percussionist Bill Stewart made his name as the rhythmic force behind guitarist John Scofield 's band, working with him for five years between 1990 and 1995. Self-taught on drums, Stewart is also a capable pianist, the instrument on which he composes. He grew up listening to his parents' jazz and R&B record collection, but otherwise jazz was a rare commodity in Iowa in the 70s and he played in a Top 40 covers band in high school as well as the school orchestra.

After graduating he enrolled at the University Of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, playing in the jazz and marching bands as well as the orchestra. He then transferred to college in Wayne, New Jersey, where he studied with Dave Samuels, Rufus Reid and Harold Mabern. It was here that he met future collaborator, saxophonist Joe Lovano. While still in college he made his recording debut with saxophonist Scott Kreitzer and recorded two further collections with pianist Armen Donelian. After graduation in 1988 he moved to Brooklyn, New York, where he set up home. There he began the slow process of establishing his reputation by regular appearances at jam sessions and by word of mouth, leading to his first gigs with the Larry Goldings trio.

At one of their regular sessions at Augie's Club in Manhattan, Maceo Parker attended and invited him to contribute to a forthcoming recording date (for Roots Revisited ). Afterwards he was invited to join Scofield's band, which also included Lovano, who has featured on both of Stewart's solo albums to date. The first, Think Before You Think, was issued on the Japanese label Jazz City and featured Dave Holland on bass and Marc Copland on piano in addition to Lovano. The second, Snide Remarks, featured pianist Bill Carrothers, trumpeter Eddie Henderson and bassist Larry Grenadier. This boasted nine original Stewart compositions, highlighting a sophisticated compositional technique that Lovano once analogized as being that of 'a melody player within the concept of rhythm'.