Matt Schofield (born 21 August 1977,

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

, England) is an English

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...

guitarist and singer. His band, the Matt Schofield Trio, play their own material, a blend of blues,

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the ...

and

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

, as well as covers of blues classics such as

Albert Collins Albert Gene Collins (October 1, 1932 – November 24, 1993)Skeely, Richard. "Albert Collins: Biography" Allmusic.com. was an American electric blues guitarist and singer with a distinctive guitar style. He was noted for his powerful playing ...

' "Lights Are On, But Nobody's Home". Schofield is regarded as one of the most distinctive and innovative British blues guitarists, and has been rated in the top ten of British blues guitarists by ''Guitar & Bass Magazine''. Schofield's prowess has taken his band to twelve countries, seen him playing with musicians including

Buddy Guy George "Buddy" Guy (born July 30, 1936) is an American blues guitarist and singer. He is an exponent of Chicago blues who has influenced generations of guitarists including Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Keith Richards, Stevie Ray Vaug ...

and

Robben Ford Robben Lee Ford (born December 16, 1951) is an American blues, jazz, and rock music, rock guitarist. He was a member of the L.A. Express and Yellowjackets (band), Yellowjackets and has collaborated with Miles Davis, Joni Mitchell, George Harriso ...

, and brought a note in the ''Penguin Book of Blues Recordings'' as one of only two living British artists to gain the maximum four-star rating. In addition, he has been admitted to the British Blues Awards Hall of Fame.

Influences

Schofield's guitar playing is often likened to that of

in its melodic and fluid style, and jazzy lines. Schofield has been influenced by

B.B. King Riley B. King (September 16, 1925 – May 14, 2015), known professionally as B.B. King, was an American blues guitarist, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He introduced a sophisticated style of soloing based on fluid string bending, sh ...

Freddie King Freddie King (born Fred Christian; September 3, 1934December 28, 1976), also billed as Freddy King, was an American blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. He is considered one of the "Three Kings of the Blues Guitar" (along with Albert King a ...

Albert King Albert King ( Nelson; April 25, 1923 – December 21, 1992), was an American guitarist and singer who is often regarded as one of the greatest and most influential blues guitarists of all time. He is perhaps best known for his popular and ...

Muddy Waters McKinley Morganfield (April 4, 1913April 30, 1983), better known as Muddy Waters, was an American blues singer-songwriter and musician who was an important figure in the post-World War II blues scene, and is often cited as the "father of moder ...

Steve Winwood Stephen Lawrence Winwood (born 12 May 1948) is an English musician and songwriter whose genres include blue-eyed soul, rhythm and blues, blues rock, and pop rock. Though primarily a guitarist, keyboard player, and vocalist prominent for his dis ...

Eric Clapton Eric Patrick Clapton (born 1945) is an English Rock music, rock and blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He is regarded as one of the most successful and influential guitarists in rock music. Clapton ranked second in ''Rolling Stone''s l ...

Jimi Hendrix James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942September 18, 1970) was an American singer-songwriter and musician. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential guitarists of all time. Inducted ...

Billy Gibbons William Frederick Gibbons (born December 16, 1949) is an American rock musician, best known as the guitarist, primary vocalist, and only constant member of ZZ Top. He began his career in Moving Sidewalks, who recorded '' Flash'' (1969) and op ...

Stevie Ray Vaughan Stephen Ray Vaughan (also known as SRV; October 3, 1954 – August 27, 1990) was an American musician, best known as the guitarist and frontman of the blues rock trio Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble (band), Double Trouble. Although his ma ...

Jimmie Vaughan Jimmie Lawrence Vaughan Jr. (born March 20, 1951) is an American blues rock guitarist and singer based in Austin, Texas. He is the older brother of the Texas blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan. He was a founding member of The Fabulous Thunder ...

, and Tomo Fujita.

Career

Recordings

Schofield has recorded five studio albums and four live albums. The first of the live discs, ''The Trio, Live'' was recorded at the Bishop's Blues club at The Half Moon,

Bishop's Stortford Bishop's Stortford is a historic market town and civil parish in the East Hertfordshire district, in the county of Hertfordshire, England. It is in the London metropolitan area, London commuter belt, near the border with Essex, just west of the ...

in 2004 and, funded and released by Richard Pavitt on his Nugene record label, gave the band their first breakthrough. The first studio album, ''Siftin' Thru Ashes'' was released in 2005. This album showcased Schofield as a songwriter, writing or co-writing eight out of eleven of the tracks.

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

called Schofield's approach "an enjoyable demonstration of what can happen when blues-rock and blues-jazz are united". The second live album, ''Live at the Jazz Cafe!'' was recorded at the London Jazz Cafe in April 2005, and was made available as a web only release. Schofield is one of only two living British artists to be given a four star (excellent) rating in the ''Penguin Book of Blues Recordings''. The release of ''The Trio, Live'' prompted Schofield to be featured in a ''

Guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselve ...

'' magazine article, listing the nine notable up and coming blues guitarists, Schofield being the only non-American. Of the album they said "britblues meets jazz via N'Orleans – all played with the kind of sizzling guitar that just does not often surface in Fairford, Gloucestershire". In 2007, ''Guitar & Bass Magazine'' picked Schofield as one of the "Top 10 British Blues Guitarists of All Time". In August 2009, Schofield released ''Heads, Tails, & Aces'', his third studio effort. The next year (2010) the band collected the Album of the Year award at the British Blues Awards for this album, and released ''Live from the Archive'', recorded in 2007 in the Netherlands. Schofield won the British Blues Guitarist and Jonny Henderson won the British Keyboard Player award, and they both won these awards in 2011, too. In 2011, the trio released their fourth album ''Anything but Time'', with Kevin Hayes on drums and John Porter as record producer. Guitarinstructor.com, a part of the Hal Leonard organisation, has this album as No 5 in their top 10 albums of 2011, while ''Mojo'' magazine picked it as No 1 of Blues albums in 2011. In 2012, Schofield made available a third live album ''Ten From The Road'', consisting of material performed live in November 2011 by Schofield with Henderson & Hayes. He released his fifth studio album, called ''Far As I Can See'', in February 2014. Schofield has played guitar for a number of

Dana Gillespie Richenda Antoinette de Winterstein Gillespie (born 30 March 1949), known professionally as Dana Gillespie, is an English actress, singer and songwriter. Originally performing and recording in her teens, over the years Gillespie has been involved ...

's albums, including ''Back to the Blues'' (1998), ''Experienced'' (2000), ''Songs of Love'' (2001), ''Staying Power'' (2002), ''These Blue Nights'' (2006), and ''Live With the London Blues Band'' (2007), and with The Lee Sankey Group's ''My Day Is Just Beginning'' (2000) and ''She's Not Alone (EP)'' (2000). He has also played guitar on Dino Baptiste's ''Two Timing Lover Boy'' (1999), The Lester Butler Tribute Band's ''So Lowdown Tour'' (2002), Earl Green's ''A Different Picture'' (2005), The Backbones' ''New Road Sessions Vol. 1'' (2006), JL Fulks' ''On Down the Road'' (2016), and Federico Luiu's ''Walkin' The Blues''. He co-produced

Ian Siegal Ian Siegal is a British blues singer and guitarist. Biography Ian Siegal is a singer, songwriter, guitarist, bandleader and recording artist whose music encompasses Blues and Americana. Born near Portsmouth in England, he dropped out of art ...

's ''Meat & Potatoes'' (2005) and produced Siegal's ''At The North Sea Jazz Festival (DVD)'' (2006), ''Swagger'' (2007), and ''Broadside'' (2009). Schofield appears on the compilation albums ''Mustique Blues Festival'' (1999, 2000, 2004), ''Basil´s Bar Blues'' (2003), and ''The Six Sessions'' (2010).

Band

Schofield performs with an

organ trio An organ trio is a form of jazz ensemble consisting of three musicians; a Hammond organ player, a drummer, and either a jazz guitarist or a saxophone player. In some cases the saxophonist will join a trio which consists of an organist, guitarist ...

(guitar,

organ Organ and organs may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a group of tissues organized to serve a common function * Organ system, a collection of organs that function together to carry out specific functions within the body. Musical instruments ...

, and drums). Organ trios are mostly associated with the 1950s and 1960s US

soul jazz Soul jazz or funky jazz is a subgenre of jazz that incorporates strong influences from hard bop, blues, soul, gospel and rhythm and blues. Soul jazz is often characterized by organ trios featuring the Hammond organ and small combos including sa ...

groups led by organists such as Jimmy Smith. Blues bands more commonly use trios of guitar, bass and drums, quartets (guitar, keyboards, bass, and drums) or quintets (guitar, rhythm guitar, keyboards, bass, and drums). In Schofield's organ trio, organist Jonny Henderson plays a

Hammond organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert, first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding #Drawbars, drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, sound was created ...

, performing basslines using his left hand, and playing chords and lead lines with his right hand. The trio's drummer is Evan Jenkins. Jeff Walker played bass on the final track of ''Siftin' Thru' Ashes''. In 2009, as of the recording of ''Heads, Tails & Aces'', The Matt Schofield Trio became The Matt Schofield Band, a four-piece, featuring Jeff 'The Funk' Walker on bass, and also replacing Evan Jenkins with Alain Baudry. Jeff Walker was later replaced by Spanish bassist Javier Garcia Vicente. At a concert at the Swindon Arts Centre on 22 October 2009, the band reverted to a trio. In June 2010, Kevin Hayes, replaced Evan Jenkins in the band. The 2012 Europe Tour, the trio was back with its original formation, with Matt Schofield, Evan Jenkins and Jonny Henderson.

Endorsements and gear

Boutique amplifier company Two-Rock developed the Schofield Signature amplifier for Matt. According to Matt, the amplifier is "simply the best amplifier I've ever plugged into, and I'm honoured it carries my name". Japanese Effects Pedal company Free The Tone also developed the custom MS SOV SPECIAL overdrive pedal for him and released it as a limited edition product in 2013. A full production version, the MS SOV MS-2V, was later released in 2014.

Discography

*2004: ''The Trio, Live'' (NUG601) *2005: ''Live at the Jazz Café'' (NUG503) *2005: ''Siftin' Thru' Ashes'' (NUG501) *2007: ''Ear to the Ground'' *2009: ''Heads, Tails & Aces'' *2010:''Live From The Archive'' *2011: ''Anything But Time'' *2012: ''Ten From The Road'' *2014: ''Far As I Can See'' *2025: ''Many Moons / Vol.1''

References

External links

Matt Schofield official websiteNugene RecordsBritish Blues AwardsInterview with Matt Schofield on Myth vs. Craft podcast
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schofield, Matt 1977 births Living people English blues guitarists English male guitarists English blues singers English blues rock musicians 21st-century English singers 21st-century English guitarists 21st-century English male singers Provogue Records artists