JIMMY SCOTT

Singer Jimmy Scott, also known professionally as Little Jimmy Scott, endured a distinctive path shaped by physical constraints and interventions from record labels that often kept his voice from reaching audiences, though he staged an impressive resurgence toward the end of his life. Born on July 17, 1925, in Cleveland, Ohio, as one of ten children to Arthur and Justine Scott, he first performed vocally within church settings. At age thirteen he lost his mother in an automobile accident and subsequently grew up under the care of foster parents. A rare hereditary disorder known as Kallmann's Syndrome halted his puberty, leaving him under five feet in height with a voice that retained its boy soprano quality.

Scott turned professional in the 1940s, performing across tent-show circuits. He joined Lionel Hampton's ensemble in 1948 and cut his first sides for Decca Records in January 1950. Among those recordings, "Everybody's Somebody's Fool" climbed onto the R&B charts in October 1950 and became a Top Ten hit. Departing Hampton in 1951, he pursued a solo route. A 1951 appearance with Paul Gayten's group at Rip's Playhouse in New Orleans was captured by Regal Records yet remained unreleased until Specialty Records issued it four decades later as Regal Records Live in New Orleans. Between 1951 and 1955 he cut singles for Royal Roost, Coral, and Roost.

Scott relocated to Savoy Records in 1955, which brought out his debut album, Very Truly Yours, the same year. After moving to King Records for several singles in 1957, he returned to Savoy in 1959, resulting in the 1960 release The Fabulous Little Jimmy Scott. Signing with Ray Charles' Tangerine imprint in 1962, he completed his third album, Falling in Love Is Wonderful, only for Savoy to assert an existing contractual claim that forced its withdrawal. Discouraged, Scott stepped away from music and later worked as a shipping clerk at Cleveland's Sheraton Hotel. He resurfaced on Atlantic Records with his fourth album, The Source, in 1969, and returned to Savoy for Can't We Begin Again in 1975, yet neither effort found commercial traction and he remained outside the industry.

In 1985 Scott resumed club performances. Backed by the Jazz Expressions, he reentered the studio in 1990 for J's Way Records. Longtime advocate Doc Pomus passed away on March 14, 1991; the then-sixty-five-year-old Scott performed at the funeral. Sire Records head Seymour Stein heard the rendition and offered a contract, igniting a significant revival. Billed as James V. Scott, he appeared in a June 1991 episode of David Lynch's Twin Peaks. Later screen credits included Scotch and Milk (1998) and Chelsea Walls (2001). He contributed vocals to Lou Reed's Magic and Loss, issued by Sire in January 1992.

Scott's own Sire/Blue Horizon/Warner Bros. album All the Way followed later that year, peaking at number four on Billboard's jazz chart and earning a Grammy nomination for Best Jazz Vocal Performance. He also sang on the soundtracks for Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me and Glengarry Glen Ross in 1992. Rhino Records mined Atlantic's vaults in 1993 for Lost and Found, an assembly of previously unreleased 1972 material that reached number fourteen on the jazz charts. His next studio set, Dream, arrived on Sire/Blue Horizon/Warner Bros. in 1994 and hit number eight on the jazz chart. Heaven, a collection of gospel and spiritual material, surfaced in 1996 and peaked at number nineteen.

After fulfilling his Warner Bros. obligations, Scott recorded Holding Back the Years for Artists Only! in 1998, again charting at number fourteen on the jazz list. Milestone Records released Mood Indigo in 2000, which climbed to number seventeen. Even after turning seventy-five he maintained a steady recording schedule, issuing Over the Rainbow in 2001, But Beautiful in 2002, and Moon Glow in 2003. All of Me: Live in Tokyo appeared in 2004, followed by Savoy Jazz's All or Nothing at All in 2005. Jimmy Scott died at his Las Vegas, Nevada, home in June 2014 at the age of eighty-eight.