Scott Sawyer
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Bio
Scott Sawyer is the kind of musician who displays his musical diversity like a badge of honor. He's been making music for years, playing venues of every description: music clubs, beer-soaked dives and prestigious festivals & venues around the world. From 1982-1996 he spent much of his time in the jazz & improvised music trenches. Since then, Sawyer has enjoyed a steady return to his rock & blues roots while continuing to explore the jazz tradition & beyond. An experienced bandleader, “Go There” and “Guitarspeak” are his current projects; he remains an active sideman/accompanist as well. COMPLETE BIO is here: www.scottsawyer.net/bio.htm
About
GO THERE on REVERBNATION: www.reverbnation.com/gothere
The CD "Scott Sawyer-Go There" is available on-line at Abstract Logix, CD Baby, Hittin' The Note, Homegrown Music Network, iTunes and other digital distribution sites.
Direct links to all of these sites are prominently posted at www.gotheremusic.com.
"Go There" (independent release) charted at #18 on XM Radio Channel 72 "Beyond Jazz" (Jan 31, 2008). It also appeared on a JazzTimes Top 10 Critics Pick List for 2007 (Owen Cordle).
Additional info at www.reverbnation.com/gothere OR www.myspace.com/gothereofficial OR http://www.facebook.com/pages/Scott-Sawyer-genre-busting-guitar/34392873069
"It's perfectly understandable why connoisseurs of fine music often refer to Scott Sawyer as a jazz guitarist.
It's because he does the jazz thing so well. He's an expert at breathing new life into that old graveyard of American Popular Song. By artfully re-investigating this body of familiar melodies and picking through the harmonic bones, Dr. Scott has resuscitated many a standard.
Jazz, however, is merely one of the many tools within his gig bag. He fingers the blues electric with the authenticity of someone who has lived them. That's not all. With country-boy affability, he strums and twangs. Chicken-picks. Shucks. Jives. Funks it up. And then breaks your heart with that one poignant love note that's soft as an angel's wing.
Like his better-known contemporaries John Scofield & Bill Frisell, Sawyer was weaned on the Beatles, the blues & 'Bird'. You can hear it in everything he plays, a new kind of guitarspeak comprised of pop, improv and sounds never before heard. It is a language Sawyer uses with authority". -- Joe Vanderford
Scott Sawyer is the kind of musician who displays his musical diversity like a badge of honor. He's been making music for years, playing venues of every description: music clubs, beer-soaked dives and prestigious festivals & venues around the world. From 1982-1996 he spent much of his time in the jazz & improvised music trenches. Since then, Sawyer has enjoyed a steady return to his rock & blues roots while continuing to explore the jazz tradition & beyond. An experienced bandleader, “Go There” and “Guitarspeak” are his current projects; he remains an active sideman/accompanist as well.
Sawyer has performed in Asia, Brazil, Canada, Central America, Europe, The Middle East and throughout the USA. He's appeared on numerous recordings, produced recordings for other artists, collaborated with dancers & choreographers, and interpreted visual art through his own compositions.
Sawyer has shared the stage and/or appeared on numerous recordings with many notable artists including Nnenna Freelon, Charlie Byrd, Oteil Burbridge, David Murray, (actor) Danny Aiello, (prima ballerina) Marie-Christine Mouis, Scott Ainslee, Bob Cranshaw, Gongzilla, Willie Pickens, Ed Thigpen, Bill Anshell and Jon Lucien...to name a few. He was a member of the 1992 Philip Morris Superband and has performed with jazz singer Nnenna Freelon at clubs, concerts and festivals worldwide. Other tours include Central America with vibraphonist Jon Metzger (USIA Arts America Program).
His latest album, “Go There” was independently released in May 2007. It charted on XM radio “Beyond Jazz” and features performances by Oteil Burbridge (Allman Brothers Band) and Kofi Burbridge (Derek Trucks Band). Numerous recording credits include Nnenna Freelon's 1997 Grammy-Nominated release, "Shaking Free" and “Live” (at Kennedy Center; 2003). Other credits include pianist Bill Anschell's "a different note all together" and Lois DeLoatch's “Hymn To Freedom” (2008). He arranged & recorded “The Glory Of Love” w/ actor Danny Aiello for the film "Once Around".
Sawyer has been a featured artist/clinician/speaker at many venues, including UNC-Chapel Hill (NC), UNC-Greensboro (NC), University of Wisconsin (Whitewater), University of South Florida (Tampa), Magellan School (Raleigh, NC) and The Institute of the Arts @ Duke University (Durham, NC). He's an experienced and active teacher, offering private instruction to guitarists and non-guitarists as well as clinics & master classes.
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