Listening to Prestige 572: Rhoda Scott

LISTEN TO ONE: In My Little Corner
of the World

 This is the continuation of Rhoda Scott's June 29th session, filling out her first Prestige album. We don't know if she kicked off her shoes when she sat down at the Hammond B3 in Rudy Van Gelder's Englewood Cliffs cathedral of recorded sound, but we can assume that she did, as that was the only way she felt comfortable at the organ. That was true when she was a barefoot kid first sitting down at the organ in her father's church--or any one of several churches, as the African Methodist Episcopal Church sent him where he was needed. It may have been true when she was getting her Master of Music degree from Manhattan School of Music, although they may have cracked down harder on the formality. It was certainly true in Europe, where she built a career of international stardom,

and where she continues to play to acclaim at festivals, theaters and arts venues, as "l'organiste aux pieds nus." 

She started playing professionally when, as she told Marc Myers of JazzWax, 

a guy in my church choir asked me to fill in for the piano player in his band. I told him that I didn’t know how to play that kind of music. He said it didn’t matter, he just needed someone...It turned out I knew all of the songs in their book from listening to the radio, so I had no problem.

When she started her own group in Newark, it was with Joe Thomas and Bill Elliott. The trio quickly caught on, and caught the ear of Ozzie Cadena. She also caught the ear of Count Basie, who hired to play at his Harlem night club. Stardom was beckoning, but so were her studies at the Manhattan School of Music, and the Masters degree won out. Stardom would have to wait until she arrived in Europe--at first also to study, with Nadia Boulanger.

Leonard Gaskin, usually a bassist, takes over on guitar for this session, but otherwise her group is the same Joe Thomas on tenor sax, Bill Elliott on drums. Scott favors a more straight-ahead style than the all-out funk of Brother Jack McDuff, and the contrast is enjoyable.

Hey! Hey! Hey! was released on Tru-Sound, as were the two 45 RPM singles, "Fly Me to the Moon" / "In My Little Corner of the World," and "Sha-Bazz," parts 1 and 2. Ozzie Cadena produced.

Listening to Prestige 559: Rhoda Scott

LISTEN TO ONE: Hey! Hey! Hey!

 Rhoda Scott does not have the same name recognition as other soul jazz organists of her generation, but that's only true if you confine your attention to this side of the Atlantic. Shortly after recording two Prestige sessions, she set sail for France, where she has lived and performed ever since, and where she has become a major star.

This first date in Englewood Cliffs was a brief one, so I'll make this brief, and treat Scott at greater length later on. She recorded four songs with a quartet and vocal group. The second session was just the quartet. Two of the songs from June made

the album that was completed in October; two were released separately on a 45 RPM single. Both the LP and the 45 are credited to the Rhoda Scott Trio, never mind the number of musicians who actually played, and the album is titled Hey! Hey! Hey!, although that song is only on the 45.

The Shouters are presumably the same Buddy Lucas vocal group that recorded for Prestige in April, but augmented here with a male voice (perhaps Lucas; the individual singers are not identified here). If it's an entirely different group called the Shouters, then we have a really odd coincidence, because the combo that recorded with Lucas for Prestige in April, included trumpeter Joe Thomas, not to be confused with tenor saxophonist Joe Thomas who played on this set, although both were born in the same year (1909). had solid careers as swing era musicians, and died within a couple of years of each other in the 1980s.

"Hey! Hey! Hey!" and "If You're Lonely" were the 45, released on Tru-Sound, as was the album.