Saxofonist

The long-running relationship between guitar icon John Scofield and the all-star jam band Lettuce is built on a deep and abiding love of funk. They reunite for these two nights during Scofield’s week in a welcome reprise of the scorching performances from the 2018-19 Season.

Scofield appeared as a special guest on the band’s 2002 debut album Outta Here (Velour Recordings), forging a connection that’s matured as the Lettuce players evolved from enthusiastic teens at a Berklee summer program known for hitting up Boston venues for gigs with the insistent refrain “Let us play!” (hence the name Lettuce) to a jam band supergroup.

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Lettuce W/ Special Guest John Scofield

SFJAZZ Center

LETTUCE is (a) the prime ingredient in a salad, (b) a slang for cash, (c) a green herb that can be smoked, (d) a genre-busting six-member musical collective formed in 1992 by four alumni of the prestigious Berklee College Of Music, or (e) all of the above. If you answered “e,” then you’re in on the sheer magic of a band that both feeds the rich history of funk and combines it with strains of hip-hop, rock, psychedelia, jazz, soul, jam, go-go, and the avant-garde. The GRAMMY® Award-nominated six-piece is comprised of Adam Deitch [drums, percussion, arrangement], Adam “Shmeeans” Smirnoff [guitar], Erick “Jesus” Coomes [bass], Ryan Zoidis [alto, baritone, tenor sax, Korg X-911], Eric “Benny” Bloom [trumpet, horns], and Nigel Hall [vocals, Hammond B-3, Rhodes, clavinet, keyboards]. To date, their discography includes Outta Here [2002], Rage! [2008], Fly [2012], Crush [2015], the EP Mt. Crushmore [2016], the live album Witches Stew [2017], Elevate [2019], Resonate [2020], Unify [2022], and now VIBE – a single 48 minute continuous session of pure, free-flowing improvisation, available digitally for the first time. With VIBE, Lettuce cement their status as boundary-pushing innovators three decades into their lauded career, blurring lines and smashing up jazz chords, psychedelic passages, big horns, strains of soul and go-go, hip-hop elements for an uplifting, improvisational sound all their own. Ryan Zoidis explains, “we got into a vibe and hit record. 48 minutes went by like a blink of an eye. This is our first purely improvised recording. Nothing planned, nothing edited or overdubbed. This is a true spontaneous musical expression captured in its entirety.” All together now… Lett us VIBE.

Ryan Zoidis

Saxofonist

Events

27 - 28 Apr, 2024

Lettuce W/ Special Guest John Scofield · San Francisco Jazz

Feb 23, 2024

Lettuce · The Plaza Live

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