Tony Scott: Lost Tapes

Reprinted from http://jazzwax.com

Tony Scott wasn't a big fan of vibrato. Using it while playing his clarinet would only have smoothed out his sound and landed him in the shadows of Artie Shaw and Buddy DeFranco. Instead, he preferred to stand out with a stripped down and somewhat hoarse, high-register tone. To the uninitiated, Scott can sound a little sour and breathless, like someone who hasn't yet fully mastered the complications of the instrument. But once you've become acclimated to Scott's unusual, dry style, you'll actually crave his textured, uneven delivery. The ear has a funny way of falling in love with imperfection.

If you dig Scott as much as I do, you'll be gratified to learn that Tony Scott: Lost Tapes, Germany 1957 and Asia 1962(Jazzhaus), an album of previously unreleased Scott material, is out this week. The album features Scott in a studio setting and performing in Stuttgart, Germany, in 1957, and in concert in Hong Kong and Singapore in 1962. These recordings are notable because we get to hear Scott at the height of his Down Beat critics' poll prowess in the late 1950s and in 1962, just before he abandoned jazz for six years to focus on explorations in New Age and World music.

His recordings in Germany with local sidemen are divided among cool and spirited. Ballads like The Man I Love, Lover Come Back to Me and You Go to My Head are haunting in the studio while the live material is uptempo and gripping, notably hyperactive versions of A Night in Tunisia, There Will Never Be Another You and All the Things You Are. The album's last four tracks were recorded live in Asia with Italian musicians. Three of the songs—Blues for Charlie Parker, Hong Kong Jazzclub Blues and All the Things You Are—sizzle with instrumental daring. On Moonlight in Vermont, the last track recorded in Singapore, we hear a gorgeous, patient version of the standard, which makes for a nifty contrast with the album's first track—the exact same tune recorded five years earlier in Germany. Both are sensual and hip.

Following his 1962 live recordings, Scott went off in other musical directions until 1968. During this period, he recorded Music for Zen Meditation (1964), Djanger Bali: Tony Scott and the Indonesian All Stars (1967), Atmospheric Conditions Permitting (1967) and Music for Yoga Meditation and Other Joys (1968). By the time he returned to jazz, the music was no longer the same. Scott died in 2007.

JazzWax tracks: You'll find Tony Scott: Lost Tapes, Germany 1957, Asia 1962(Jazzhaus) here.

JazzWax clip: Here's The Man I Love from the new Lost Tapesalbum...

Used with permission by Marc Myers

Tony Scott at Bop's Dawn

Reprinted from http://jazzwax.com

Clarinetist Tony Scott didn't make many friends. A good number of jazz musicians who knew him recall an egoist who was abrasively competitive and made less and less musical sense as the years wore on. Personally, I find Scott a mixed bag, in some cases producing lovely swinging music and in other cases using a purposefully dry and dull tone, especially as the '50s progressed.

What isn't as well known about Scott was his early involvement with bebop, when the clarinet was still a swing instrument. In the mid-'40s, Scott appears to have preceded Buddy De Franco out of the bop recording gate, largely because Buddy between 1944 and 1947 was with Tommy Dorsey, who detested the music.

Before serving in the Army in World War II, Scott fearlessly played clarinet in jam sessions at Minton's Playhouse. After his discharge in 1945, Scott picked up where he left off on 52nd Street, becoming further exposed to bebop's creators and developers.

On Scott's very first recording, with Buddy Rich in December 1945, the band recorded Tadd Dameron's bop composition Cool Breeze. In March 1946, Scott led a session for Gotham with "B. Bopstein" (a pseudonym for Dizzy Gillespie) on trumpet and saxophonist Ben Webster.

But the real bop breakthrough for Scott was a recording session in August 1947 led by vocalist Babs Gonzales [pictured]. In addition to Scott, the lineup featured pianist Bobby Tucker, bassist Arthur Phipps and drummer Roy Haynes. The four tracks recorded were Ray's Groove, Phipps Deed, Everything Is Cool and 1280 Special. The last one was likely named for the dial location of New York's WOV—where hip-talking disc-jockey Fred Robbins held court. Such tributes on disc were common attempts to draw air play or encourage an on-air personality to use the record as a theme.

What stands out on all four tracks is Scott's modern bop playing on clarinet and how well he understood the new style. Scott approached the idiom naturally, striking just the right feel and hitting flatted notes with cool confidence.
Scott's attack on the clarinet grew more frantic and flat in the '50s as he tried to keep pace with new modernist elements that were emerging. The shift left his tone more halting and colorless. But in 1947, Scott demonstrated for skeptics that the clarinet could indeed handle all of bop's intricate twists and turns gracefully.

JazzWax tracks: The four tracks featuring Scott's early bop clarinet can be found on Babs Gonzales: 1947-1949 (Classics), which is available at Amazon and at download sites.

JazzWax clip: Here's Tony Scott with Babs Gonzales, Bobby Tucker, Art Phipps and Roy Haynes on 1280 Special. Listen as the Peanut Vendor intro dissolves into a bop line, with Scott's clarinet icing off Gonzales' bop scatting...

Used with permission by Marc Myers
http://www.jazzwax.com/2011/01/tony-scott-at-bops-dawn.html

Both Sides of Tony Scott

Reprinted from http://jazzwax.com
Tony Scott's recordings from the 1950s are an acquired taste. Some people find his clarinet playing uneven, making you feel as though the wheels of the train you're aboard aren't firmly hugging the rails. Others find his tone lacking in warmth. Still others insist his approach is too solemn and not swinging enough.

All of these observations have some basis in truth but overlook the work in progress that was known as Tony Scott and the depth of his intent.
A good introduction to Scott is Both Sides of Tony Scott, which was recorded in January 1956 for RCA. The session featured Scott playing six ballads and two up-tempo tunes backed by two different pianoless trios.

Four of the six ballad pieces feature Mundell Lowe [pictured] on guitar, Teddy Kotick on bass and Shadow Wilson on drums. Backing Scott on the album's remaining two ballads as well as the two peppier numbers are guitarist Dick Garcia, bassist Milt Hinton and drummer Osie Johnson.

The ballads are absolutely gorgeous and showcase Scott in a highly pensive, patient mode. The torch songs recorded with the first trio are Cry Me a River, My Funny Valentine, Stardust and More Than You Know. The fifth and sixth choices (with the second trio) are Everything Happens to Me and You and I. Each ballad is taken pulse-slow, giving you a chance to truly hear the richness of Scott's thinking and his bluesy feel. Cry Me a River, in particular, comes mighty close to being the definitive instrumental version of this song.

The faster tunes—the so-called "other side" of Scott—are Counterpoint Pleasant and East Coast Westside . The first has a rat-race pace and demonstrates Scott's linear writing. Scott and Garcia play off each other in a fugue feud that has an early free jazz feel. East Coast Westside rambles, swinging in and out of concepts that don't always work, with Garcia playing the foil to Scott's reed.

The ballads here make you realize that Scott was most at home on slower songs and that faster tunes only drew critical comparisons to clarinet contemporary Buddy DeFranco, a contest Scott was never going to win.

JazzWax tracks: Unfortunately, Both Sides of Tony Scott hasn't been re-issued on CD in the U.S. (along with hundreds of other RCA gems that are gathering dust in some vault). However, the material above with Dick Garcia appears on a European import called Tony Scott and the Three Dicks here. But the session's best tracks, Cry Me a River, My Funny Valentine, Stardust and More Than You Know, are available only on a Japanese import here.

Worry not, though. If the tracks exist online buried in some downloadable compilation, someone will likely know about it and let readers know in the Comments section.

JazzWax clip: Here's Tony Scott in 1955 on Scott's Fling, another great RCA album that's out of print. The song is Sunday Scene, with Jimmy Nottingham (tp) Billy Byers (tb) Eddie Wasserman (ts) Danny Bank (bar) Milt Hinton (b) and Osie Johnson (d)...

Used with permission by Marc Myers