John Scofield quotes:

Who isn't a fan of Ray Charles?

The Meters are, I think, the most influential group in our time to come out of New Orleans, to have changed and introduced us all to a way of playing, and to a groove and a level of feel in playing funk-jazz.

It's really good to be forced to get away and try something else, find something that's exciting.

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...

It turns out kids today still learn that four-chord progression when they're just picking up the guitar.

I find as much inspiration from the forerunners of jazz as I do the modern-day innovators of jazz.

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

The jazz clubs wind up having only rich tourists - the kids can't come. If they do, then they spend their entire monthly allotments on a 45-minute set.

Generally, when a record label suggests album ideas for you, you smile politely, and then proceed to shoot it down, because it's never what you as an artist feel is right for you.

When I write a tune - and it's been like this for many years - I always hear in the back of my head some sort of vague, orchestrated, fully fleshed-out big-band version of the song with other parts going on.

... 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...

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

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

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