Guitarist JOHN SCOFIELD releases PAST PRESENT

GRAMMY-nominated guitarist and bandleader John Scofield will release his new album Past Present on September 25th via Impulse!/Universal Music Classics. The album, picked by the New York Times as one of the highlights of the fall season, is Scofield's first with an update of his "elastic, swinging" (NY Times) early-90's quartet of Joe Lovano, Bill Stewart and Larry Grenadier (who steps in for Marc Johnson and the late Dennis Irwin) since the quartet released the acclaimed album's Meant To Be, Time on My Hands and What We Do on Blue Note Records. Scofield will celebrate the album release with a six-night run of shows at the venerable Blue Note club in New York City from October 13-18 (bassist Ben Street will sit in for Grenadier during this run).

Past Present is also one of Scofield's most personal albums, with a number of songs written during the illness and death of his son Evan in 2013 following a fast and furious battle with cancer. Buoyed by Grenadier's ebullient, recurring bass line and Stewart's delicate swing, Scofield describes Past Present as "futuristic blues," on which he and Lovano craft unison melodies before the two separate then intertwine invigorating improvisations. 

Scofield's 40 year professional career has seen him work with an incredibly diverse list of artists - Miles Davis, Chet Baker, Charles Mingus, George Duke, Herbie Hancock, Gary Burton, Joe Henderson, Mavis Staples, John Mayer, Dr. John, Brad Mehldau, Medeski Martin & Wood, Phil Lesh of the Grateful Dead, Taj Mahal, Gov't Mule, Charlie Haden and more. In 1998, the Montreal International Jazz Festival gave Scofield its prestigious "Miles Davis Award," and he was also awarded Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in France.