Home » Jazz Musicians » Tony Scott
Tony Scott
Tony Scott, a distinguished jazz clarinetist who in the 1950s helped steer his instrument out of the swing era and into the sax-infested waters of bebop. With Buddy DeFranco, Mr. Scott was considered one of the leading bebop clarinetists. (The two men were often described as the only major clarinetists to take on bebop, a style thought to be incompatible with the instrument’s soft, sweet sound.) Mr. Scott, who also played the saxophone, performed and recorded with some of the titans of mid-20th- century jazz, among them Duke Ellington, Ben Webster, Sarah Vaughan and Billie Holiday.
If Mr. Scott was not widely known to the American public, it was partly because his eclectic style made him unclassifiable: over the years, he ranged through bebop and what today would be called New Age and world music. It was also because he was peripatetic: for decades he roamed the globe, clarinet in hand. He had lived mostly abroad since the late ’50s.
Mr. Scott was also well regarded as a composer and arranger. His composition “Blues for Charlie Parker,” which he created extemporaneously at a concert in Yugoslavia in 1957, became his most- requested number. He also arranged hits like “The Banana Boat Song (Day-O)” for Harry Belafonte.
In a profile of Mr. Scott in The New York Times in 1967, John S. Wilson described him “playing his clarinet in his own uncompromisingly distinctive manner, a manner which encompasses both a feathery, light-as-air impressionism and an intense, emotional ferocity that makes the old-time ‘hot’ men sound as though they were blowing icicles.”
By the end of the 1940s, the swing style popularized by Benny Goodman was on the wane, and the clarinet was falling out of favor as a jazz instrument. Mr. Scott persevered, touring Sweden, South Africa, Senegal, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan and elsewhere. His 1964 album “Music for Zen Meditation” (Verve), a collaboration with traditional Japanese musicians, is considered an early example of New Age music.
Among his other albums are “The Touch of Tony Scott” (RCA Victor, 1956); “The Modern Art of Jazz” (Seeco, 1957); “Tony Scott in Afrika” (A World of Music, 1997); and “A Jazz Life” (Kind of Blue), scheduled for release next month.
Anthony Joseph Sciacca " his family name is pronounced “Shaka” " was born on June 17, 1921, in Morristown, N.J., to parents who had come from Sicily. His father was a barber and amateur guitarist; his mother played the violin. He began playing the clarinet at 12 and in 1942 earned a diploma from the Juilliard School.
Read moreTags
Tony Scott: Tony Scott
by David Rickert
Up until now the only Tony Scott currently available was two albums intended as background music for meditation, neither pointing to the jazz leanings of a artist who cut his teeth with Dizzy Gillespie and Benny Carter, to name just two. This reissue of a 1967 Verve album amply documents Scott’s interest in Middle Eastern music, featuring a handful of tracks with exotic instrumentation such as the oud and sitar, and Scott approaching the timbre of the soprano saxophone in ...
read moreTony Scott: At Last
by Douglas Payne
These interesting, perhaps historic August 1959 performances first appeared in the 1980s as two Muse LPs, Golden Moments and I'll Remember. Combined here on two CDs in an attractive set from 32 Jazz, it makes for a formidable presentation of clarinetist Tony Scott, then a New York fixture and now a European émigré, in an exceptional quartet with pianist Bill Evans, bassist Jimmy Garrison and drummer Pete (LaRoca) Simms. The sound quality is probably as good as it can be, ...
read moreJazz Musician of the Day: Tony Scott
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Tony Scott's birthday today!
Tony Scott, a distinguished jazz clarinetist who in the 1950s helped steer his instrument out of the swing era and into the sax-infested waters of bebop. With Buddy DeFranco, Mr. Scott was considered one of the leading bebop clarinetists. (The two men were often described as the only major clarinetists to take on bebop, a style thought to be incompatible with the instrument’s soft, sweet sound.) Mr. Scott, who also played ...
read more
Jazz Musician of the Day: Tony Scott
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Tony Scott's birthday today!
Tony Scott, a distinguished jazz clarinetist who in the 1950s helped steer his instrument out of the swing era and into the sax-infested waters of bebop. With Buddy DeFranco, Mr. Scott was considered one of the leading bebop clarinetists. (The two men were often described as the only major clarinetists to take on bebop, a style thought to be incompatible with the instrument’s soft, sweet sound.) Mr. Scott, who also played ...
read more
Tony Scott's Centennial
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
June 17 was the 100th anniversary of Tony Scott's birth. The clarinetist, baritone saxophonist and arranger was born in New Jersey and attended Manhattan's Juilliard School of Music from 1940 to 1942. He began recording as a sideman in 1945 before leading his first band backing Sarah Vaughan in '46. He also played clubs with Charlie Parker in the late 1940s and backed Billie Holiday, Carmen McRae, Jackie Paris and other vocalists throughout the '50s. He also recorded extensively as ...
read more
Jazz Musician of the Day: Tony Scott
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Tony Scott's birthday today!
Tony Scott, a distinguished jazz clarinetist who in the 1950s helped steer his instrument out of the swing era and into the sax-infested waters of bebop. With Buddy DeFranco, Mr. Scott was considered one of the leading bebop clarinetists. (The two men were often described as the only major clarinetists to take on bebop, a style thought to be incompatible with the instrument’s soft, sweet sound.) Mr. Scott, who also played ...
read more
Jazz Musician of the Day: Tony Scott
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Tony Scott's birthday today!
Tony Scott, a distinguished jazz clarinetist who in the 1950s helped steer his instrument out of the swing era and into the sax-infested waters of bebop. With Buddy DeFranco, Mr. Scott was considered one of the leading bebop clarinetists. (The two men were often described as the only major clarinetists to take on bebop, a style thought to be incompatible with the instrument’s soft, sweet sound.) Mr. Scott, who also played ...
read more
Jazz Musician of the Day: Tony Scott
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Tony Scott's birthday today!
Tony Scott, a distinguished jazz clarinetist who in the 1950s helped steer his instrument out of the swing era and into the sax-infested waters of bebop. With Buddy DeFranco, Mr. Scott was considered one of the leading bebop clarinetists. (The two men were often described as the only major clarinetists to take on bebop, a style thought to be incompatible with the instrument’s soft, sweet sound.) Mr. Scott, who also played ...
read more
Jazz Musician of the Day: Tony Scott
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Tony Scott's birthday today!
Tony Scott, a distinguished jazz clarinetist who in the 1950s helped steer his instrument out of the swing era and into the sax-infested waters of bebop. With Buddy DeFranco, Mr. Scott was considered one of the leading bebop clarinetists. (The two men were often described as the only major clarinetists to take on bebop, a style thought to be incompatible with the instrument’s soft, sweet sound.) Mr. Scott, who also played ...
read more
Jazz Musician of the Day: Tony Scott
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Tony Scott's birthday today!
Tony Scott, a distinguished jazz clarinetist who in the 1950s helped steer his instrument out of the swing era and into the sax-infested waters of bebop. With Buddy DeFranco, Mr. Scott was considered one of the leading bebop clarinetists. (The two men were often described as the only major clarinetists to take on bebop, a style thought to be incompatible with the instrument’s soft, sweet sound.) Mr. Scott, who also played ...
read more
Jazz Musician of the Day: Tony Scott
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Tony Scott's birthday today!
Tony Scott, a distinguished jazz clarinetist who in the 1950s helped steer his instrument out of the swing era and into the sax-infested waters of bebop. With Buddy DeFranco, Mr. Scott was considered one of the leading bebop clarinetists. (The two men were often described as the only major clarinetists to take on bebop, a style thought to be incompatible with the instrument’s soft, sweet sound.) Mr. Scott... Read more.
Place ...
read more
Jazz Musician of the Day: Tony Scott
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Tony Scott's birthday today! Tony Scott, a distinguished jazz clarinetist who in the 1950s helped steer his instrument out of the swing era and into the sax-infested waters of bebop. With Buddy DeFranco, Mr. Scott was considered one of the leading bebop clarinetists. (The two men were often described as the only major clarinetists to take on bebop, a style thought to be incompatible with the instrument’s soft, sweet sound.) Mr. Scott... Read more. Place ...
read more
Photos
Music
Videos
Similar
Horace Silver
piano
Shirley Horn
piano
Jon Hassell
trumpet
Willie Bobo
percussion
Ravi Shankar
sitar
Paul Horn
flute
Tony Scott
Instrument: Clarinet
Born: June 17, 1921
Died: March 28, 2007
