Tom Scott - The Very Best Of Tom Scott (2006)

Now well into his fifth decade as a recording artist, Scott’s has made 27 albums as a leader, beginning with Honeysuckle Breeze (at age 19, in 1967) and Rural Still Life (Impulse, 1968) then on to his two L.A. Express classics, Tom Scott and the L.A. Express and Tom Cat (Ode), and several albums for Columbia, Elektra, and Atlantic. Just as his earlier albums were cornerstones of ’60s small-band jazz and then the ’70s fusion movement, Scott’s nine-year tenure with GRP — which is beautifully chronicled on this collection — helped usher in the smooth jazz format.
The most fascinating aspect of Scott’s GRP recordings is that each album represents a different facet of Scott’s musical persona. His 1987 label debut Streamlines (represented here by “Amaretto”) and the successive albums Flashpoint (“Lost in Love”), Them Changes (“Chester & Bruce”), Reed My Lips (with the late Grover Washington, Jr.), and Night Creatures (“Anytime, Anyplace,” “Mazin’”) all perfectly capture the balance between Scott’s aggressive, funk edge and his sweetly lyrical side. “Only a Heartbeat” from Keep Your Love Alive harks back to Scott’s session days, when he played supporting roles behind such vocal greats as Diane Schuur, Brenda Russell, and Bill Champlin. The retro effort Bluestreak (“In Your Eyes,” “Only You”) was Scott’s first L.A. Express recording in over 20 years, and Born Again (represented here by the title track), which received rave reviews across the board by jazz purists and critics, brought him back to his bebop roots.

“Each of those records represented a unique moment in time along the continuum for me, and I had the wonderful luxury of following my heart and bouncing back and forth between pop, fusion, and straight ahead,” Scott says. “In my time with GRP, I felt like I was part of a special family, and it was fun to take my very loyal audience on these new adventures. There’s always that bridge between what I want to create and what people want to hear. No matter what I do, the work is the fun part. At the end of any given period of time, I can look back at a large body of work, but so what? I’d rather move forward. Being open and creating new music is what gives meaning to my life.” -- Jonathan Widran