Scofield Country Old Men

When guitarist Bill Frisell first began a more decided focus on roots music, bluegrass and country & western music with the release of 1996's Nashville (Nonesuch), despite being largely very well-received, jazz purists rankled when the largely bluegrass/folk-informed album began to garner awards like Downbeat Magazine's Best Jazz Album of the Year. While Frisell's oftentimes Americana-tinged work has, in the ensuing years, become more fully accepted for the wonderful music that it is, fellow six-stringer John Scofield is unlikely to find himself the subject of such purist criticism with Country for Old Men.

Known for his distinctive, slightly distorted sound, jazz guitarist John Scofield is a masterful jazz improviser who has straddled the lines between straight-ahead post-bop, fusion, funk, and soul-jazz. One of the "big three" of late 20th century jazz guitarists (along with Pat Metheny and Bill Frisell), Scofield's influence grew in the '90s and continued into the 21st century. He first emerged in the mid-'70s playing with trumpeter Chet Baker and drummer Billy Cobham before launching his solo career with albums like 1977's East Meets West and 1981's Out Like a Light. He was an integral member of Miles Davis' ensemble in the '80s, and continued to issue his own albums like 1986's Blue Matter and 1998's A Go Go with Medeski, Martin & Wood. Well into his fourth decade as a performer, Scofield continues to garner critical acclaim, including winning Grammy Awards for 2015's Past Present and 2016's Country for Old Men.

Iconic GRAMMY Award-winning guitarist John Scofield teams up with pianist Gerald Clayton, bassist Vicente Archer, and drummer Bill Stewart in Combo 66, a new band that builds upon Scofield’s long legacy of masterful improvisation and stylistic diversity. Scofield has been a major influence on jazz since the 1970’s, continuously finding new and exciting avenues to reinvent himself as an artist. Scofield won consecutive Best Jazz Album GRAMMY Awards for Past Present (2016) and Country For Old Men (2017)– for which he also won the GRAMMY Award for Best Instrumental solo. Now, joined by three formidable artists in their own rights, Scofield’s Combo 66 showcases an intricate interpretation of jazz’s limitless direction.