John Scofield picks up the narrative right where he left off, namely with his first solo album recorded for ECM. In his latest work, the double album “Uncle John’s Band,” he continues to delve deep into the past, exploring his roots and the heroes of his youth. The result is a balanced and comprehensive portrait of the seventy-one-year-old Ohio guitarist, weaving together the music that has shaped him. While Scofield is foremost a distinguished jazz guitarist – a status affirmed by a biography that includes renowned collaborations with masters such as Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, Gary Burton, Gerry Mulligan, Joe Henderson, and others, as well as leading exceptional groups – he has always been a musician with an open-minded approach. Rock and blues were his original starting points as a teenage guitarist, and the quality of direct emotional expression associated with those idioms has remained an unmistakable part of his sound, no matter how sophisticated the harmonic context.
In addition to his jazz endeavors, he has long been welcomed as a distinguished guest on the rock jam band scene. As a collaborator with bassist Phil Lesh of the Grateful Dead, he has played “Uncle John’s Band” live on multiple occasions in the last two decades. “I had always liked ‘Uncle John’s Band’ and had heard it over the years even though I didn’t have any Grateful Dead tunes in my repertoire. The concerts with Phil over the last two decades made me appreciate it even more,” explains Scofield. “But all the songs on the record are equally important to me. I couldn’t resist using ‘Uncle John’s Band’ as the album title because, after all, when would I get another chance to use it? It’s my band, and I am John!”
