Tony Scott was one of the masters of the clarinet in the world of jazz. Born Anthony Joseph Sciacca on 17th June 1921 in Morristown, New Jersey he was drawn to jazz at a very early age. The first time he distinguished the sound of the clarinet soaring above a jazz band it seemed to him to embody the essence of life and freedom. This was his cue: this was how he would communicate.

 

After a few years of private tuition, he attended the Juillard School of Music in New York. While still a student he started to feel his way in the New York jazz scene playing whenever he could, wherever he could. After graduation Scott did military service and was in the Army Band. He was one of the first musicians to interpret Bop on the clarinet and continued to sit in on jam sessions in the New York clubs, frequently playing several venues in the course of an evening. He soon got to know and played with all of the big names in jazz and also led his own quartets. Among his closest friends were Ben Webster, Charlie Parker, Lester Young and Billie Holiday.

 

Always restless and essentially a wanderer at heart, Scott travelled through Europe and S. Africa in 1957. He returned to the States but not for long. Some of his dearest friends died and he felt that the jazz scene had died too. The sense of loss he experienced both on a human level and musically, prompted him to set off for more distant shores in search of new input. This time he was drawn not to Europe and Africa, the continents whose cultures had contributed to the inception of jazz, but to Asia. The Far East inspired his contribution to World and New Age Music.

 

Scott always had an innovative spirit and was always excited by the impulse that different cultures conferred to his creativity. He fervently asserted that “Jazz is Black” but what lured him was its plasticity, its keenness for new stimuli and its propensity to improvisation.

 

Since the 70’s Scott primarily lived in Rome. He recorded infrequently but appeared live in many clubs and festivals. His last recording, entitled “A Jazz Life”, complete with a 30’ video was made in 2006 and is being issued next month by Kind of Blue Records. To see Tony for the last time please go to:


www.kindofbluerecords.com

 

Fotografie: Hans Kumpf

 

 

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