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Jazz/world music clarinetist/saxophonist TONY SCOTT died on March 28, and as so often happens, that prompted me to see what of his I had to listen to. It turned out that I had very little of his early recorded output, the oldest being Sung Heroes (Sunnyside), a 1959 session with the BILL EVANS TRIO that was his last before he left the U.S., after which his style took in a lot more influences. Partly this was because the last time I’d checked, back in the ‘90s, so little of that material had been reissued, but it turned out that finally that was less of a problem lately, so I bought the above two recent compilations of his ‘50s material to do some belated catching up.
The title of the first item is deceptive; it should say complete septet sessions. I can’t tell from the liner notes where most of this stuff first appeared, but it compiles four sessions; at least some of it came out on an RCA release, Scott’s Fling. Half the band is unknown to me. Trombonist KAI WINDING, bassist MILT HINTON, and drummer OSIE JOHNSON are familiar, of course, but JIMMY NOTTINGHAM is on trumpet, EDDIE WASSERMAN on tenor sax, DANNY BANK on baritone sax, and on three-quarters of the tracks BILLY BYERS takes over from Winding on T-bone. This is kind of an unsatisfying album; on almost everything Scott is the only improvising soloist. The arrangements (mostly by DICK HYMAN or Scott) are “nice” and include some scored group choruses to keep things from getting too monotonous, but the only track that held my attention was “Fingerpoppin’,” a Scott original that’s the only boppish cut and the only one, aside from other tracks’ drum breaks and a few bits that sound scored, where players besides Scott solo. The rest of the material seems like slightly hip mood music nowadays.
The disc on Lonehill (a kinda sketchy European reissue label) is 1955-58 stuff, no overlap with the above. The title is hilariously inappropriate, of course, but I like these 1955-56 sessions much more than the septet stuff. They’re more democratic, for one thing; everybody solos. The overall aesthetic is still cool, but swing and bop are both in the mix at times. The first ten tracks are with pianist DICK KATZ; according to the liner notes this quartet had a long run at Minton’s (most of 1953), though this is a ‘55 session. It was released as East Coast Jazz #5 under Hinton’s name (and with Scott credited as A.J. Sciacca, using his Sicilian family’s name to get around a contract with another label), and the bassist is very much in the spotlight. Scott sometimes solos on bass clarinet. I really enjoyed this session (which was also reissued, with one alternate take, by Rhino in 2001, though that seems to be out of print already) thanks it its vitality and give-and-take among the players.
Then come four tracks with no piano, guitarist DICK GARCIA providing the chords instead. This was released as half of Both Sides of Tony Scott (RCA). The uptempo “Counterpoint Pleasant” may have a terrible title, but it’s spectacular. It and the slightly less frenetic “East Coast West Side” were both improvised on the spot, though they’re completely tonal. In a way this stuff is “cool” because Scott’s tone is so pretty and light; take him out and substitute Buddy DeFranco while keeping all the other parts intact and it would be bebop. These tracks are bracketed by a very downtempo “Everything Happens to Me” and “You and I” by H. KIRCHSTEIN, whoever that is; it starts very slow and quiet and then kicks into midtempo. This was the track where I realized that Johnson was putting his bombs on snare where a bop drummer would use bass drum kicks.
The last three tracks are with Hyman on piano, from an odd 1958 session for a LEONARD FEATHER jazz version of the musical Oh, Captain!, and have vocals. “You’re So Right for Me” has a cheesily sung head by JACKIE PARIS, but Scott is very assertive in his solos on clarinet and tenor sax, which I don’t remember hearing him play before. Johnson sings the fairly dumb lyrics of “Hey Madame!”, but aside from that it’s musically fine, mostly for a surprising Scott solo on baritone sax. Finally, “Give It All You’ve Got” starts with a bluesy duet (bari and piano) and then has a terrible girly-voiced vocal (sometimes sounding like a very bad Billie Holiday imitation) by someone named in the notes only as Marilyn, but once that’s done the tempo doubles and Scott (bari, later clarinet) and Hyman solo well.
Despite the weirdness of the last three tracks, this disc is definitely worth picking up for a good idea of what Scott was know for before he moved to Italy. Afterward he would make the series of proto-New Age, Asian-influenced albums for Verve (Music for Zen Meditation, 1964; Music for Yoga Meditation and Other Joys, 1968, a duo album with COLLIN WALCOTT – later of the PAUL WINTER CONSORT and, most famously, OREGON – on sitar; Meditation, with guitarist JAN AKKERMAN and others, 1977) that he’s most famous for. In the ‘80s his most notable effort was African Bird Come Back! Mother Africa (Soul Note), finding him looking to a different continent (and also to CHARLIE “BIRD” PARKER) for inspiration. In the ‘90s he had a bit of an “Indian summer” on the Italian Philology label, most notably on Homage to BILLIE HOLIDAY: Body and Soul (Philology, 1995), a warm and mellow duet album with pianist FRANCO D’ANDREA.
Even though my Tony Scott collection is up to nine CDs now, I still feel like I barely know his mercurial and elusive output, but I’ll enjoy further exploring his catalog as more reappears or comes my way.
