Simple Soul: John Scofield

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JOHN SCOFIELD'S INTRICATE guitar playing has accompanied jazz legends such as Chet Baker, Charles Mingus and Miles Davis throughout his more than 30-year-long career. But for his 36th solo album, "Piety Street" (Decca), Scofield had to do something he's not used to: simplify.

"I played simpler because the music requires that," Scofield said. "It's hard to play simple, but it's also been a joy [and] also an eye opener: oh yeah, this deep music doesn't have to have a lot of notes. Also when you play less notes, the shading and the vibrato and the phrasings, they become more important. Those are real subtleties that don't come across in jazz. I love the vocal quality."

It's refreshing to hear Scofield, 57, playing such soulful, natural tones — a stark contrast to his more adventurous fusion work and his traditional bebop. "Piety Street," released last month, is a gospel and blues album at its core, but it's also something Scofield's been working toward his entire career.

"I think all of this is part of something that I've been looking for and part of just my whole career of mixing jazz and blues," he said. "It's been trying to get to something that's natural and vocal-like and there's this great blues guitar tradition that I'm part of that when I play straight-ahead jazz gets tucked away."

Throughout the album, Scofield tackles traditional gospel tunes ("Motherless Child," "Walk With Me"), work by the legendary gospel songwriter Thomas A. Dorsey ("The Old Ship of Zion," "Never Turn Back") and even a Hank Williams song ("The Angel of Death"). He also penned three originals, but some of the best stuff comes from the lesser-known cuts — songs Scofield said he learned from a friend with a deep gospel record collection.

Originally, however, Scofield had planned on doing a stricter, 12-bar-blues-based album with musicians from New Orleans. When he realized the world didn't need another 12-bar blues record, he looked back to his gospel collection and decided to shift gears.

"There's so many great gospel tunes; I said, 'What the hell, gospel is interesting in itself, it would give us a repertoire to choose from that's a little bit different,'" Scofield said.

As a soul fan, it was easy for Scofield to transition to gospel.

"Very early on I learned that gospel music is super soul music," he said.

"Piety Street" also marks the rare occasion of Scofield recording with vocalists under his name. Jon Cleary and John Boutte provide the vocalizations where Scofield's guitar just wouldn't do. For bass, Scofield had an easy choice, nabbing one of New Orleans' most in-demand session players, George Porter Jr.. Ricky Fataar, who's played with The Beach Boys, rounds out the band on drums.

"When you go to New Orleans and you want to record with a bassist, George Porter Jr. is the man," Scofield said. "One of the reasons I love the music from there is him."

While Scofield's playing is much more reserved on "Piety Street" — he lives by the less-is-more mantra, with the guitar often acting as an introduction to the singer — his solos are still as sharp as ever, complemented nicely by Cleary's piano and organ work.

Recorded in just three days, the album feels tight, but maintains the looseness of a jazz record. While Scofield worked up the arrangements before the musicians hit the studio, he still allowed room for improvisation. On "Motherless Child," a reggae jam that developed during rehearsals remains at the song's conclusion. It's fitting, juxtaposing one pious genre with another.

While the album is inherently spiritual, Scofield says he doesn't belong to any religion, and relates more to the message of the songs than anything else. In other words, he's not preaching, he's just playing.

"I'm not a member of any organized religion but I'll tell you those songs are so strong and the message, the Christian message, the parts that are universal are universal, and are very spiritually uplifting," he said. "Really, I'm coming at this more as a music geek, but I don't have anything against spreading the good word."

And it's not rare for Scofield to interject himself into situations, or genres, he's not necessarily familiar with. In 2005, he firmly planted himself under the jam band umbrella as a member of Phil Lesh and Friends, the Grateful Dead bassist's rotating collective. He toured with Lesh in 2006, absorbing the Dead's vast catalog in the process.

"I've never been in a situation where I'm playing for thousands of people who are coming to hear these songs and you can completely freely improvise and be on a complete trip, and very few musicians have the nerve to do that," Scofield said. "If [Lesh] likes you, everything is OK — he will follow and lead and it's just this ferocity that is so generous and advanced, so spiritual: Hey, were going to find something in this room and the audience is in on it, too."

Before that, he worked with another band entrenched in the jam world, Martin Medeski and Wood. The experimental jazz-based trio backed Scofield for his 1998 album "A Go Go," and the group recorded an album as Martin Medeski Scofield and Wood in 2006. The quartet will play a few shows this summer as well.

Scofield's entry in the jam scene has been a latter-day blessing of sorts — a reprieve from the sometimes suffocating jazz world he's used to.

"It's one of the greatest things that's ever happened to me," Scofield said. "It's so great to get away from the intellectual music scene and playing for people that are just dancing and grooving."

» State Theatre, 220 N. Washington St., Falls Church; Wed., April 22, 8 p.m., $25; 703-237-0300. (East Falls Church)

Written by Express Contributor Rudi Greenberg

Photo by Nick Suttle