JOHN SCOFIELD
John Scofield's guitar work has influenced jazz since the late 70’s and is going strong today. Possessor of a very distinctive sound and stylistic diversity, Scofield is a masterful jazz improviser whose music generally falls somewhere between post-bop, funk edged jazz, and R & B.
Born in Ohio and raised in suburban Connecticut, Scofield took up the guitar at age 11, inspired by both rock and blues players. He attended Berklee College of Music in Boston. After a debut recording with Gerry Mulligan and Chet Baker, Scofield was a member of the Billy Cobham-George Duke band for two years. In 1977 he recorded with Charles Mingus, and joined the Gary Burton quartet. He began his international career as a bandleader and recording artist in 1978. From 1982–1985, Scofield toured and recorded with Miles Davis. His Davis stint placed him firmly in the foreground of jazz consciousness as a player and composer.
Since that time he has prominently led his own groups in the international Jazz scene, recorded over 30 albums as a leader (many already classics) including collaborations with contemporary favorites like Pat Metheny, Charlie Haden, Eddie Harris, Medeski, Martin & Wood, Bill Frisell, Brad Mehldau, Mavis Staples, Government Mule, Jack DeJohnette, Joe Lovano and Phil Lesh. He’s played and recorded with Tony Williams, Jim Hall, Ron Carter, Herbie Hancock, Joe Henderson, Dave Holland, Terumasa Hino among many jazz legends. Throughout his career Scofield has punctuated his traditional jazz offerings with funk-oriented electric music. All along, the guitarist has kept an open musical mind.
JON CLEARY
Cleary, born in England, is an adopted son of the Crescent City, who’s made good his citizenship with five soul-soaked R&B funk albums with the Absolute Monster Gentlemen. As a session man, he’s played with Taj Mahal, B.B. King and Bonnie Raitt, to name a few, and is a longstanding member of Raitt’s touring band. Musically, though, his heart and soul reside on the banks of the Mississippi.
The story of how the British piano player and singer has come to be one of New Orlean's leading names of funk winds from the English county of Kent, where Cleary grew up hearing vintage records from New Orleans and building dreams around them, to that "crescent city" in Louisiana, where he came to rub shoulders with its old masters - his heroes - and eventually become regarded as part of their bloodline.
Cleary tours regularly with blues royal Bonnie Raitt, has worked with Taj Mahal, B. B. King and Ryan Adams as a session man and is soon to record with John Scofield. He has also put out five funk- and soul-drenched albums of his own, three of them with his dynamite band of New Orleans-born players, the Absolute Monster Gentlemen.
