Scott Sawyer 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 re-visiting
his blues & rock roots while continuing to explore the jazz tradition & beyond. He's an
experienced band-leader, and an active sideman & accompanist as well.
Sawyer has performed in Asia, Brazil, Canada, Central America, Europe, The Middle East
and throughout the USA. He has shared the stage and/or appeared on numerous
recordings with many notable artists including Nnenna Freelon, Charlie Byrd, Oteil
Burbridge, Tony Williamson, Jack Wilkins, Jon Metzger, David Murray, (actor) Danny Aiello, (prima ballerina) Marie-
Christine Mouis, Scott Ainslee, Ghezzi, Bob Cranshaw, Gongzilla, Willie Pickens, Ed Thigpen, Bill
Anshell, Lois Deloatch, 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
#18 on XM Radio “Beyond Jazz” (January 2008) and features performances by Oteil
Burbridge (Allman Brothers Band) and Kofi Burbridge (Derek Trucks Band). Numerous
recording credits include Nnenna Freelon's 2010 release "Homefree", as well as her 1997 Grammy-Nominated release, "Shaking
Free" and “Live” (Kennedy Center; 2003). Other recording credits include Lois Deloatch's album "Roots: Jazz Blues Spirituals" (2010); pianist Bill Anschell's
"a different note all together", Gary Brunotte's “Manic Moments” and Lois
Deloatch's “Hymn To Freedom”. Sawyer arranged & recorded “The Glory Of Love”
w/ actor Danny Aiello as featured in the film "Once Around". He has produced recordings for other artists,
collaborated with dancers & choreographers, and interpreted visual art through his
own compositions.
Sawyer has been a featured artist/clinician/speaker at numerous venues, including UNC-Chapel
Hill (NC), UNC-Greensboro (NC), University of Wisconsin (Whitewater), University
of South Florida (Tampa), East Carolina University, 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. In August 2010, he begins a part-time teaching position at East Carolina University (Greenville, NC) where he will be teaching applied jazz guitar
and coaching combos.
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"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 reinvestigating
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)
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"The ABB will continue what’s being called the “40 Years of Highs and Lows” tour, all part
of a 60 date US tour. While in NY, I got to do a gig with Go There, who I recorded with in
2006. Scott Sawyer and Kenny Soule are two of my favorite musicians to play with." -
Oteil Burbridge (Chris Jisi, Bass Player Magazine (Jun 01, 2009)
"Welcome to Scott Sawyer, the funk, rock, blues--and jazz-- player...With a
preponderance of Sawyer tunes, (GO THERE) is all groove underneath...If you're looking
for a pure, hard-line jazz album, this is not it. But if you think it represents a
compromise, think again. It's its own species." - Owen Cordle, News & Observer (May 06,
2007)
(on Scott Sawyer “Go There”) I've been a fan of Scott Sawyer's music for years and
consider him to be one of the greatest guitarists in the country. That there are so few
recordings of him available is one of the music world's great injustices. Compounding this
difficulty is that his playing is so damn good in so many diverse styles, which means
there are still a lot of CDs to make if the public is going to have an inkling of his gift. Go
There is Scott at his genre-busting best. What would you call this? "fusion"? "jazzy jamband"?
In the end it doesn't matter: this is just cool music, from the soul, with inventive
writing, fantastic players, and heartfelt improvisations. Go wherever you have to to get a
copy of this disc. -- Alex Martin
"I remember hearing years ago about "...this guy Scott Sawyer...He's the one guy around
here who has a totally cool vibe while being one of the best guitar players in the region."
The guy who said that was Brian Dennis and he was right. - John Custer; Producer (Dag,
Cry Of Love, COC) "
"I did do one CD with this great guitarist named Scott Sawyer. Its called “Go There”. My
brother Kofi played on it and a great drummer named Kenny Soule. These guys are really
amazing." - Oteil Burbridge" (badassbassplayers.com (Jun 05, 2007)
"We just completed a project called Go There. Just ridiculous, man...They have a
guitarist, Scott Sawyer and a drummer Kenny Soule...We went into the studio and did
this and I felt like we had been playing together for thirty years. It was just amazing how
natural it was. - Oteil Burbridge"
(jambands,com )
…we're pleased to play Scott's music...it sounds great on the air and fits the channel
perfectly. Keep up the great work...” – Russ Davis (Program Director, XM Radio “Beyond
Jazz”; 11/16/07)
BIO: Scott Sawyer
"Scott Sawyer is one of North Carolina’s guitar masters... To this listener, Go There
sounds like a righteous amalgam of jazz, funk, rock and blues performed by a crew of
very solid players. For immediate inspiration, check the brilliant, funkified arrangement of
George Harrison’s “Tax Man.” " - Philip van Vleck, Metro Magazine
(on Ed Paolantonio's "Dad's Blues")….Sawyer grabs you on the title cut with soul and
intellect, sort of like bluesman B.B. King meeting jazzman Jim Hall---(N&O; Raleigh, NC)
(on Ghezzi's "Taking No Prisoners")...Vocalist Ghezzi and guitarist extraordinaire Scott
Sawyer pack a solid blues punch on this fine outing... Sawyer delves deep into his bluessoaked
Chicago roots, equally at home on rockin' blues or coolly perfect weepers like
"Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out."---Gene Hyde (Spectator; Raleigh, NC)
"(Charlie) Byrd played amplified acoustic guitar, Sawyer electric guitar. As an
accompanist, Sawyer subtly shadowed Byrd. As a soloist, he paced himself thoughtfully
and showed much rhythmic variety. He occasionally evoked Wes Montgomery and Jim
Hall...throughout the concert, Byrd was a generous leader, swapping solos and phrases
with Sawyer"...)---Owen Cordle (N&O; Raleigh, NC)
"A thoughtful improviser, Sawyer selects notes carefully from among the many that lie
beneath his fingers. Like master trumpeter Miles Davis, who punctuated his solos with
pockets of emptiness, Sawyer lets each note find its own gravity before moving on to the
next. But just when you think you've got him nailed as an aw-shucks guitarist who picks
unobtrusively in the shadows, one listen to Stream reveals Sawyer's alter ego: a
boisterous blues man who honks nasty and loud... "Blue Diner" jolts like a boiling cup of
coffee."---Joe Vanderford (The Independent Weekly; Durham, NC)
..."There is refinement in his ability to develop, bend and restructure a line. His
compositions and extrapolative improvisation insinuate themselves into your
mind.......Sawyer's NC sideman are as cogent and hip as their more nationally recognized
counterparts."---Owen Cordle (N&O; Raleigh, NC)
"(Sawyer) obviously enjoys the bop and Coltrane-style free improvisational genres. On
those tracks where he uses a sax, he lets the horn player lead with good effect.....there
are a pair of selections which I've always felt were the guitar's forte-a gentle ballad and a
melodic piece that builds in intensity with each successive pass. He uses each to
effectively demonstrate his own strengths."---Paul Matthews (CADENCE)
"The album's title brings to mind third stream jazz, in this instance mixing electric guitar
with acoustic instruments to invent compositions with rock, straightahead, and new
music elements. In The Stream is an engaging yet uncompromisingly provocative effort
for the serious jazz listener."---Wayne Self (JazzSouth)
"This is meaty, modern, modal stuff. Key is Sawyer's playing: No strummy sloshing
around here; it's dead-on, down to the last well-placed blue note. This is an
adventuresome group."---Dean Smith (Charlotte News & Observer)
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