Scott Fields

Lore & Background

Fields was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. He began as a self-taught rock musician but was soon influenced by the Association for the Advancement for Creative Musicians (AACM), active in the Hyde Park neighborhood where he grew up. He later studied classical guitar, jazz guitar, music composition, and music theory. As a teenager, he co-founded the avant-garde jazz trio Life Rhythms, which disbanded after two years. After playing sporadically, he was institutionalized for an extended period and quit music almost entirely until 1989.

Reader's Guide

Since 1989, Fields has performed and composed actively, collaborating with musicians such as Marilyn Crispell, Hamid Drake, John Hollenbeck, Joseph Jarman, Myra Melford, Jeff Parker, and Elliott Sharp, as well as numerous musicians in Cologne, where he is now based. His discography includes over forty albums, among them 48 Motives, 96 Gestures, Seven Deserts, and Sand. His modular pieces and his approach to blending composed and written music have defined his output across avant-garde jazz, experimental music, and contemporary classical contexts. Fields' significance lies in his sustained exploration of modular structures and his integration of improvisation with formal composition, as evidenced by works like 48 Motives and 96 Gestures. His collaborations with prominent figures in creative music and his move to Cologne have positioned him within a transatlantic network of experimental musicians. His legacy is marked by a body of work that consistently challenges boundaries between notated and spontaneous music.

Did You Know?

• Fields co-founded the avant-garde jazz trio Life Rhythms as a teenager.
• He was institutionalized for an extended period and quit music almost entirely until 1989.
• He is based in Cologne, Germany, and has collaborated with many musicians there.
• His modular pieces include 48 Motives, 96 Gestures, OZZO, Seven Deserts, and Sand.