In a career spanning more than half a century, acclaimed jazz guitarist John Scofield is doing something new by releasing his very first solo guitar recording.

Due for a May 6 release, the self-titled album is Scofield’s second recording with ECM following his 2020 release Swallow Tales.

The solo album draws on Scofield’s wealth of experience and knowledge gained from his prolific music career, making reference to all of the styles and genres he’s acquired along the way. He explores various chordal and rhythmic accompaniments with the help of a loop machine.

“I think that there’s a delicateness that I have acquired from playing at home alone,” Scofield recently said in an interview with The Boston Herald. “I am so used to playing with a slamming band and there’s a certain musicality to that. That went away and was replaced by this more delicate approach of pinpointing the beauty of the strings. When I play solo, I make these little guitar loops on the fly, and it’s almost like I’m playing with another person.”

Listen to the first song, Honest I Do: