...about Scotty Wright...

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articles: BK Magazine    Bangkok Post    interview    Thailand Timeout

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The Wright Voice

The voice is back. Scotty Wright, the fondly remembered, Monterey, California-based jazz vocalist/ pianist has returned to the City of Angels. Last here in 2001, Wright, who previously held residencies at the Peninsula, the JW Marriott and the Sheraton Grande, last month began a six-month run at the Four Seasons.

He has what some would say is the unenviable task of filling the hotel's elegant yet cavernous hotel lobby armed only with his pipes and a piano. If anyone can pull it off, however, it is Wright.

We are spoiled for jazz in this town, but listening to the 50-year-old sing makes you wonder whether most vocalists aren't phoning it in. Wright can be enthusiastic, but he doesn't need enthusiasm to mask any shortcomings in his voice. His rhythm is impeccable, his range remarkable. He can go from a rambunctious scat over "Take 5" to a crystal-clear croon on a slow standard like "For All We Know." Both will leave you breathless-but for different reasons.

Wright has over 600 songs in his repertoire, including some nifty compositions of his own, and he's happy to take requests. But he's no jukebox. So don't ask him to do something by Celine Dion or a Sound of Music medley.

It certainly is. One of the things that is going to be interesting is that it is not specifically a jazz room. It's a lobby, it's a big room. People are in this space for many different reasons, so you need to have a little more patience because they're not all there to hear you. And with food and drink plus conversational seating, people are going to talk. I accept that as a reality of the venue. There are constantly going to be distractions-for the listeners. For me, I just do what I do.

No. I'll be doing a mixture of jazz compositions and standards and my own originals. Some come from a blues approach, some have a Latin beat to 'em and I do ballads, which of course go over well in an open setting like this.

Damn good singer. (laughs) And we'll just leave it at that! No, to describe what I do, I'm a jazz singer and songwriter who accompanies himself on piano. Although I work with material, some of which is almost 100 years old, every performance is different, every night. When people come to see me, they're coming to watch somebody do what he loves-every single night.

Duke Ellington, Thelonius Monk, Miles Davis, of course. Bill Evans, Horace Silver. With regard to singing in particular, you must start with our father, Louis Armstrong. The big three: Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan. After them: Betty Carter, Dinah Washington, Nat Cole, Ray Charles.

Plenty. I'm a jazz singer. I perform music that I can present within what my definition of what jazz is. You won't hear the latest from Celine Dion or Usher or Whitney Houston. Current pop music I don't do because I haven't found a way to work it into the style that I do and have it be comfortable for the listener. And I haven't found a way to perform it just like the record that is comfortable for me. So I just leave it alone. I'm not big on reciting songs, and that's something that a lot of musicians who perform in this kind of space get into. They kind of switch their brains off when a certain song comes up and say, "OK, we'll just get it out of the way." And I'm not interested in doing that. If I have that kind of feeling about a tune then I just won't play it.

That's easy. These songs are old friends. Basically I come to work and I have conversations with old friends. There's no excuse for boredom in what I do. Boredom only comes when you don't allow yourself to be present in what you're doing. Besides, I know full well that I could be somebody who's working for a living. The fact that I can come to work and perform music that I really enjoy, and perform it any way I choose, that's a gift.

Scotty Wright is very protective of jazz because the word has been used and abused for so long. But he's philosophically good humoured about that.

"Jazz has been with us for 100 years, but not everybody knows much about it yet," he said. "And Bangkok is still a relatively young jazz community. We can't come over here and automatically assume that everybody knows what we're doing.

"There is a tradition. Jazz is not a label you can velcro onto your coat. It comes from somewhere, and if you do it, you're part of that tradition. But people are confused about what it is. Education is needed. I don't mean lectures _ just listening. And if you run a bar or a restaurant and invite people to come and listen to jazz _ make sure that that's what those people get."

And what we get in the Lobby Lounge of the Four Seasons Bangkok Hotel is a musical experience not unrelated to the entertainment music we're used to, but with a lot more depth, invention, emotional range and excitement. Wright has a musical voice; the deep notes are warm, the high notes clear and in between they are firm and confident _ but liable to change at a moment's notice.

Scotty Wright: "There is a tradition. Jazz is not a label you can velcro onto your coat. It comes from somewhere, and if you do it, you're part of that tradition."

"Let me tell you what I can't do," he confides, sipping on a tall glass of water. "I can't sing a song the same way twice."

Jazz is about inventiveness, among many other things. It tells the singer that if he or she chooses a song, it becomes his or her song. The singer must take possession of it and make of it what he can. He gets into the words and into the music, they get into him: his personality, mood, creativity and style. And the singer sends them right out again; but they're not the same now. They have been through another layer in the creative process.

"Jazz singing started with Louis Armstrong," said Wright. "Everybody was influenced by Louis, including Billie Holliday, and she always said so. She was the second great influence on singers in the 1930s and '40s; then it was Ella (Fitgerald) and Sarah (Vaughan). Listening to Billie taught me to focus on the lyrics; with Ella it was the rhythm, with Sarah the moods reflected in the voice."

But there aren't so many male jazz singers, it seems. Great entertainers were influenced by the music but few claimed to sing jazz. On his one visit to Bangkok some years ago, Tony Bennet spelled it out. "I can't say I'm a jazz singer," he said. "But I always work with jazz musicians because they're the best for me."

It was just about time for Scotty Wright to begin his show, and I mentioned the name of a singer who was a hero of mine, Jon Hendricks, an inspired lyricist who intricately fitted words to solos by great jazz musicians.

"You like Jon Hendricks? I'll do a couple of his songs," Scotty said, and settling in behind the piano he sprang into Joyspring, a bright, bubbling kind of song made famous by the young trumpet player, Clifford Brown. He had a terrific impact on the jazz world for a few short years in the early 1950s, but died in a car crash when he was 25.

Wright recalled Clifford Brown in another song half way through the programme with, I Remember Clifford, a lyrical tribute that celebrated his short-lived talent: "A trumpet sound that had a beauty all its own."

Up went the tempo and the mood with the next song, a be-bop classic associated with Charlie Parker and Dizzie Gillespie. It has always been a favourite with jazzers and you frequently hear it today, though not usually in the vocal version. It's a fast exciting number, and after the lyrics establishing the mystery and romance of a night beneath the Tunisian moon, Wright delivered his own scat version abandoning the words and letting the voice flow freely in imitation of a trumpet of a saxophone.

His scat singing is original; it actually sounds as if he's singing very fast in another language _ I thought Swedish or Portuguese. It certainly stirs up the excitement though.

His next selection was an instrumental by the Count Basie band of the 1950s, Li'l Darling. This is a sentimental, tough-tender ballad with long lines that had the massed, fiery sections of the Basie band choked down to a breathless hush:

"Li'l Darlin' may not be as pretty as some other girls you might see,

But my li'l darling' only loves me"

There was a lot of tenderness in the songs Wright had chosen, as well as ironic humour, hip philosophy and pure "let the good times roll" enjoyment.

Finally, a bossa nova, where jazz and lounge music meet. Brazilian jazz samba was brought to universal popularity in the early 1960s when the prolific tenor player, Stan Getz, once a star of the cool school, became affected by the music of Jobim and Gilberto. They made a series of recordings together and the laid back bossa nova rhythm recalling urban tropical beaches has never gone out of style.

Scotty Wright chose Chega de Saudade, which I think might mean something like, "Girl from the neighbourhood" but which we know as No More Blues. He blended his percussive piano style ("I started as a drummer") with the samba rhythm and sang partly in English, partly in Portuguese and partly scat.

It was an impressive performance: 12 songs each with a different atmosphere, a different tempo, a different mood all put together in a well thought-out sequence. I asked Scotty how many of the songs had lyrics by Jon Hendricks.

"Every one of them!" he said. "I didn't set out to do that, but this is something you get with jazz _ if you have a good idea, you can go ahead and follow it."

And you can go ahead and follow Scotty Wright at the Four Seasons Bangkok Hotel's Lobby Lounge from 8pm every evening until October 31. Call 02-251-6127 for more information.

Music was always present in my life- my mother singing around the house, radio, TV (a much wider variety of music on television in the 1950s-60s), the Latin hymns in church, playground songs (hopscotch and hand-jive rhymes). It was never a conscious act when I was young; music was always there, it seems.

Singing was just something we did, as I mentioned above. I was about 8 when my parents got a piano and my older sister and I took lessons. We were stationed in Germany, however, and the professor who came to teach us couldn't deal with someone who learned music by ear, so he told my parents I wasn't learning 'properly'. As a result, my parents stopped the lessons, and got rid of the piano. I didn't go back to the piano until high school, and then chose to teach myself.

Most of my overseas work has been in Asia- Japan, China, Korea, Malaysia, Thailand. I've lived in California longer than anywhere else, so most of my work in the US was on the west coast.

Several. My first jazz recording, Too Much Fun, was recorded in 1988. rhythm reason & rhyme was recorded in 1995, and the Treasure Island Collection is an anthology of standards I recorded in Hong Kong for an audiophile label, Treasure Island Sound, between 1996 and 1998. Both rhythm and Treasure are available here in Dubai, at the Palm Grill.

Long list, but I'll try to offer some highlights:

My album release concerts for 'Too Much Fun' in Monterey CA (before a hometown crowd) and in San Francisco

My first concert in New York City, at Birdland

Singing with Dave Brubeck for (one of) his 70th birthday tributes. Dave and had met before, and he was very generous with his time and encouragement.

Two concerts in Japan- one in Osaka, the other in Chigasaki- when I first felt my voice/piano concept come together. Extremely exciting when, after years of work and study, one finally 'gets it'!

Ray Drummond

Noel Jewkes

Omar Clay

Dave Brubeck

Cedar Walton

Nicholas Bouloukos

Except for Brubeck, this list will mean nothing to the casual jazz listener, but each of these musicians has taught me so much about music, life, and about myself.

After my failed attempt at learning piano 'properly', I played drums. Didn't take long to discover I was not a drummer (although some say I still play drums, I just use a piano instead)

Very much in its infancy stage. We have no venues at this point, and very few musicians who are committed to preserving the tradition. The musicians here who truly understand jazz, are expected to play other kinds of music in order to work. Sadly, this does not keep the venues from claiming they present jazz.

I have yet to hear much jazz in Dubai. The one place I've been that offers some jazz is the band at JamBase (Mina A Salaam), but they are primarily a funk band who do a bit of jazz on the side.

Still, bear in mind that, with only one evening off (Saturday), I haven't heard all there is to hear, I hope. But I haven't even heard about any jazz venues.

A true connoisseur will be a bit disappointed, I'm afraid. What passes for jazz in Dubai tends to be a groove band playing jazz-funk hits of the 1970s (Canteloupe Island, Blue Bossa, Mr. Magic, Just The Two Of Us, etc.), or a singer with piano and/or computer accompaniment, singing standards like Misty or Girl From Ipanema.

One small clue: computers do not play jazz. Jazz is a music involving a give-and-take between the players; computers can give, but they can't take.

There are people here who say they would love to listen to live jazz. The first venue that truly commits to opening a genuine jazz club is going to create a shock wave in this city.

Most people who come out to hear jazz aren't particular about what is played; it's how the music is played that matters. Those who are not jazz fans will want to hear either familiar standards (Georgia, My Funny Valentine, Summertime) or something bluesy.

I feel the festival is capable of generating excitement about the music; it's a big event with strong corporate sponsorship, so it can reach a lot of people. The danger for the festival producers is using the label 'Jazz Festival' too loosely: Kool and the Gang and Supertramp were/are not jazz artists, and if that is not made clear to the audience, confusion will reign, and jazz will be done a disservice. The message will be, "we're bringing in these other non-jazz acts because real jazz is not entertaining enough".

A jazz festival is important because it is an opportunity to celebrate the music and garner a wider audience. Once again, though, if the headliners are pop bands, that already have a large audience, the effect on jazz will be minimal.

Jam sessions are family gatherings. These are the times when musicians get to share ideas and communicate with one another more freely than during a pre-arranged concert. I'm curious to see what kind of music will come out of a jam session with such a diverse roster of musicians.

As for whether I'll take part, it will depend on my commitments at the Palm Grill...

All the acts are fun, but I'd want to hear the musicians I haven't heard: Sarah Morrow, Yves Carini, Silvia Droste, Cecile Verny. Chico and Hilton I've heard before- Chico with The Leaders, and Hilton with bassist Ray Drummond, my first jazz mentor- but it will fun to hear them together, with a more latin focus.

This will be my first time to attend the Dubai music festival, so I can't rate it. Many festivals around the world began as jazz events and evolved into general music festivals like Dubai. I always feel as though it's a case of taking the easy way out. Jazz is a hard sell in a new market, but it will be even harder to sell after feeding the audience non-jazz at a jazz festival. Will next year actually bring a jazz headliner to close the event? We can only hope.

Three excellent reasons to rename the event the Philips Dubai Music Festival.

As a jazz singer, there is Our Father, Louis Armstrong. After Pops, the Big Three are Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan. Next for me is Betty Carter.

As for jazz music in general, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, Horace Silver, Miles Davis, Bill Evans. And about a hundred more!

What piece of music moves him the most? What are his top three ultimate desert island discs and why? (Clearly doesn't have to be jazz related)

If it must be only 3:

Louis Armstrong: to remember where we came from

Thelonious Monk: to be constantly surprised and challenged

Sarah Vaughan: to wrap myself in the sound of that glorious voice, and marvel at her musical daring

I see jazz as a distinct musical approach, with unique, recognizable elements: its use of rhythm, the harmonic approach, its freedom of form, its improvisational spirit.

I do not see jazz as a title to be bestowed on pop music or pop singers as as a way of elevating their work to something more adult or classy (Rod Stewart, Carly Simon, Michael Bublé, Norah Jones, Linda Ronstadt, Sade and so many others have been said to perform jazz; not one has ever done so, to my knowledge)

Jazz has a history, a tradition that is a part of everyone who approaches this music with the humble, sincere desire to express themselves through that tradition.

When jazz becomes merely an adjective for a marketing campaign, it has been done a disservice, and little good will be achieved.

I want every jazz festival, every jazz venue, every jazz recording to be successful, but not at the expense of the music itself. To have Norah Jones, for instance, win Grammy awards in the jazz category, for music that (as anyone should be able to hear) has far more connection with country-pop than jazz, points to a danger that permeates every facet of our society: if the media says something loud enough, often enough, it must be true.

I am grateful for this opportunity to share these ideas. Knowing that the main thrust of this interview is to promote the Dubai festival, a lot of what is said here might not be welcome. Still, it's my responsibility to answer the questions as honestly as I can, and leave the editing to someone else.

"Asking a musician for his favorite songs or recordings is like asking a beach lover his favourite grain of sand on the shore," said Scotty Wright, jazz pianist and singer at Palm Grill, when we asked him to choose six records he can't live without. Did we stop badgering him? Of course not. And here's what he picked:

Louis Armstrong -- Ain't Misbehavin'

Louis is our father. Anyone who claims to sing jazz comes from Pops. Armstrong taught us how to swing, how to scat (wordless vocalizing) and most importantly how to express our personality through our playing. His Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings show his genius in his early career, but for those meeting him for the first time, try Satch Plays Fats, a later album where Satchmo performs the music of another pioneering performer, Fats Waller.

Duke Ellington -- In A Mellotone

The Duke created a jazz orchestra sound that was unique because it was fashioned around the individual players in his group. He wrote songs and arrangements specifically for them. A prolific writer, even those who say they know nothing of jazz will recognize some of his melodies. A good disc to start with is The Blanton Webster Band.

Thelonious Monk -- Round Midnight

The patron saint of all non-conformists, of all who choose to live, play or write music their own way. It takes a while for anyone who loves piano music to understand or appreciate how Monk plays, but his songwriting is incredible -- so angular, yet with its own logic and design. Give a listen to Live at the It Club; almost all the songs are written by Monk, and his quartet on this date was completely in sync with His Royal Quirkiness.

Miles Davis -- Seven Steps To Heaven

Miles was a restless genius. Many of our favourite musicians develop a sound and a style that suits their needs; Miles changed his approach every few years, sometimes subtly, often radically. Although the "cool jazz" title is usually attached to Miles (with his Kind of Blue being the disc people focus on), I would suggest The Complete Concert 1964, a benefit performance where he and his quintet, featuring Herbie Hancock and Tony Williams, kicked some serious ass.

Sarah Vaughan -- Wave

I end this list with the two biggest influences on my approach to jazz singing. It was a tie between this beautiful bossa nova ballad and her romp through I'll Remember April. Sarah was formally trained in music at a time when most singers in jazz were pretty underdeveloped vocally. Her idol was classical singer Marian Anderson, and yet Sass undeniably had the heart of a jazz musician; the styles created from these two elements took the jazz scene by surprise. My suggested introduction to Sass would be Live In Japan, on Mainstream.

Betty Carter -- Tight

The ideal disc to meet Ms Carter with is The Audience with Betty Carter, on her own label, Bet-Car Records. Unlike most jazz singers of her time, Betty wrote a lot of her own songs and arrangements. Tough, uncompromising, super energy, and very up-front (in one of her love songs, she declares, "I love your smell"). Any new approach in jazz singing has to come to terms with what Betty laid out; an incredibly innovative vocalist.

"I'm a Californian," says Scotty Wright when I ask him 'where he hails from. Even when he's just talking, Scotty's voice has a warm timbre. If you didn't know him, you might still guess that he's a jazz & blues singer. Apart from that voice, his manner has a certain tell-tale rhythm to it.

Lobby of the Four Seasons, Bangkok

Our meeting place is the lobby lounge of the Four Seasons Hotel on Bangkok's Ratchadarnri Road. Scotty is the new season's act. I've seen many such hotel 'acts', albeit mostly in less prestigious locales - sleepy musicians going through their routines, accustomed to being alone apart from the odd slumbering visitor and giving the distinct impression that they're using the time for overdue rehearsal.

This is not Scotty's debut in the Big Mango. "My first time here was in 1999. It was for the opening of the Peninsula Hotel." He attracted attention for his skills as a musician and entertainer, and has since been contracted regularly for return visits - usually engagements of one season's duration. Unlike many acts, Scotty performs solo, in the dual role of piano player and singer.

There are about 40 people waiting for him to start performing, but we still have a few minutes before it's time. "The hotel community is a small one," Scotty explains. "People in the industry talk to each other. So, once a few hotels like what you have to offer, others will show an interest. I am independent. That means I do my own PR. I get new contracts either by being contacted directly or by approaching places where I'd like to play."

For Scotty, playing music comes naturally - to the extent that in a sense he does it for free. "About 80 per cent of people work without caring," he argues. "Ask them if they'd still do it if they didn't get paid, and they wouldn't. For me it's different. My job consists of packing my bag, catching a plane and showing up at the appointed place on time. But once I sit down at the piano, I just do what I do".

A few minutes later, Scotty opens up with a series of songs, including As Time Goes By and Love is a Hurting Thing. Though the numbers are easily recognisable, Scotty has added his personal style. It's a signature that's hard to forget. "It's like this guy is talking to you - personally, directly," remarks a patron sitting on the next sofa. Even so - and as you'd expect in a respectable, genteel environment such as this lobby lounge the initial applause is muted. Who wants to disturb people absorbed in serious business talk?

So it comes as a surprise when the last chord of Scotty's rendition of What a Wonderful World fades away and the response is a wild ovation. Several people whoop approvingly,- many others stand and give him the thumbs-up sign. If there are rules of decorum which apply when listening to hotel music, they have been comprehensively junked tonight.

"Jazz and blues came out of the denial of slaves' right to communicate with each other. With very few exceptions, slaves were not allowed to talk in their own language. So, it was through their music that they communicated instead. This was how they kept their oral tradition and history alive."

Having - accumulatively, at any rate - spent several years in Bangkok, Scotty has seen at close hand how the local music scene has evolved. "I'm lucky enough to get to know people. I snoop around. When I finish playing, I often go to other music venues, such as the Saxophone at Victory Monument. Sometimes I join the bands for a jam session".

Although a solo performer, Scotty sees himself as part of the global jazz & blues community - he stays connected through his world-wide engagements and his network of professional contacts. From this perspective, and his local experiences and observations, Scotty concludes that Thailand is still not equipped to support a self-sustaining jazz & blues community. "There are essential parts missing. To thrive, you need sufficient venues where musicians can learn and build up their experience specific places for jazz study, and high-end venues for 'headliners' (international-standard masters of the art). Mentoring is so important in jazz. No one learns art at school. Techniques and history, yes."

The economic factor doesn't help. Says Scotty: "Everything is controlled by money and marketing. Young, inexperienced musicians get the job for less money than professionals. Music can be 'rendered' through technology, but this stifles further development. People become isolated, stuck in a rut. Even so, despite all the setbacks due to greed and ignorance, the Thai jazz & blues community is getting there."