Little Jimmy Scott
The Savoy Years and More
(Savoy Jazz)
James Victor Scott was born on July 17, 1925. He was one of ten children in the Scott family. When James and his brother Kenny entered the beginning of their teen years, they stopped growing. Physically captured in the dawning of his adolescence, James was frozen at 4'11" and his voice remained quite high-pitched. While it is now known that the two brothers suffered from an unusual hormonal deficiency called Kallman's Syndrome, the strange affliction also cause Jimmy Scott to retain one of the most distinctive voices in popular music. Little Jimmy Scott first began recording music in 1949 and worked with the Lionel Hampton in the early fifties. An exotic balladeer whose unusual tendency to sing behind the beat put him in the category of a chosen few, Scott has recorded only sporadically in the last fifty years.
When you first listen to Little Jimmy Scott sing, you might think it is a woman's voice that you are hearing. After a few moments pass you won't care so much about the gender of the vocalist, you'll only marvel at the singer's evocative voice and eloquent phrasing. On the recently released three-CD set, "The Savoy Years and More" Jimmy Scott is captured as early as the mid-fifties and as late as the mid-seventies. Ballads are the key to the art of Jimmy Scott. Whether he is crooning "You've Changed," "What Are You Doing For The Rest Of Your Life" or even "When You Wish Upon A Star," the diminutive singer breathes life to these songs like very few others. Billie Holiday occasionally comes to mind when Jimmy sings, which is no small thing. While the earlier sessions are most engaging, his latter performances like "The Way We Were" have a vintage quality that cannot be denied. If you enjoy all of the other classic jazz vocalists, you'll easily fall for Little Jimmy Scott.
This collection contains beautiful sixty-six performances and the song selection is most impressive. Tunes like "The Masquerade Is Over" and "When Did You Leave Heaven" showcase Jimmy's wonderful voice, fantastic arrangements and top-notch musicianship. My sound advice is to take a step back into the past with Little Jimmy Scott, you certainly won't regret it.
by Mitch Myers
copyright 1999 New City Communications, Inc.