Five-Star Collection... Tony Scott

Tony Scott

Tony Scott Quartet

These are the first performances by the remarkable Tony Scott Quartet to be recorded under ideal studio conditions. Just a year ago, Brunswick issued a unique collection, "Music After Midnight", featuring the foursome recorded in the course of a night's work at Minton's Playhouse in Harlem. Although the acoustics and equipment were far from ideal then, the recordings drew raves from such esteemed publications as The New Yorker, Saturday Review, Billboard, Hi-Fidelity, Metronome and Downbeat. Here at last was a clarinetist-showman, modern but warm and exciting rather than "cool" and dispassionate. In Tony Scott, clarinet fans at last found the champion who could restore the instrument to the glory it knew during the "swing" era, when a younger Goodman and Shaw held the power to ignite an entire generation. The nation's critics "discovered" Tony in that initial album, and in Downbeat's annual critic's poll voted him "New Star of 1953, Clarinet Division". 

Now these new recordings, with the finest, latest professional equipment, reveal the vital, mature Scott sound and invention in full scope. (...)

Of particular interest in this set are Scott's moody, melodious, intimate interpretations of the ballads "I Cover The Waterfront" and "Goodbye". The latter, long identified as Benny's closing theme, emerges here in an utterly new conception, an intense emotional experience. Scott's improvisation on "Waterfront" should take its place among the classic solos in jazz.

*Bill Simon (from the liner notes)*

Tony's swinging quartet has New Star winner Osie Johnson (drums); New Star winner Percy Heath (bass on four); Earl May (bass on the other four); and pianist-writer Dick Katz. For me, Tony has everything his demanding instrument has long required and seldom received from jazzmen: fine, sensitively full tone; a wailing beat; excellent, never complacent conception; and enough fire of emotion to heat three other musicians as well (and I could name more than three).

There may be a debate as to whether Tony is unsurpassable on up-tempos (though I find him so), but I can't think of anyone remotely near him in his mastery of ballads. This LP is a killer. Good cover portrait by Mike Miller, arranged by Fran Scott. Notes by Bill Simon. And where is Osie Johnson's vocal on You or No One as announced on the label? Good recording but some surface noise on Waterfront. *Nat Hentoff (Down Beat, December 15, 1954 [5 stars])*

1 - Sweet Patootie

(Tony Scott)

2 - I Cover The Waterfront

(Johnny Green, Edward Heyman)

3 - Sweet Lorraine

(Cliff Burwell, Mitchel Parish)

4 - Yesterdays

(Jerome Kern, Otto Harbach)

5 - Blues For Ava — (Part 1 and Part 2)

(Tony Scott)

6 - It's You Or No One

(Jule Styne, Sammy Cahn)

7 - Goodbye

(Gordon Jenkins)

#1, #3, #4, #7:

Tony Scott (clarinet), Dick Katz (piano), Percy Heath (bass), Osie Johnson (drums).

#2, #5, #6:

Tony Scott (clarinet), Dick Katz (piano), Earl May(bass), Osie Johnson (drums).

Recorded in New York City, December 22 (#2, #5, #6) and 23 (#1, #3, #4, #7), 1953