The Andrew Scott Trio with Bernie Senensky and Neil Swainson at the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre.
About me:
Short Bio:
Dr. Andrew Scott is a guitarist/arranger and composer who has released three internationally recognized CDs for Sackville Records (This One’s for Barney; Blue Mercer; Nostalgia); two CDs with the award-winning Clayton/Scott Group (August; So Nice) and three CDs with One Step Beyond (One Step Beyond; Life Out There; Live in Montreal).
Additionally, Andrew has amassed a considerable discography as a side musician (Jack Prybylski; Gene DiNovi, Jim Clayton, Frank D’Angelo; Loverboy’s Mike Reno; Cynthia Ballesteros; The Show). As a performer, Andrew has played with a diverse roster of players including David Sanborn, Grant Stewart, Dan Block, Tony Monaco, Bob James, Merl Saunders, Earl Klugh, Bob Moses, Marc Jordan, Archie Alleyne and Matt Dusk (to name a few). Andrew has won a Toronto Independent Music Award, a Canadian Urban Music Award, three Canadian “Smooth” Jazz Awards and has two National Jazz Award nominations.
Andrew has composed extensively for film and television including his work on Pop Switch; Mothers and Daughters; CBC’s The Border; Douglas Coupland’s Everything’s Gone Green; Big Girl; Don MacKellar’s Childstar; Burning Dogs, Hand and John Woo’s Like a Thief. Andrew’s most recent project is the 2010 film Textuality staring Eric McCormack, Jason Lewis and Carly Pope.
As a scholar, Andrew has lectured at universities and for conferences across North America. He has been published on the subjects of jazz and popular music in a number of books (including the New Grove Dictionary of Jazz) and in such refereed academic journals as Current Research in Jazz; Interdisciplinary Literary Studies: A Journal of Criticism and Theory; Soundscapes: Online Journal on Media Culture; Music Research Forum; the Journal of Popular Music Studies and the Canadian University Music Society Review.
As a journalist, Andrew was the managing editor of Coda magazine (2007/2008) and is a longtime contributor to Wax Poetics, for whom Andrew has written on Donny Hathaway, The Black Rock Coalition, John Klemmer, PM Records, Johnny Lytle, the Philadelphia jazz community, Phil Ramone and an upcoming cover feature on George Benson.
As a culmination of all of these diverse interests and experiences, Andrew is a new media/music business/music marketing public speaker, author, educator and frequent commentator.
Andrew is a Professor of Music at Humber College where he oversees the Music Business and Music Marketing areas. He is also Humber Music’s head academic advisor.
Long Bio:
I grew up in Toronto, Canada and have been involved in music my whole life. I sang in the Canadian Children’s Opera Chorus as a youngster, played French horn in junior high school and took up the guitar at Leaside High School. My first teachers were my mother—a great piano player—and Andy Baracus at Leaside. I got interested in jazz mainly through my mom’s Oscar Peterson, Junior Mance and Dave Brubeck records. My first jazz teachers were Brian Hughes and Joey Goldstein, all of who gave me a good musical foundation and pointed me in the right direction. I attended Humber College of Applied Arts and Sciences in the music department. Here, I had the good fortune to work with some great teachers (Charles Tolliver, Don Thompson, Pat LaBarbera, Peter Harris, Ted Quinlan, Michael Farquason) and meet some amazing musicians who were masquerading as students. Around this time, I also helped start a really nice band called One Step Beyond. We were on a few compilation records, put out two albums on our own and got to tour extensively throughout North America—occasionally as the backup band for organist Merl Saunders. I also went to Arosa, Switzerland around this time and played in The Hotel Eden for four months.
In 1998, I moved to Boston and attended the New England Conservatory of Music. I earned a Masters in Historical Musicology while getting to play jazz with some great musicians. NEC was the dream school for someone with diverse interests. The scholarship was high—thanks to Greg Smith, Helen Greenwald, Peter Row, Anne Hallmark—and the music was rich and varied; I studied under such wonderful musicians as John McNeil and Gene Bertonncinni. I would have loved to stay in Boston—it is an amazing city—but I got accepted into the PhD. program of Musicology/Ethnomusicology at York University to study with Rob Bowman. In the spring of 2006 I successfully defended my dissertation/thesis “The Life, Music and Improvisational Style of Herbert Lawrence ‘Sonny’ Greenwich.”
Additionally, I’ve put out two albums with Jim Clayton in a band called The Clayton/Scott Group. The band, which mainly features David French, Jake Wilkinson, Will Jarvis and Steve Heathcote (although other great musicians have worked with us) gets a lot of radio play on Max Trax, Wave 94.7 FM, The Breeze in Calgary and a number of other “contemporary” jazz radio stations. We have also been recognized for our efforts with two “Group of the Year” wins at the Canadian Smooth Jazz Awards (2005 and 2006) and a National Jazz Award Nomination for “Electric Group of the Year.” We were lucky to work with two wonderful producers—Tony Grace and Rob DeBoer of Four 80East–a group with whom I now play–for our 2nd album “So Nice.”
In addition, I married a wonderful woman, have two sons and a daughter, got a dog, bought a house, played just about every jazz festival in Ontario, have written for a host of good academic journals and magazines–including CODA Magazine where I worked as the Managing Editor (see my CV)–and completed a record on my own featuring some “swingin’” playing by Harry Allen , Jake Wilkinson, Bernie Senensky, Louis Simao and Joel Haynes. The record is called “This One’s for Barney,” as a tribute to the late guitarist Barney Kessel, whose music I love and whom I feel was influential on my playing style. It was released on Sackville Records in late 2004.
My 2nd recording–”Blue Mercer”–is a program of mainly Johnny Mercer music. I am thrilled that New York trumpeter Randy Sandke, tenor saxophonist Mike Murley, pianist Bernie Senensky, bassist Louis Simao and drummer Joel Haynes agreed to record with me. John Norris at Sackville Records has again put out this record and I’m happy to report that the liner notes have been written by pianist/composer/Mercer collaborater Gene DiNovi, whose composition “Have a Heart” I recorded for this album. His notes can be found in the press section of this website. This recording is currently getting a lot of play on CBC and CJRT (Jazz FM).
I’m also pleased to report I recently recorded two “Generations” CDs with Gene DiNovi and Dave Young (July 2007). The first (“The Three Optimists at the Old Mill”) is available on Sackville Records in the fall of 2008. The second was produced by famed jazz producer Mitsuo Johfu for his Marshmallow record company. Here is a link to the label’s website (Japanese only, however). I will be making a guitar trio record (guitar, bass, drums) for the same label sometime in 2008.
As of June 2009, I have recorded a third CD as leader for Sackville Records. The CD, Nostalgia features tunes (or rather melodies/heads) that are based upon standard American songbook compositions: so, for example, we play Fats Navarro’s “Nostalgia” which is based upon “Out of Nowhere” and Barney Kessel’s “Vicky’s Dream” which is based upon “All the Things You Are” etc. The record features both Dan Block (on tenor and clarinet) and Jon-Erik Kellso on trumpet (and a variety of mutes) on the front line and the swinging rhythm section of pianist Mark Eisenman, bassist Pat Collins and drummer Joel Haynes.
In addition to all of this, I teach at Humber College of Music (music business/marketing, critical perspectives on contemporary music, sociology of contemporary music, jazz history, 2nd year music theory, reading ensemble and private guitar), the University of Guelph (jazz history, ensemble coaching and private guitar instruction), Seneca College (survey course in Canadian music) and York University (classroom and private guitar instruction).