Tony Scott

[Rabshakeh]

I'm a big fan of clarinetist Tony Scott's work on Mundell Lowe's TV Action Jazz. 

I'm interested to know where next to go. 

Any recommendations?

[mjazzg]

I don't know the Lowe but my favourite Scotts are all from a bit later so maybe don't bear much relevance to your search. I'll be interested to see what folk recommend too.

FWIW here's my three

[Rabshakeh]

Thanks! These look interesting and I can see why they might be different to the Lowe (going by their covers).

[mjazzg]

they sound like their covers, definitely

[Big Beat Steve]

@Rabshakeh, getting back to your other thread about European jazz from 1945-69, how about this one to combine BOTH threads?

https://www.discogs.com/de/Tony-Scott-2-And-Horst-Jankowski-Trio-In-Concert/release/6479437

Don't be misled by the cover - the music is from 1957 when Tony Scott looked as much different from his Asian period as his music was different (though IMO, relatively speaking he often was farther out on his 50s recordings than you would have expected). At any rate, it's an interesting combination that works well enough - and this at a festival in a country where they spell jazz "Dzez" (no kidding!)

(BTW, see how erratic Discogs sometimes is? There is another CD release of this one listedn on Discogs and there the muisc is described as "Smooth Jazz". Ha! The description under the above entry is more to the point.)

[Bluesnik]

49 minutes ago, mjazzg said:

 

I think, though I'm not sure, I've got this. Wasn't it reissued in the Verve Master Edition series?

[Rabshakeh]

40 minutes ago, Big Beat Steve said:

@Rabshakeh, getting back to your other thread about European jazz from 1945-69, how about this one to combine BOTH threads?

https://www.discogs.com/de/Tony-Scott-2-And-Horst-Jankowski-Trio-In-Concert/release/6479437

Don't be misled by the cover - the music is from 1957 when Tony Scott looked as much different from his Asian period as his music was different (though IMO, relatively speaking he often was farther out on his 50s recordings than you would have expected). At any rate, it's an interesting combination that works well enough - and this at a festival in a country where they spell jazz "Dzez" (no kidding!)

(BTW, see how erratic Discogs sometimes is? There is another CD release of this one listedn on Discogs and there the muisc is described as "Smooth Jazz". Ha! The description under the above entry is more to the point.)

Even after reading this, I looked at the cover and thought, 'what the hell'? Definitely not a 1957 look.

[Joe]

IMO, a must-hear if you are a Scott fan.

https://www.discogs.com/Tony-Scott-2-Bill-Evans-A-Day-In-New-York/release/2500212

[mjazzg]

1 hour ago, Bluesnik said:

I think, though I'm not sure, I've got this. Wasn't it reissued in the Verve Master Edition series?

It was

[jazzcorner]

Just recently issued from our radio stations archive

 

 

Here is my (small)  Tony Scott stock under his name (there are a few more as  sideman)

Scott,Tony  Tony Scott in HIFI         1953  Brunswick(jap)       54021 cl

Scott,Tony  Tony Scott Septet(S. 2 M.Bernhard Orch.)  1955  RCA(FS)          45961 cl/tb

                                    

Scott,Tony  The Touch of Tony Scott-Orchestra+Groups         1956          RCA(jap)      1056  cl

      Edited August 2, 2021 by jazzcorner

[jazzcorner]

One more with Tony under his real name Anthony Sciacca

rec. 1955

 

[Rabshakeh]

1 hour ago, Joe said:

IMO, a must-hear if you are a Scott fan.

https://www.discogs.com/Tony-Scott-2-Bill-Evans-A-Day-In-New-York/release/2500212

Is this a compilation? I've been trying to figure out which LPs it is taken from, but discogs isn't much help.

[Ken Dryden]

This info was on the master release page for this music:

Compiles: 
The Modern Art Of Jazz
Modern Jazz Festival (Tony Scott tracks) 
Free Blown Jazz
My Kind Of Jazz

[Rabshakeh]

Thanks!

[sgcim]

If you liked the Mundell Lowe TV Action Jazz album, you probably flipped over the cut "Riff Blues" (Mike Hammer Theme), which features TS in his Ben Webster bag, with that beautiful, breathy, bluesy sound on that wonderful ballad.  This was an album which literally changed the life of my friend TTK, a member here, and I'm sure he'll have some great suggestions on TS records once he finishes his daily martini party. OTOH, there is another member here that also has exquisite taste in music, but because a musician he admires put TS down very strongly, he will try to dissuade you from listening to TS at all. Don't let him get to you...

I would suggest you heed Ken Dryden's sage advice, and look for his recommendations, but also look for two records he made with the mysterious jazz guitarist Dick Garcia:

"A Message From Garcia" where TS goes under his real name A.J.Sciacca, and plays with that mellow, fluid sound he gets from using his unusual embouchure (both lips on the mouthpiece- no upper teeth on the back of the MP), with no grandstanding, frenzied high register playing at all.

"Both Sides of Tony Scott", which has him with the great Garcia on one side of the record, and Mundell Lowe on the other.. Again, little if any frenzied high register stuff.

However if you'd like to hear TS work himself to the frenzy of his life, look for the cut, "Blues For an African Friend", which is featured on some compilation records,, but here he is

doing a shortened version of it:

Another good TS album is Tony Scott in Hi-Fi, featuring Dick Katz and Milt Hinton. One side is live, and the other side is in the studio. He sounds better in the studio.

His two big band albums are good, "The Complete Tony Scott" and "The Touch of Tony Scott". The latter features more original, modern arrangements

[JSngry]

2 hours ago, Rabshakeh said:

Is this a compilation? I've been trying to figure out which LPs it is taken from, but discogs isn't much help.

Scott hired the players, paid for the studio time, and the kept the masters to sell out as he could. I think he got 3 or 4 labels to take different pieces of it. This item compiles all of it in in, iirc, session order.

[jlhoots]

Back to the beginning - that Mundell Lowe thing is real good.

[Rabshakeh]

7 hours ago, jlhoots said:

Back to the beginning - that Mundell Lowe thing is real good.

It is the first time I had heard it. I think I picked it up because of @Teasing the Korean's recommendation, but it took me a while to listen to it because I had an idea it would be just like the Shelley Manne album Peter Gunn, but with more Herbie Mann, which didn't sell it to me. 

8 hours ago, JSngry said:

Scott hired the players, paid for the studio time, and the kept the masters to sell out as he could. I think he got 3 or 4 labels to take different pieces of it. This item compiles all of it in in, iirc, session order.

Thanks.

I am one of the breed of human who fetishes the "original" LP playing experience sequence. I like to listen to what was heard by listeners at the time and in 30/40 minute chunks, maximum. Bonus tracks and luxury double vinyl reissues send me into paroxysms of indignant fury. Box sets leave me cold. I can just about handle a Live At Dreher but in all other cases I prefer to track down or experience the original LPs. 

8 hours ago, sgcim said:

If you liked the Mundell Lowe TV Action Jazz album, you probably flipped over the cut "Riff Blues" (Mike Hammer Theme), which features TS in his Ben Webster bag, with that beautiful, breathy, bluesy sound on that wonderful ballad.  This was an album which literally changed the life of my friend TTK, a member here, and I'm sure he'll have some great suggestions on TS records once he finishes his daily martini party. OTOH, there is another member here that also has exquisite taste in music, but because a musician he admires put TS down very strongly, he will try to dissuade you from listening to TS at all. Don't let him get to you...

I would suggest you heed Ken Dryden's sage advice, and look for his recommendations, but also look for two records he made with the mysterious jazz guitarist Dick Garcia:

"A Message From Garcia" where TS goes under his real name A.J.Sciacca, and plays with that mellow, fluid sound he gets from using his unusual embouchure (both lips on the mouthpiece- no upper teeth on the back of the MP), with no grandstanding, frenzied high register playing at all.

"Both Sides of Tony Scott", which has him with the great Garcia on one side of the record, and Mundell Lowe on the other.. Again, little if any frenzied high register stuff.

However if you'd like to hear TS work himself to the frenzy of his life, look for the cut, "Blues For an African Friend", which is featured on some compilation records,, but here he is

doing a shortened version of it:

Another good TS album is Tony Scott in Hi-Fi, featuring Dick Katz and Milt Hinton. One side is live, and the other side is in the studio. He sounds better in the studio.

His two big band albums are good, "The Complete Tony Scott" and "The Touch of Tony Scott". The latter features more original, modern arrangements

Thanks for these!

[Teasing the Korean]

19 hours ago, Rabshakeh said:

I'm a big fan of clarinetist Tony Scott's work on Mundell Lowe's TV Action Jazz. 

This album includes THEE DEFINITIVE version of "Riff Blues" from Mike Hammer, featuring Tony Scott.

 

[Rabshakeh]

7 minutes ago, Teasing the Korean said:

This album includes THEE DEFINITIVE version of "Riff Blues" from Mike Hammer, featuring Tony Scott.

 

Yep. That's the one.

I am slightly intimidated by Tony Scott's hairline. 

[Teasing the Korean]

Just now, Rabshakeh said:

Yep. That's the one. 

My Dad had this LP.  It was arguably the first jazz album, or the first "jazz" album, I ever heard.

In the 1980s, I co-hosted a radio show, and I used "Riff Blues" as the background music for a recurring segment called "Helpful Hi-Fi Hints,"

[Big Beat Steve]

1 hour ago, Teasing the Korean said:

This album includes THEE DEFINITIVE version of "Riff Blues" from Mike Hammer, featuring Tony Scott.

 

A side note: Having read this in several posts from you by now, I suppose you realize that "THEE" means "YOU" and not "THE"?

Just sayin'

(Yes I found the band name "Thee Milkshakes" inane from the very first time I read it )

Edited August 3, 2021 by Big Beat Steve

[JSngry]

6 hours ago, Rabshakeh said:

I am one of the breed of human who fetishes the "original" LP playing experience sequence. I like to listen to what was heard by listeners at the time and in 30/40 minute chunks, maximum. Bonus tracks and luxury double vinyl reissues send me into paroxysms of indignant fury. Box sets leave me cold. I can just about handle a Live At Dreher but in all other cases I prefer to track down or experience the original LPs.

For the Day In New York Session....good luck on that. Like I said, Scott paid for the sessions and parceled them out as he could. There was, as far as I can tell, no real "rhyme or reason" to them, and the end-result LPs weren't really hi-profile in any sense. But if you want the actual LPs, or want to reassemble them, here's what they are:

https://www.discogs.com/Tony-Scott-2-Jimmy-Knepper-Free-Blown-Jazz/release/3768098

https://www.discogs.com/Tony-Scott-The-Modern-Art-Of-Jazz/release/5409988

https://www.discogs.com/Tony-Scott-My-Kind-Of-Jazz/release/3983128

This last one is "funny" because it was released on the Perfect label, which was a subsidiary of Epic, which was itself a subsidiary of Columbia. Pretty low on the ladder, I found a copy in the used bins a few years ago, but lord only knows from where it was from...these labels (the other two being Seeco & Carlton)...not exactly major labels then, so...not sure how many "original listeners" there would have been to begin with.

But the session were splendid, the music is certainly most worthy.

[JSngry]

My preference is for later Scott, actually. The main likes for me are:

This is one that I bought and enjoyed, but would not necessarily recommend. It's Scott playing in a Trad band, being fully himself and....maybe I would recommend it!

Like I said, later Scott is better Scott for me. Once he got out into the world (ie - out of New York),..the space opened him up, imo.

 

 

[Big Beat Steve]

57 minutes ago, JSngry said:

For the Day In New York Session....good luck on that. Like I said, Scott paid for the sessions and parceled them out as he could. There was, as far as I can tell, no real "rhyme or reason" to them, and the end-result LPs weren't really hi-profile in any sense. But if you want the actual LPs, or want to reassemble them, here's what they are:

https://www.discogs.com/Tony-Scott-2-Jimmy-Knepper-Free-Blown-Jazz/release/3768098

https://www.discogs.com/Tony-Scott-The-Modern-Art-Of-Jazz/release/5409988

https://www.discogs.com/Tony-Scott-My-Kind-Of-Jazz/release/3983128

This last one is "funny" because it was released on the Perfect label, which was a subsidiary of Epic, which was itself a subsidiary of Columbia. Pretty low on the ladder, I found a copy in the used bins a few years ago, but lord only knows from where it was from...these labels (the other two being Seeco & Carlton)...not exactly major labels then, so...not sure how many "original listeners" there would have been to begin with.

But the session were splendid, the music is certainly most worthy.

@Rabshakeh: These sessions should be easy enough to track down after all. Here is a 2CD set that combines the three LPs in their original track order (as far as I can check). So you can listen to them piecemeal LP-wise if you prefer.

https://www.freshsoundrecords.com/tony-scott-bill-evans-albums/2454-a-day-in-new-york-2-cds.html?search_query=Tony+Scott&results=76

And if you want vinyl after all, the "Modern Art of Jazz" LP on Seeco was reissued on vinyl by Fresh Sound back in the day when they did vinyl (in decent enough sound quality - am just listening to it now). So secondhand copies certainly are around.