Jazz fans ready themselves this Friday, November 21, 2025 evening inside South Orange, NJ’s SOPAC auditorium for a concert by world-class guitarist John Scofield and his trio. Known for playing a unique blend of jazz, fusion, funk, blues, soul, and rock, Scofield has worked with a wide range of musicians over the course of his 50+ year career including Miles Davis, Bill Evans, Pat Metheny, Herbie Hancock, Mavis Staples, and John Mayer.
Concertgoers cheer as Scofield, bassist Vincente Archer, and drummer Bill Stewart take the SOPAC stage and open tonight’s performance with “Blue Monk” where Scofield picks out the melody while Archer walks on the bass and Stewart rides the cymbals on this swinging Thelonious Monk composition.
Following a plucking Archer bass solo which Scofield accompanies by occasionally strumming his guitar and a drum solo where Scofield interlaces his own improvisation, the trio reintroduces the tune one last time to avid cheers and applause.
Fast guitar strumming and forceful drumming characterize “TV Band,” a funky Scofield original which is filled with syncopated leaps and chords. Scofield renders fast runs on the guitar before Stewart plays around his drum kit with power and finesse and the audience is drawn into the groove as Scofield incorporates snippets of The Monkees’ “Last Train to Clarksville” into the arrangement.
Music fans cheer and Scofield responds, “Thank you so much everybody! It’s so nice to see you and so great to be back at SOPAC!” before announcing, “Here’s a song by the great composer and musician, Carla Bley.” Caressing his guitar as he plays the introduction to “Lawns,” Scofield is soon joined by Archer and Stewart on this old-timey swing ballad. Stewart’s brushes swirl as Scofield solos before playing a descending line which Archer picks up on and carries along into his own thoughtful solo.
Ultimately, Scofield brings the melody forward, weaving his notes together on the guitar and releasing them into the audience where listeners react with enthusiastic cheers and applause.
Scofield and Co. follow up with a quick-paced bebop arrangement of the standard, “Gone with the Wind,” which has Scofield beautifully rendering the melody before he and Stewart cleverly answer one another with melodic runs and percussive rhythm patterns.
As the arrangement progresses, Scofield improvises a bebop solo with world-class technique and style as Stewart plays around him. Stewart follows up by rolling and crashing on his own solo to avid applause.
“We’d like to play a song we’ve all forgotten the name of,” announces Scofield before joking, “Does this mean that we all have ‘jazzheimers?’ No, it just means that this is an original jazz composition that doesn’t have any words so it could be named anything.” Here, he and the trio step into “Nothing is Forever,” a jazzy Scofield composition with a Latin feel where Scofield impresses by judiciously switching between picking and fingerpicking his guitar strings to alter the sonic landscape.
Segueing into the sound of a swinging ballad, Scofield plays counterpoint on his guitar as Archer’s bass walks and Stewart’s brushes circle and swirl.
A highlight of tonight’s performance is Scofield’s interpretation of Bob Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man.” Opening with a sitar-like guitar drone which supports an improvised melody, Scofield plays the recognizable “Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man/Play a song for me” tune before creatively deconstructing the melody and judiciously adding out-of-rhythm sonic blips.
Following “Mo Green,” an appealing R&B-influenced Latin funk tune which has music lovers cheering for a soulful blues guitar solo, Scofield says, “Thank you so much! We’d like to play a little more for you because you make us feel so good!” Here, he and the trio perform “Boulez Saal,” an original piece Scofield named after a concert hall in Germany where he recently performed. On this lovely minor key ballad, Scofield tenderly picks the enchanting melody as Stewart’s cymbals shimmer, Archer’s solo rumbles while Stewart’s brushes swirl, and the mood changes as Scofield bends strings while leaning into the music, playing with soul.
Funky guitar strumming leads off “Mask,” a rock fusion tune where Scofield plays the melody in octaves before improvising rapid-fire riffs. Scofield distorts the tone and the sound intensifies as Archer and Stewart groove along before dueling on bass and drums with funky goodness. The piece ultimately concludes with the trio rocking out on the original melody to hoots, hollers, cheers and applause.
Scofield and the band take a bow and exit the stage as audience members stand and shout, “Hooray!” Returning for an encore, Scofield responds, “Wow, you’re very kind! Thank you, thank you!” and asks, “Now what do we do?” prior to answering his own question, insisting, “We play the blues, of course!”
Here, Scofield and the band improvise a slow and sultry blues which features tasty fingerpicking and a dissonant chordal melody from Scofield as Archer’s bass walks and Stewart’s drums swing.
Descending into a traditional blues guitar solo, Scofield’s music infects concertgoers who tap their toes and bop their heads before leaping to their feet for a standing ovation to which Scofield happily responds, “Thank you so much everybody!”
For more information about John Scofield, please go to johnscofield.com. To learn more about great upcoming performances at SOPAC — including Storm Large’s Holiday Ordeal on December 19 and John Pizzarelli’s Swinging into the Holidays and More on December 21 — please go to sopacnow.org.
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