Shirley Scott

If I am not listening to Carla Bley at night or while running errands, I often turn to the music of Shirley Scott. I am currently listening to Scott's One for Me, which is available on Bandcamp and which features Billy Higgins on drums and Harold Vick on saxophone. It was originally released in 1975 and recently re-released. 

Shirley Scott, unfortunately, only gets two paragraphs in Linda Dahl's Stormy Weather: The Music and Lives of a Century of Jazz Women. Very few contemporary women in jazz actually appear in that book although Carla Bley is one exception and is given an entire chapter.

One track of Shirley Scott's that I often listen to is "Deep Down Soul," which can be found on her album Soul Shoutin' and on YouTube. Stanley Turrentine can be heard on that track as well.

Carla Bley & Steve Swallow

The isolation and social distancing that have characterized much of the year have led me to find solace in music, particularly Carla Bley, whose work I had gotten to know initially through the music of Gary Burton. My days often start or end with my listening to Carla Bley on YouTube, particularly one of the two songs appearing below. It's unfortunate that Carla Bley's "Lawns" is not on the Duet album released in 1988 and has not appeared on her trio albums with Steve Swallow and Andy Sheppard.