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Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular MusicA B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZSCOTT, Tony(b Anthony Sciacca, 17 June 1921, Morristown NJ; d 28 March 2007, Rome) A modern jazz clarinettist whose talent and fearless curiosity led him to what we might now call New Age music, but whose output in that area is probably of much better quality than that sounds. From a musical family, he studied at Juilliard, played in the U.S. Army '42-5; played with Tommy Dorsey, Charlie Ventura, Claude Thornhill, Earl Bostic, etc. He led his own combos from 1949, also arranged for and accompanied singers Billie Holiday, Carmen McRae, Sarah Vaughan, etc; also played piano and saxophones, gigged with Latin bands; music director for Harry Belafonte '55, international tours began '57. With a modern, facile style, not as warm-toned as Buddy DeFranco, like DeFranco he more or less ignored in modern jazz, playing an instrument inexplicably deemed to be out of fashion. He toured '72 with pianist Romano Mussolini (d 3 February 2006 in Rome aged 78). Scott's records as a leader began on Gotham '46 with Vaughan, an all-star septet including B. Bopstein (Dizzy Gillespie); with quartet and big band on Brunswick '53 (backed a Jackie Paris vocal on Coral); on RCA: EP '54, LPs Scott's Fling '55 with a septet including Milt Hinton and Osie Johnson on bass and drums; quartet Both Sides Of Tony Scott; The Touch Of Tony Scott and The Complete Tony Scott with some quartet tracks and an all-star big band featuring Hinton, Johnson, guitarists Barry Galbraith, Freddie Green, Mundell Lowe, all '56; The Modern Art Of Jazz '57 on Seeco; tracks on ABC-Paramount, Dot, Coral '58; Tony Scott Quartet on Signature with Lowe, Jimmy Garrison on bass, Pete La Roca on drums, Golden Moments and I'll Remember on Muse with Bill Evans instead of Lowe, all '59. Sung Heroes '59 issued on Sunnyside '87 with Evans, Scott La Faro, guitarist Juan Sastre on one track, Scott also playing baritone, piano and guitar on various tracks. Touring the world, he spent much of '59-65 studying ethnic music in the Orient. He played a concert of Indian-influnced modern jazz at the Museum of Modern Art NYC '67, and recorded Music For Zen Meditation '64 (he wrote to a friend in the 1980s that this album had been selling 15,000 copies a year), Music For Yoga Meditation '67, Tony Scott '69-70, all on Verve; with Indonesian All Stars on MPS '67; octet on Sonet '74, recorded in Sweden; Prism '77 on Polydor with Jan Akkerman quartet; big band Boomerang, trio Conversation '77-8 on Czech Supraphon; African Bird - Come Back! Mother Africa '81 on Soul Note, also various small groups recorded in England and Milan. Two-CD A Day In New York with Evans issued was on the Spanish Fresh Sound label. Quartet set The Clarinet Album '94 and Like A Child's Whisper: Dialogues With Myself on Philology were stunning surprises, Scott's playing an intimate and shimmering glow, the second album compiling tracks from the sessions for the first and others with Scott accompanying himself on piano and several small-group tracks from '89. |