Tony Scott

[Big Beat Steve]

7 hours ago, Larry Kart said:

TTK: Did ever read Bill Crow's devastating takedown of Tony Scott in the Jazz Review?

Here's Crow's  review:

TONY SCOTT and the ALL STARS: .52nd Street Scene. Coral 57239.

....

Thanks for that review. I have the record in question and my initial impression of it was that it is somewhat atypical compared to his other LPs of that period: a reworking of some well-known warhorses, well-done but more straightforward (probably due to the presence of the other luminaries) compared to some of his other sessions where he is more to the fore on his own throughout. Next time I revisit it I guess I will put this review within reach. Let's see where this leads me. 😉

[Quasimado]

9 hours ago, Quasimado said:

It would be interesting to know Evans' reply ...

For anyone interested, the response by Evans to Crow's review can be found at the following site: https://www.jazzstudiesonline.org/content/jazz-review

THE JAZZ REVIEW - VOLUME 2, Number 7, August, 1959 (Letters/ page 3)

Evans essentially responds to what he sees as a biased attack on a personal friend, rather than addressing any issues raised by Crow.

Important Site!

[Teasing the Korean]

14 hours ago, Larry Kart said:

TTK: Did ever read Bill Crow's devastating takedown of Tony Scott in the Jazz Review?

Here's Crow's  review:

Thanks for this.  I have no idea who Bill Crow is, but I did not care for his writing style.

Here is where I am coming from with Tony Scott:

I find the clarinet to be overall an unpleasant instrument that usually produces unpleasant tones.  In the instrument's favor, it does have a very wide range, and it can sound very nice in the lower register.  (I should add here that I do indeed love the sound of the bass clarinet.)

The clarinet in its upper register for me is shrill and annoying, and I have found that most clarinet players - even celebrated ones - often are screeching and piercing to my ears.   And I absolutely hate the sound of the Glenn Miller sax section with the clarinet on top.

What I like about Tony Scott - or I should clarify what little I've heard of him - is that he tends to coax a more warm and "wooden" sound out of the instrument than a cold "metal" sound that I usually associate with it.  I can usually pick him out as a sideman on records for that reason, as I did with the Billie Holiday record I mentioned.  I wonder if he modified his instrument at all with an atypical reed.

The only Tony Scott album I have is an eastern-tinged thing he did for Verve in the 1960s, and I like the album more for its overall vibe than for anyone's playing.

I will reiterate how much I love Tony Scott's playing on "Riff Blues" from TV Action Jazz, which I posted above.  The clarinet almost sounds like an alto flute when the tune starts.  Anyway, I find the recording to be a great example of an arrangement and a soloist fully complementing each other, where the whole, as they say, is greater than the sum of its parts.  No other version of "Riff Blues" comes close to that recording.  And as a connoisseur of crime/private eye jazz, I've heard most of them.

Edited November 13, 2022 by Teasing the Korean

[Larry Kart]

Crow is a fine bassist, best known for his work with Gerry Mulligan.

Talk about shrill -- that's Scott.

[Teasing the Korean]

28 minutes ago, Larry Kart said:

Talk about shrill -- that's Scott.

I hear nothing at all shrill in that version of "Riff Blues."  Did you listen to it?

[Larry Kart]

Yes, I did listen to it. But Scott gets very shrill elsewhere quite often. 

[Teasing the Korean]

28 minutes ago, Larry Kart said:

Yes, I did listen to it. But Scott gets very shrill elsewhere quite often. 

I don't doubt you, and you've probably heard much more Tony Scott than I.  It's just that in the recordings I've heard, I pick up on a rounder, warmer, and more wooden sound than I typically get from clarinet players.  Maybe I've just heard the right recordings.

[Teasing the Korean]

Tony Scott, incidentally, is not on the second volume of Mundell Lowe's TV Action Jazz!, but it is a fantastic album, and in some ways, more interesting than the first, especially given the obscurity of some of the themes.  Both albums are very short; it is a shame that there has never been a legit twofer reissue.

[medjuck]

19 hours ago, Larry Kart said:

TTK: Did ever read Bill Crow's devastating takedown of Tony Scott in the Jazz Review?

Here's Crow's  review:

 

 

 

TONY SCOTT and the ALL STARS: .52nd Street Scene. Coral 57239.

On Dines lor "The Street," and Lore Is JIKI hound lite Corner; Joe Thomas, trum- pet: ,1. < . 11 igginbotham , and W ither De Pari>. trombone-; Tony Scott and Pee Wee Kti.— ell. clarinets; Sonny W hite, piano, Den/.il Best, drums; Osear Petiiiord, bass; AICasey,guitar.OnBody and Soul: Cole- man Hawkins, tenor; Tony Scott, clarinet; Tommy Flanagan, piano; Gene Ram ey, ba.-s; Walter Bolden, drums. On Ornithol- ogy; same as Body and Sou! plus Jimmy Knepper, trombone. In Lester Leaps In, t.orer Man, Woody 'A" You, 'Round Mid- night, and Mop Mop: Tony Scott, clarinet and baritone ^as; Al Cohn. tenor: Red Rodney, trumpet; Jimmy Knepper, trom- bone; George W allingtou, piano; Oscar Pelliford, ha«s; Roy Haynes. drums; Mun- dell I,owe. guitar.

 

A legend has somehow grown up around Tony Scott, casting him in the role of "the real jazzman" whose credentials are his eagerness to sit in with everyone and to organize jam sessions. Now it is true that a lot of pleasure, inspiration, and education is available for jazzmen at in- formal sessions. This sort of playing is a source of true recreation, offer- ing a musician more freedom than he may be allowed where he earns his money, or a chance to play when he is out of work, or close artistic contact with other musicians without the responsibility to entertain cus- tomers. These objectives are inter- fered with and often made impossible to attain by the attitude with which Tonv approaches a session. Though he professes a great respect for the work of other musicians, he seldom waits to be asked before leaping onto a bandstand with them, horn in hand —and he eyidences little awareness of the tastes or sensibilities of the musicians playing vyith him. When be is around it is always a show, and it is always Tony's show, unless a bigger ham upstages him.

 

Tony wants to be a star. He uses every situation as a stepping stone in his energetic scramble not for artistry, but for fame. He is so intent on his goal that he doesn't even realize how badly he uses his associates. His manner has become so ingrained that he continues to put on a break-it-up show even when musicians are his only audience. He plays in a tortured, rigid, sensationalistic manner thai successfully attracts attention but has little to do with playing music.

 

Since he usually hires good men, I assume that Tony is able to recognize high quality work, but he does not appear to aim for this quality in his own playing. He concentrates on the end-result image of himself as a musical hero and applies himself to the evocation of that image in more dramatic than musical terms. His en- tire bag of effects are used with no concern for their musical value, but only as large electric signs flashing •"ME! ME! ME!" His affectations of humility are loaded with egotism. He continually professes his respect for the work of Ben Webster. Charlie Parker. Coleman Hawkins, etc.. and showers them with maudlin praise, but his playing indicates that he has learned very little from them.

 

The foregoing notwithstanding. Tony is a definite presence on the jam session scene, and probably be- longs on this album as much as any- one else, since he is the inveterate sitter-in. His presence is representa- tive, if not particularly valid musically. His tone and phrasing here indicate a stifflv held body, shallow breathing, a generally un-giving attitude, and a lack of belief in what he is playing. He tries to make up for all this with dramatics that are about as believ- able as Liberace’s smile.

 

He plays with less affectation on the baritone sax than he does on clarinet, though he is never com-pletely candid. His baritone sound is very clarinet-like. It occasionally slips into the true resonance of the instrument, but Tony evidently pre- fers the airier quality. His clarinet sound is either a fidgety, watery sub- tone or a thin, shrieky full tone, with rare lapses into a more normal tim- bre. Instead of following up the in- teresting fragments of ideas thai pop up in his playing, he falls back con- stantly on his three favorite devices: five-note descending chromatic runs, ear-piercing squeals and glissandos. and hysteric noncommittal twittering around the changes with an air that puts one in mind of Billie Burke in a high wind.

 

Tonv is juxtaposed in an illumi- nating way with Pee \\ cc Russell on Love Is Just Around The Corner.

(They split the opening chorus, alter- nate choruses, exchange fours, and take the tune out together.) Pee Wee's style is. for entirely different reasons. \erv similar to Tonv s. He plays tentatively, uses both subtone and full air . bends notes, and shrieks, but the difference could not be greater. His faltering and mut- tering is an expression of the ago- nizing self-conscousness that causes him to qualify every statement with effacement and apologv. but beneath this is a warm gentle man who w\ith all his stammering, manages to ex- pose his most tender feelings. The indefinit-'iiess in Tonv's playing is of another genre, resulting from, an evasion of rather than an attempt at direct expression. I hear no gentle- ness in him, only hardness at varying levels of volume.

 

Blues For "The Street" is charac- teristic of jam sessions, each man playing several choruses with a rhythm section. A l Casey sets a very easygoing mood in his opening cho- ruses, and Joe Thomas, Sonny White, and J. C. Higginbotham follow in a similar vein, J. C. playing with more enthusiasm than inspiration. Oscar Pettiford's solo is ripe andfluentand his intonation and blend with the accompanying guitar i s exquisite. Tony begins his chorus sotto voce, playing perfectly valid blues melody in what amounts to a loud stage whisper. . . . "Look, look! I'm being subtle!" Wilbur DeParis' straight- forward simplicity seems particularly meaty after all this, and Pee Wee's customary intensity sounds relaxed by comparison. The remaining tracks are more re- stricting, since the amount of indi- vidual playing time has been curtailed in order to give everyone a chance to be heard. Body and Soul is divided among Coleman, Tony, and Tommy Flanagan. Though Tony fools around less here than he does on up tempos, the time would have been much better devoted to further development by Coleman. Hawk makes a whole lot out of his last half chorus, blowing away all the cobwebs with which Scott has decorated the first half.

 

Mop Mop allows each soloist one chorus of / Got Rhythm at a fast tempo, and hardly anyone gets going before his chorus is over. Red Rodney plays with just Oscar accompanying (except on the bridge), and his tone takes on an unusual richness because of Oscar's resonant support. Knepper and Cohn both needed another chorus. Scott plays like a stunt rider on a tricycle. Roy Haynes' excellent half chorus is upset by Pettiford, who puts a lead-in figure on the bridge in the wrong place. Everyone goes along with Oscar, so the ending is strong even though displaced a beat. Roy makes the adjustment nicely.

 

Al Cohn hits his stride on Lester Leaps In. He plays a fat, rolling in- troduction, decorates the lead chorus tastefully, and composes a well-con- structed chorus of his own. Lowe's guitar, Scott's baritone, and Walling- ton's piano solos are satisfactory, and Knepper, Rodney, and Haynes create interesting choruses. Oscar begins his solo with a delayed permutation of the original melody, loses Roy, loses himself, and leads the band back into the last chorus a bar early, but his conception is so interesting and his recovery so absolute that it's a good chorus even with the goof.

 

With all his preciosity, Tony comes closest to playing meaningful music on Lover Man. The notes he chooses have something to do with the tune, and he restricts himself to a mini- mum of archness. Mundell plays a prettily chorded bridge, and Jimmy Knepper's last eight of the first chorus is lovely. George W allington's bridge sustains the mood effectively, but seems terribly sere and brittle.

 

Woody W You allows each soloist eight bars, and there is hardly enough time for anyone to say anything, let alone relate it to what has gone be- fore. Still, it's a pleasant, craftsman- like track. Midnight has a prettily played intro and coda by Red, the melody played rubato with great depth of feeling by Oscar, and a melodramatic clarinet solo played by Theda Bara. The sad thing is that if he would drop the phony passion he'd discover that he is actually play- ing some beautiful notes, and might feel some real passion about that.

Flanagan plays two handsome cho- ruses on Ornithology, illustrating his indebtedness to Hank Jones. Coleman barely gets warmed up to this tune before his time is up. Knepper is agile and imaginative, but sacrifices a lot of tone quality for speed. (What- ever became of the fat trombone sound? Jack T eagarden, Jack Jenney, Murray McEacher'n, and several others played with agility and still got a big tone.) Tony builds an agitated chorus out of his chromatic descending runs and little else, giv- ing an impression of great mobility restrained by tremendous rigidity.

Wow Tony Scott and Pee Wee Russell! I gotta get that. 

[Larry Kart]

I liked Scott some back in the day -- a live 10 inch album on Decca from maybe 1954 in particular, with Dick Katz, Milt Hinton and Philly Joe (IIRC  it was recorded at a military base, maybe Fort Monmouth, N.J.) ) but after I while I found that when Scott got excited he pretty much sounded hysterical -- not hysterical-funny, just very forced/worked up.

[JSngry]

I think the nomad years were good for him. I know I like his playing more. 

[Gheorghe]

On 11/13/2022 at 1:41 AM, Larry Kart said:

TTK: Did ever read Bill Crow's devastating takedown of Tony Scott in the Jazz Review?

Here's Crow's  review:

 

 

 

TONY SCOTT and the ALL STARS: .52nd Street Scene. Coral 57239.

On Dines lor "The Street," and Lore Is JIKI hound lite Corner; Joe Thomas, trum- pet: ,1. < . 11 igginbotham , and W ither De Pari>. trombone-; Tony Scott and Pee Wee Kti.— ell. clarinets; Sonny W hite, piano, Den/.il Best, drums; Osear Petiiiord, bass; AICasey,guitar.OnBody and Soul: Cole- man Hawkins, tenor; Tony Scott, clarinet; Tommy Flanagan, piano; Gene Ram ey, ba.-s; Walter Bolden, drums. On Ornithol- ogy; same as Body and Sou! plus Jimmy Knepper, trombone. In Lester Leaps In, t.orer Man, Woody 'A" You, 'Round Mid- night, and Mop Mop: Tony Scott, clarinet and baritone ^as; Al Cohn. tenor: Red Rodney, trumpet; Jimmy Knepper, trom- bone; George W allingtou, piano; Oscar Pelliford, ha«s; Roy Haynes. drums; Mun- dell I,owe. guitar.

 

A legend has somehow grown up around Tony Scott, casting him in the role of "the real jazzman" whose credentials are his eagerness to sit in with everyone and to organize jam sessions. Now it is true that a lot of pleasure, inspiration, and education is available for jazzmen at in- formal sessions. This sort of playing is a source of true recreation, offer- ing a musician more freedom than he may be allowed where he earns his money, or a chance to play when he is out of work, or close artistic contact with other musicians without the responsibility to entertain cus- tomers. These objectives are inter- fered with and often made impossible to attain by the attitude with which Tonv approaches a session. Though he professes a great respect for the work of other musicians, he seldom waits to be asked before leaping onto a bandstand with them, horn in hand —and he eyidences little awareness of the tastes or sensibilities of the musicians playing vyith him. When be is around it is always a show, and it is always Tony's show, unless a bigger ham upstages him.

 

Tony wants to be a star. He uses every situation as a stepping stone in his energetic scramble not for artistry, but for fame. He is so intent on his goal that he doesn't even realize how badly he uses his associates. His manner has become so ingrained that he continues to put on a break-it-up show even when musicians are his only audience. He plays in a tortured, rigid, sensationalistic manner thai successfully attracts attention but has little to do with playing music.

 

Since he usually hires good men, I assume that Tony is able to recognize high quality work, but he does not appear to aim for this quality in his own playing. He concentrates on the end-result image of himself as a musical hero and applies himself to the evocation of that image in more dramatic than musical terms. His en- tire bag of effects are used with no concern for their musical value, but only as large electric signs flashing •"ME! ME! ME!" His affectations of humility are loaded with egotism. He continually professes his respect for the work of Ben Webster. Charlie Parker. Coleman Hawkins, etc.. and showers them with maudlin praise, but his playing indicates that he has learned very little from them.

 

The foregoing notwithstanding. Tony is a definite presence on the jam session scene, and probably be- longs on this album as much as any- one else, since he is the inveterate sitter-in. His presence is representa- tive, if not particularly valid musically. His tone and phrasing here indicate a stifflv held body, shallow breathing, a generally un-giving attitude, and a lack of belief in what he is playing. He tries to make up for all this with dramatics that are about as believ- able as Liberace’s smile.

 

He plays with less affectation on the baritone sax than he does on clarinet, though he is never com-pletely candid. His baritone sound is very clarinet-like. It occasionally slips into the true resonance of the instrument, but Tony evidently pre- fers the airier quality. His clarinet sound is either a fidgety, watery sub- tone or a thin, shrieky full tone, with rare lapses into a more normal tim- bre. Instead of following up the in- teresting fragments of ideas thai pop up in his playing, he falls back con- stantly on his three favorite devices: five-note descending chromatic runs, ear-piercing squeals and glissandos. and hysteric noncommittal twittering around the changes with an air that puts one in mind of Billie Burke in a high wind.

 

Tonv is juxtaposed in an illumi- nating way with Pee \\ cc Russell on Love Is Just Around The Corner.

(They split the opening chorus, alter- nate choruses, exchange fours, and take the tune out together.) Pee Wee's style is. for entirely different reasons. \erv similar to Tonv s. He plays tentatively, uses both subtone and full air . bends notes, and shrieks, but the difference could not be greater. His faltering and mut- tering is an expression of the ago- nizing self-conscousness that causes him to qualify every statement with effacement and apologv. but beneath this is a warm gentle man who w\ith all his stammering, manages to ex- pose his most tender feelings. The indefinit-'iiess in Tonv's playing is of another genre, resulting from, an evasion of rather than an attempt at direct expression. I hear no gentle- ness in him, only hardness at varying levels of volume.

 

Blues For "The Street" is charac- teristic of jam sessions, each man playing several choruses with a rhythm section. A l Casey sets a very easygoing mood in his opening cho- ruses, and Joe Thomas, Sonny White, and J. C. Higginbotham follow in a similar vein, J. C. playing with more enthusiasm than inspiration. Oscar Pettiford's solo is ripe andfluentand his intonation and blend with the accompanying guitar i s exquisite. Tony begins his chorus sotto voce, playing perfectly valid blues melody in what amounts to a loud stage whisper. . . . "Look, look! I'm being subtle!" Wilbur DeParis' straight- forward simplicity seems particularly meaty after all this, and Pee Wee's customary intensity sounds relaxed by comparison. The remaining tracks are more re- stricting, since the amount of indi- vidual playing time has been curtailed in order to give everyone a chance to be heard. Body and Soul is divided among Coleman, Tony, and Tommy Flanagan. Though Tony fools around less here than he does on up tempos, the time would have been much better devoted to further development by Coleman. Hawk makes a whole lot out of his last half chorus, blowing away all the cobwebs with which Scott has decorated the first half.

 

Mop Mop allows each soloist one chorus of / Got Rhythm at a fast tempo, and hardly anyone gets going before his chorus is over. Red Rodney plays with just Oscar accompanying (except on the bridge), and his tone takes on an unusual richness because of Oscar's resonant support. Knepper and Cohn both needed another chorus. Scott plays like a stunt rider on a tricycle. Roy Haynes' excellent half chorus is upset by Pettiford, who puts a lead-in figure on the bridge in the wrong place. Everyone goes along with Oscar, so the ending is strong even though displaced a beat. Roy makes the adjustment nicely.

 

Al Cohn hits his stride on Lester Leaps In. He plays a fat, rolling in- troduction, decorates the lead chorus tastefully, and composes a well-con- structed chorus of his own. Lowe's guitar, Scott's baritone, and Walling- ton's piano solos are satisfactory, and Knepper, Rodney, and Haynes create interesting choruses. Oscar begins his solo with a delayed permutation of the original melody, loses Roy, loses himself, and leads the band back into the last chorus a bar early, but his conception is so interesting and his recovery so absolute that it's a good chorus even with the goof.

 

With all his preciosity, Tony comes closest to playing meaningful music on Lover Man. The notes he chooses have something to do with the tune, and he restricts himself to a mini- mum of archness. Mundell plays a prettily chorded bridge, and Jimmy Knepper's last eight of the first chorus is lovely. George W allington's bridge sustains the mood effectively, but seems terribly sere and brittle.

 

Woody W You allows each soloist eight bars, and there is hardly enough time for anyone to say anything, let alone relate it to what has gone be- fore. Still, it's a pleasant, craftsman- like track. Midnight has a prettily played intro and coda by Red, the melody played rubato with great depth of feeling by Oscar, and a melodramatic clarinet solo played by Theda Bara. The sad thing is that if he would drop the phony passion he'd discover that he is actually play- ing some beautiful notes, and might feel some real passion about that.

Flanagan plays two handsome cho- ruses on Ornithology, illustrating his indebtedness to Hank Jones. Coleman barely gets warmed up to this tune before his time is up. Knepper is agile and imaginative, but sacrifices a lot of tone quality for speed. (What- ever became of the fat trombone sound? Jack T eagarden, Jack Jenney, Murray McEacher'n, and several others played with agility and still got a big tone.) Tony builds an agitated chorus out of his chromatic descending runs and little else, giv- ing an impression of great mobility restrained by tremendous rigidity.

Very interesting to read. 

I must admit two things: 

The clarinet never was my dream instrument, somehow it does not really appeal to me, well I heard some Buddy de Franco I really liked, I think it was "Deep Night" with Art Tatum. The few clarinet solos on some bop-broadcasts with John LaPorta are funny, but again I think the sound of the clarinet is not really "my thing".

About the attitude of Tony Scott: Well I have read more about what he said about let´s say Bird or Lady Day (in the Robert Reisner book, and about in the Billy Holiday book), than I would have heard . I think his clarinet can be heard on some of those Bird discoveries that appeared on some CDs in the 90´s or early 2000´s, but I am not so aware of it now. 

 

The kind of persons who jump on the stage on jam sessions more for egotism than for sharing is not a seldom thing. Also the story telling thing of lesser prominent musicians or would like to be musicians, who brag that they "sat on the same table with Ornette Coleman or with Elvin Jones, they will appear anywere. Here in Vienna we call those sort of guys "Adabei" (the Viennese dialect word for "auch dabei"). 

I can´t say nothing about an Asia Period and asian meditation music, because this never was my bag. I get something of world music influences in some of Don Cherry´s "Codona I-III" and so on, of course in some Trane and even more by his followers, even by Miles in his 1972 bands with sitar and tablas and so on, but this is not really meditation music so I can dig some of it. 

[Big Beat Steve]

7 hours ago, Larry Kart said:

I liked Scott some back in the day -- a live 10 inch album on Decca from maybe 1954 in particular, with Dick Katz, Milt Hinton and Philly Joe (IIRC  it was recorded at a military base, maybe Fort Monmouth, N.J.) ) but after I while I found that when Scott got excited he pretty much sounded hysterical -- not hysterical-funny, just very forced/worked up.

"Music after Midnight" on Brunswick BL 58040.
Your description as "shrill" fits my (very basic) impression of one major trait of his style on his somewhat later leader dates from the 50s (particularly on RCA) that I have heard.

Somewhat contrary to the way Bill Crow described Tony Scott as overbearing and running his own show everywhere, it seems he did adapt to the settings, however, when called for. During his stay in Sweden in 1957 (where he created quite positive vibes on the national jazz scene - both on-stage and off-stage) he recorded 4 EP's worth of music with a Swedish-Danish rhythm section in March 1957 where he sounds sort of loose and high-flying and strangely staccato at times (rather rough characterizations, i know ...). Some, such as his treatment of "All The Things You Are" are unexpected but still rather fitting. At others he is markedly lyrical and low-key.
Similarly, at a concert with the Harry Arnold Big Band (the formerly aka "Jazztone Mystery band") in February 1957 (issued on Dragon) he sounds subdued or introspective in some of his features, even in front of a big band.

There also is a recording from May 1957 of him appearing with the (German) Horst Jankowski Trio at the jazz festival in Ljubljana (Yugoslavia) in May 1957. And this is almost a case of "classic" chamber jazz. He seems to have gone to lengths to tune in to the chamber jazz style of the Jankowski trio so the set comes across as a sort of well-done "very much modernized Benny Goodman".

 

[Gheorghe]

16 minutes ago, Big Beat Steve said:

"Music after Midnight" on Brunswick BL 58040.
Your description as "shrill" fits my (very basic) impression of one major trait of his style on his somewhat later leader dates from the 50s (particularly on RCA) that I have heard.

Somewhat contrary to the way Bill Crow described Tony Scott as overbearing and running his own show everywhere, it seems he did adapt to the settings, however, when called for. During his stay in Sweden in 1957 (where he created quite positive vibes on the national jazz scene - both on-stage and off-stage) he recorded 4 EP's worth of music with a Swedish-Danish rhythm section in March 1957 where he sounds sort of loose and high-flying and strangely staccato at times (rather rough characterizations, i know ...). Some, such as his treatment of "All The Things You Are" are unexpected but still rather fitting. At others he is markedly lyrical and low-key.
Similarly, at a concert with the Harry Arnold Big Band (the formerly aka "Jazztone Mystery band") in February 1957 (issued on Dragon) he sounds subdued or introspective in some of his features, even in front of a big band.

There also is a recording from May 1957 of him appearing with the (German) Horst Jankowski Trio at the jazz festival in Ljubljana (Yugoslavia) in May 1957. And this is almost a case of "classic" chamber jazz. He seems to have gone to lengths to tune in to the chamber jazz style of the Jankowski trio so the set comes across as a sort of well-done "very much modernized Benny Goodman".

 

It seems that Ljubljana during that time had good festivals. Well 1957 was two years before I was born, but even in the 70´s it was a nice place with still some kind of former Austrian K&K flair, that´s how I remember it. A lot of US-Stars played there. 

[Rabshakeh]

19 hours ago, Teasing the Korean said:

 Tony Scott's playing on "Riff Blues" from TV Action Jazz

One of my "What IS this?!" solos.

[adh1907]

“Though he professes a great respect for the work of other musicians, he seldom waits to be asked before leaping onto a bandstand with them, horn in hand —and he eyidences little awareness of the tastes or sensibilities of themusicians playing vyith him. When be is around it is always a show, and it is always Tony's show, unless a bigger ham upstages him.”.
 

That’s a brilliant description of the only time I saw Tony Scott in London where he leapt on stage at a Peter King concert at the Bulls head in the mid 80s and blew his clarinet like a maniac and disrupted the gig. It was fun at the time but King looked too embarrassed to stop him, I recall. Someone told me who he was as I didn’t recognise him from his 50s record sleeves, he looked wild!

[Gheorghe]

8 hours ago, adh1907 said:

 

 

That’s a brilliant description of the only time I saw Tony Scott in London where he leapt on stage at a Peter King concert at the Bulls head in the mid 80s and blew his clarinet like a maniac and disrupted the gig. It was fun at the time but King looked too embarrassed to stop him, I recall. Someone told me who he was as I didn’t recognise him from his 50s record sleeves, he looked wild!

Peter King was a great player and I´m sure I would have preferred to listen to him than to a Tony Scott leaping on stage and damaging the show to make his own show.....

About not recognising him: I first read his name and saw his picture in a book of interviews "Jazz Podium" , interviews with let´s say Rollins, Dexter, Max Roach, Elvin Jones, Ornette Coleman and so on and one "Tony Scott" I never had heard about before. He had a bald head and an enormous beard, I don´t remember what he said or what he was asked. 
See, my knowledge of jazz and jazzmusicians mostly came from fellow musicians who were a bit older than me and pulled my coat to the artists I should listen to and learn from, let´s say Rollins , Roach, Mingus, Bird of course, Ornette, Herbie Hancock etc. ..... just to become a good musician, and I doubt someone said "get some Tony Scott records to learn about jazz...." so I didn´t have records with him, and of course not from the 50´s . 
I may have had one clarinet record and this maybe was the Goodman Carnegie Hall since they said "look, that´s the swing style, dig  some  stuff from that, it´s the style before bebop started.....". That´s how I collected records....

[EKE BBB]

On 11/13/2022 at 9:04 PM, medjuck said:

Wow Tony Scott and Pee Wee Russell! I gotta get that. 

Same here! I love his description of Pee Wee Russell's style, as oposed to Tony Scott's.

Edited November 15, 2022 by EKE BBB

[JSngry]

 

[medjuck]

Nobody here has mentioned his work with either Billie Holiday or Harry Belafonte.  Thats a pretty good band on the Matilda single 

https://www.discogs.com/release/1088176-Harry-Belafonte-With-Tony-Scott-And-His-Orchestra-Matilda-Matilda

[mjzee]

Tony Scott is pretty good on this:

[jlhoots]

Strange thread. Glad I finally looked at it! ☠️

[Teasing the Korean]

10 hours ago, jlhoots said:

Strange thread. Glad I finally looked at it! ☠️

If nothing else, listen to that version of "Riff Blues" posted earlier.

[Gheorghe]

I must look if I find the one Tony Scott solo I heard once. Is it possible that it was on some of all those Bird-Unissued Material. I didn´t really listen to much of the stuff, since very often it´s just from one nighters with musicians he was not used to, and sometimes very weak sound quality. Is it possible I heard a long track on some standard , it may be Indiana or Lover Come Back to me, a long track where there is a clarinet solo also ? Maybe that is Tony Scott. As usual with clarinet in that context, I don´t have much love for that instrument, it has a more piercing sound in the upper register, and a more "funny" sound in the lower register . Anyway I think there was such a booklet or something were Bird plays and then is a long squeaky sounding clarinet solo. 

P.S.: On the other hand, I feel better when it´s Dolphy´s or Maupin´s bass clarinet, that sounds much better to me than the traditional clarinet. 

[JSngry]