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Clifford Scott


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Hot Ptah's response to one of the tracks on BFT122 ('Who is Clifford Scott?') led me to start this thread.

Clifford Scott, also known as Joe Splink, was one of the great Texas tenor players, was born in San Antonio on 21 June 1928. He died in 1993.

He worked with Jay McShann and Amos Milburn in the late 40s, then joined Roy Miltons great band, The Solid Senders, in 1952. In 1953, he was with Lionel Hampton and toured Europe with him, recording in France. This is out on BMG:

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He returned to Roy Milton in 1955 and later the same year joined the band in which he was to make his name.

In January 1956, Clifford first recorded with Bill Doggett, with whom he remained until 1962, putting his individual stamp on such hits as 'Honky tonk', 'Hold it', 'Slow walk', 'Leaps and bounds', 'Ram-bunk-shush', 'Rainbow riot', 'Monster party' and 'Yocky dock'. Bills band recorded a much wider range of material than their hits reveal and it was with Doggett that Clifford started paying alto sax and flute. While with Bill, Clifford was called upon by King, for whom the band recorded, to play on various sessions by other R&B acts. One of the first was the first session of a new singer, James Brown, at which his first classic hit, 'Please, please, please' was recorded. He also played on Browns 'Try me'.

During his period with Bill Doggett, Clifford got the opportunity to record as a leader. His first session, in 1958, featured a young Andrew Hill on piano. He recorded again as a leader in 1960. No albums were made but I think the material appears on a compilation with some Lynne Hope recordings.

After he had left the Doggett band, Clifford made a couple of sessions with blues guitarist Freddie King, then moved to Los Angeles.

On the coast, Clifford made an entirely different set of recordings. He appeared on albums by Carmel Jones, Vic Feldman, Marvin Jenkins, Groove Holmes, Lou Rawls, Jimmy Witherspoon and Charles Kynard. In this period, he got another chance to record as a leader. Starting with the wonderful LP, 'Out front', backed by Les McCann Ltd, Clifford made three LPs for Pacific Jazz, none of which have been reissued. He also appeared on Billy Larkin & the Delegates second album, 'Blue Lights', another magnificent album that has been reissued by Fresh Sound:

Billy+Larkin++The+Delegates.jpg

He worked with Onzy Matthews in 1964 (the material is in the Mosaic Select), then Della Reese, and rejoined Bill Doggett briefly in 1965. He joined the Ray Charles band in the late 1960s (Ray always liked to have Texas tenor players in his band) and played on the 'My kind of jazz' album.

In the early 70s, Clifford returned to Texas, where he lived for the rest of his life, a regular at Antones, only emerging occasionally, as when he toured Europe in 1986 with Wild Bill Davis. Davis album, 'The Zurich concert', is one of the few bits of extended Scott available.

Finally, back in Texas in the early 1990s, Clifford made two albums, with a high R&B content, with his regular band for the French label New Rose.

This player should be more widely appreciated. The only bit of praise I've seen for him is from the Groove Holmes album 'Something special' in which John William Hardy describes him as sounding 'like Gene Ammons on a GOOD night'. OK, that's typical hype - not even I think he's THAT good.

MG

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Perhaps not, but he is "something special" on the title track of the Groove Holmes album.

This player should be more widely appreciated. The only bit of praise I've seen for him is from the Groove Holmes album 'Something special' in which John William Hardy describes him as sounding 'like Gene Ammons on a GOOD night'. OK, that's typical hype - not even I think he's THAT good.

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Well I for one certainly agree that Clifford deserves more respect ... I think MG has mentioned that Wild Bill Davis recording before but I've never tracked it down. Should resume the hunt.

I've heard those New Rose recordings and even thought about programming a track on a past BFT. I've always wondered if its Clifford on vocals or someone else ... I like those recordings though the sound is pretty bad, if not actually "squashed" its recorded at a ridiculously low level.

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Well I for one certainly agree that Clifford deserves more respect ... I think MG has mentioned that Wild Bill Davis recording before but I've never tracked it down. Should resume the hunt.

Yes, I put a track in one of my BFTs a few years ago.

I had a quick look around (but not e-bay) and found there's a new and a second hand copy on Amazon UK, but the prices are bleeding ridiculous - £44.86 2nd hand ($75.43); £49.99 new ($84.06) Plus postage.

Keep searching - and there's another WBD on Jazz Connaisseur with Plas Johnson £24.23 second hand. Cheapo :D

MG

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