Biography
A vocalist whose supple phrasing moves fluidly across jazz, adult-contemporary pop, and soul, Marilyn Scott draws primary inspiration from Aretha Franklin, Donny Hathaway, Janis Joplin, and Sam Cooke. After establishing herself as a session vocalist alongside Tower of Power, Etta James, and Spyro Gyra, she first appeared on the charts with her own 1977 single, a reading of “God Only Knows,” and followed it with her initial full-length release, Dreams of Tomorrow, in 1979. Later entries such as the 1992 album Smile and the 2005 anthology Handpicked placed her on Billboard’s jazz surveys, while her twelfth solo project, Standard Blue, surfaced in 2017.
Raised in southern California, Scott began singing in neighborhood clubs and at school events at age fifteen. An art scholarship took her to San Francisco, where she fronted Top 40 and Latin jazz ensembles throughout the Bay Area. One connection formed there, with Tower of Power’s Emilio Castillo, led to lead and backing vocal work with the horn-driven group and, ultimately, to extensive studio sessions in Los Angeles. Those dates yielded appearances with Spyro Gyra, the Yellowjackets, Hiroshima, Etta James, and Bobby Womack. She was also the sole white female performer cast in the touring production of the musical Selma, which chronicled the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Scott’s earliest solo single, the 1977 cover of Brian Wilson’s “God Only Knows,” reached number 61 on the Billboard Hot 100 and secured an Atco/Atlantic deal for Dreams of Tomorrow, an album that entered the Billboard 200 in 1979. Her follow-up, the funk-oriented Without Warning! issued by Mercury in 1983, earned favorable notice from jazz writers and yielded the R&B-charting tracks “Only You” and “10 x 10.” Continued session work in Los Angeles brought soundtrack assignments for Torch Song Trilogy and Twins during the late 1980s.
A 1991 collaboration with Bobby Caldwell produced Sky Dancing, a release that succeeded in Japan and prompted her first headline tour there. Smile appeared the next year, featuring the Brenda Russell duet “That Man on My Mind” and climbing to number 23 on the Contemporary Jazz Albums chart. On her 1996 Warner Bros. debut Take Me with You, Scott merged classic R&B, blues, pop, jazz, and Brazilian elements while working with Dori Caymmi, George Duke, Russell Ferrante, Ricardo Silvera, Boney James, Jimmy Haslip, and Bob James. Co-produced by Ferrante and Haslip of the Yellowjackets, the 1998 successor Avenues of Love included interpretations of Stevie Wonder’s “Bird of Beauty” and Dexter Wansel’s “I’m in Love Once Again,” with the closing track “The Last Day” reaching the Top 20 of Billboard’s Adult Contemporary chart.
Her seventh solo album, Walking with Strangers, arrived on the independent Prana label in 2001. Nightcap, released in 2004, achieved a career-best number 22 on the Jazz Albums chart. The following year’s Handpicked, a 16-track compilation Scott assembled from recordings made between 1992 and 2001, introduced the previously U.S.-unreleased cover of Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes” alongside “The Last Day”; it peaked at number 25 on the Jazz Albums chart and number 15 on the contemporary jazz tally. Prana issued Innocent of Nothing in 2006 and Every Time We Say Goodbye in 2008, the latter simultaneously released in Japan by Venus Records.
Scott returned on Prana in 2014 with the holiday collection Get Christmas Started!, which enlisted a dozen guests and a horn section arranged by Tower of Power’s Greg Adams. Ferrante supplied the arrangements for the more intimate 2017 studio set Standard Blue, featuring guitarist Michael Landau, drummer Gary Novak, and bassist Haslip. Occasional performances in Los Angeles and New York continued through the close of the decade.
Raised in southern California, Scott began singing in neighborhood clubs and at school events at age fifteen. An art scholarship took her to San Francisco, where she fronted Top 40 and Latin jazz ensembles throughout the Bay Area. One connection formed there, with Tower of Power’s Emilio Castillo, led to lead and backing vocal work with the horn-driven group and, ultimately, to extensive studio sessions in Los Angeles. Those dates yielded appearances with Spyro Gyra, the Yellowjackets, Hiroshima, Etta James, and Bobby Womack. She was also the sole white female performer cast in the touring production of the musical Selma, which chronicled the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Scott’s earliest solo single, the 1977 cover of Brian Wilson’s “God Only Knows,” reached number 61 on the Billboard Hot 100 and secured an Atco/Atlantic deal for Dreams of Tomorrow, an album that entered the Billboard 200 in 1979. Her follow-up, the funk-oriented Without Warning! issued by Mercury in 1983, earned favorable notice from jazz writers and yielded the R&B-charting tracks “Only You” and “10 x 10.” Continued session work in Los Angeles brought soundtrack assignments for Torch Song Trilogy and Twins during the late 1980s.
A 1991 collaboration with Bobby Caldwell produced Sky Dancing, a release that succeeded in Japan and prompted her first headline tour there. Smile appeared the next year, featuring the Brenda Russell duet “That Man on My Mind” and climbing to number 23 on the Contemporary Jazz Albums chart. On her 1996 Warner Bros. debut Take Me with You, Scott merged classic R&B, blues, pop, jazz, and Brazilian elements while working with Dori Caymmi, George Duke, Russell Ferrante, Ricardo Silvera, Boney James, Jimmy Haslip, and Bob James. Co-produced by Ferrante and Haslip of the Yellowjackets, the 1998 successor Avenues of Love included interpretations of Stevie Wonder’s “Bird of Beauty” and Dexter Wansel’s “I’m in Love Once Again,” with the closing track “The Last Day” reaching the Top 20 of Billboard’s Adult Contemporary chart.
Her seventh solo album, Walking with Strangers, arrived on the independent Prana label in 2001. Nightcap, released in 2004, achieved a career-best number 22 on the Jazz Albums chart. The following year’s Handpicked, a 16-track compilation Scott assembled from recordings made between 1992 and 2001, introduced the previously U.S.-unreleased cover of Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes” alongside “The Last Day”; it peaked at number 25 on the Jazz Albums chart and number 15 on the contemporary jazz tally. Prana issued Innocent of Nothing in 2006 and Every Time We Say Goodbye in 2008, the latter simultaneously released in Japan by Venus Records.
Scott returned on Prana in 2014 with the holiday collection Get Christmas Started!, which enlisted a dozen guests and a horn section arranged by Tower of Power’s Greg Adams. Ferrante supplied the arrangements for the more intimate 2017 studio set Standard Blue, featuring guitarist Michael Landau, drummer Gary Novak, and bassist Haslip. Occasional performances in Los Angeles and New York continued through the close of the decade.
Albums
