40 Quotes by John Scofield

I like forms that are flexible, that can let you feel creative.

Who isn't a fan of Ray Charles?

Hang on to your eccentricities, because they will give you a style.

We don't want any vocalist messing up the music.

... sound is what drives my solos, not verbal concepts, I never think 'I'm going to use a Lydian Dominant scale and then go up a half-step', even though that might be exactly what I end up doing...

When you compare music, you lose the joy of listening to it.

...The key to playing with any group is you listen all the time and you listen more than you play.

... one thing people always ask me is 'How do you play outside?' ... I have no idea how to teach that, but when I was discussing this with our bass player Jesse Murphy, he said 'tell them to go cliff diving'... In other words, when you're jamming, you have to take risks if you want to find new sounds...

This is music I've known since I first started to play the guitar. Ray's music was one of my inspirations: He was a super soul-music man, but he was also a jazz musician, too. I see him as the height of honest expression.