AVID Jazz presents four classic Shirley Scott albums plus, including original LP liner notes on a finely re-mastered and low priced double CD. “Great Scott”; “Like Cozy”; “Hip Soul” and “Happy Talk” Like all of our four selections, the original liner notes for “Great Scott” seem to focus on the problems the Hammond organ has had being accepted as a true instrument of jazz! Not to mention the problems female musicians have had being accepted in a very male dominated world! Not in the hands of our featured artist, Miss Shirley Scott, we say!! Here’s a quote from the original liner notes……..”It doesn’t take long to realize that a genuine jazz feeling is embodied in the playing of Shirley Scott”. Oh and there are just a few comments that could be construed as slightly sexist, dare we say! Here’s one now………..!! “She is only a slip of a girl but she makes that Hammond roar when she wants to”. Here’s another from the same album notes….”Shirley Scott is a girl. At the organ she does a man size job”………..hmmm??!! On our next selection “Like Cozy” we get perhaps an acknowledgement of said”sexism”? “It has always seemed strange to me that album notes concerning performances by female jazz artists are almost always cluttered with overworked puns, patronising references, and stereotyped ideas about the so called “fairer sex.” Let the music speak for itself we say! In fact we couldn’t say it better than in the opening paragraph to the original liner notes……“Simply and unaffectedly, with great ease and soulfulness, Shirley Scott has created a refreshing presentation of mood jazz music which is saturated with intense melodic beauty and a refined sort of funkiness”. Here’s another great quote summing up her playing…………..”Stylistically Shirley Scott is an exponent of the jazz tradition established by Lester Young…..and fulfilled by trumpeter Miles Davis……this quietly cooking lyrical mode of jazz expression……known as “The Cool Tendency”. For “Hip Soul” we must again turn to the original liner notes to capture the spirit of the times and the feelings about the playing of Ms Scott. “Shirley Scott is today regarded as being in the top echelon of jazz organists, and there is no reason to think that evaluation will change”. Our final selection “Happy Talk” has quotes galore to illustrate our previous points….“Miss Shirley Scott is indubitably the first lady of the organ , an instrument…..that still occupies the position of step child in the house of jazz”. “The fact that Shirley Scott is pleasant to watch as well as to hear did not hinder her career”……. What!! ?? They sort of redeem themselves by concluding “ but on records her music has to speak for itself……the musical message is Happy Talk without tears-pleasant unpretentious and swinging jazz”. And finally “With its relaxed…tempos, this album is good for dancing and listening, offering further conclusive proof…..that the organ in capable hands, is a vehicle for valid music making second to none. Miss Scott’s hands, needless to say, are among the most capable on the scene”. All four albums have been digitally re-mastered
CD1 1-8: ‘Great Scott’ 1. The Scott 2. All Of You 3. Goodbye 4. Four 5. Nothing Ever Changes My Love For You 6. Trees 7. Cherokee 8. Brazil 9-16: ‘Like Cozy’ 9. Like Cozy 10. Little Girl Blue 11. Laura 12. You Do Something To Me 13. Once in a While 14. Deed I Do 15. More Than You Know 16. My Heart Stood Still
CD2 1-6: ‘Hip Soul’ 1. Hip Soul 2. 411 West 3. By Myself 4. Trane’s Blues 5. Stanley’s Time 6. Out Of This World 7-12: ‘Happy Talk’ 7. Happy Talk 8. Jitterbug Waltz 9. My Romance 10. Where or When 11. I Hear A Rhapsody 12. Sweet Slumber
