Presents
- John Scofield
- Pat Metheny
- Chick Corea
John Scofield
John Scofield was born on December 26, 1951 in Dayton, Ohio. Scofield graduated from Berklee College of Music School. In his early days Scofield played straight jazz with Gerry Mulligan and then in a more jazz/rock style with the Billy Cobham/George Duke band. John Scofield then worked on his music while living in New York City. Scofield then went on to play with Mile Davis in 1982 to 1985. After playing with Miles he then hooked up with drummer Dennis Chambers to play a funky style of music. John Scofield later played in a more swing style jazz band with an old Berklee alumni, Joe Lovano and Bill Stewart. By joining up with Eddie Harris and Larry Goldings, John Scofield started to explore the New Orleans type rhythmic music as heard on his Hand Jive album.
John Scofield was highly influenced by the teachings of his guitar teacher, Jim Hall. He has played with other great jazz playing guitarists Bill Frissell, Pat Metheny and John Abercrombie. He has also played with rock players Carlos Santana, Gov’t Mule band (Warren Haynes) and Tom Morrello.
John Scofield very much enjoys playing with the groove oriented free jazz musicians in the MMW band. MMW is short for Medeski, Martin and Wood. They are a trio of bass, drums and organ. John has released two albums with MMW. The first was A Go Go (1998) and his last was released this year on 09-26-2006.
Pat Metheny
Pat Metheny was born on August 12, 1954 in Lee's Summit, Missouri. Pat Metheny started listening to jazz when he was around 11 years old. He studied guitar and learned to play Wes Montgomery's music and style. At 15 years old Metheny would use this style while playing local jazz gigs in Kansas City. With the encouragement of older players Metheny decided to never play in the Wes Montgomery octave type guitar work again.
After high school Pat Metheny enrolled in the University of Miami for music. He dropped out very quickly but was offered a teaching position there. In the mid 1970s Pat Metheny joined Gary Burton's band and toured with the band for 3 years. He then recorded Bright Sized Life with Jaco Pastorius on bass. He later met and recorded with Lyle Mays releasing the Watercolors album in 1977.
In the 1980s the Pat Metheny Group became very popular playing different styles that included experimental jazz and grassroots music. They toured the US and Europe incessantly throughout the 1980s. This time period, the Pat Metheny group was creating a large amount of Latin Jazz style music and with the addition of some Brazilian players became a strong characteristic of the band. Pat Metheny has won 17 Grammy awards.
Chick Corea
Armondo Anthony "Chick" Corea was born on June 12, 1941 in Chelsea, MA near Boston. His father was a jazz trumpet player playing Dixieland jazz in the 1930s and 1940s. This provided Chick Corea with a great amount of music when he was a youngster. He started playing piano at 5 and took up drums at 8 years old. He moved to New York City to study music briefly studying at Columbia University and then switching over to The Julliard School for about 6 months.
In 1968, Chick Corea joined Mile Davis and played on the breakthrough fusion works such as "In a Silent Way" and "Bitches Brew". With the Davis band Corea started to experiment with electronic instruments rather than his usual acoustic piano workings.
Leaving Miles David, Corea formed Circle as a free jazz form band but he was not satisfied with this and left to go on his own. He started the band Return to Forever in 1971. The first lineup had a vocalist and was more Latin based. By 1973 influenced by the Mahuvishna Orchestra, the band moved toward the rock fusion style of jazz without using a vocalist. Stanley Clarke stayed on as the bass player and Al Di Meola became the guitar player. In the late 1980s and early 1990s Corea returned to playing more acoustic style traditional jazz music. Chick Corea has won 12 Grammy awards.