E.C. Scott

E.C. Scott, a contemporary blues vocalist, fuses her classic soul and gospel foundations with a distinctive funky edge rooted in the 1990s. Growing up in Oakland, California, she absorbed the voices of gospel performers including Shirley Caesar and Inez Andrews from an early age. Over time she set aside her mother’s rules against non-religious sounds and absorbed the soul recordings that filled her sisters’ radio airwaves. Nightclub stages welcomed her by the age of 16, yet marriage soon interrupted that trajectory. Once her two children reached an age that allowed her return, family approval accompanied her decision to sing again; she first concentrated on jazz phrasing before circling back to the blues and R&B she had long known. Forming the ensemble Smoke, she worked the San Francisco club circuit, held the house-band slot at Slim’s for a year, and issued the self-released 1991 single “Just Dance” b/w “Let’s Make It Real.” Local audiences grew as she appeared at blues festivals across the United States, leading to a 1994 contract with Blind Pig. Come Get Your Love arrived the next year, followed in 1998 by Hard Act to Follow. Masterpiece marked her next release two years later.