Intimate Strangers

In November of 1977, saxophonist/composer Tom Scott took a hard look at his musical life and decided to make some changes.

True, he had long been hailed as one of the kings of the Hollywood studio scene, but he had also scattered his energies and talents well beyond the point where others with less stamina might have dropped in their tracks.

In 1967, at the age of 18, he left USC music school and recorded his first record, Spirit Feel, with Roger Kellaway. In 1970, he won the down beat Critics Poll for soprano saxophone in the Talent Deserving Wider Recognition category. In 1973, he recorded Great Scott and won a Grammy Nomination for it. In both 1973 and 1974, he won the studio musicians’ Most Valuable Player Award. In the 1976 down beat Reader’s Poll, he placed in three categories: soprano sax, alto sax, and Miscellaneous Instruments (Lyricon); in the 1977 Reader’s Poll, he placed in four categories: soprano, alto, tenor and Miscellaneous (Lyricon).

As a studio arranger and performing musician, he had worked on over 300 albums, including Joni Mitchell’s Court And Spark, For The Roses, and Miles of Aisles, Carole King’s Wrap Around Joy, and Barbra Streisand’s Butterfly.

His television scores included Cannon, Cade’s County, Barnaby Jones, Dan August, The Streets of San Francisco, the final Baretta series, and the more recent novel-for-television, Aspen.

He had done a host of films, including Uptown Saturday Night, The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, The Culpepper Cattle Company, and The Sidecar Boys.

At one point (in late 1974), his “typical day” was impressive indeed. He stood on a podium at Universal Studios, baton in hand, and conducted a full orchestra, recording his own film score for Sidecar Boys.

Then he hopped in the car and zipped across town to the A&M Studios. There, he rehearsed his own arrangements for the music of George Harrison’s upcoming tour. He then shifted to another A&M studio and rehearsed and played the extraordinarily complex music of Ravi Shankar’s segment of that same tour. Two weeks later, he was on the road performing side-by-side with both Harrison and Shankar.

After those rehearsals, he hopped in the car again, zoomed out to the Baked Potato, a North Hollywood jazz club, and performed his own compositions with his own band, the L. A. Express.

Back home, he composed some music, slept a few hours, and was up early the next morning to record more music for his own Tom Cat LP, released in 1975 (followed by New York Connection, November 1975, and the more recent Blow It Out).

In November of 1977, several things came to a head. Tom had completed the scores for the last season of Baretta. He had finished work on the TV novel, Aspen. He had finished producing Doc Severinsen’s album, A Brand New Thing. He had completed the tour with the CBS Jazz All-Stars, recording the live album, Alivemutherforya (Columbia, JC 35349), with Billy Cobham, Alphonso Johnson and Steve Kahn.

“It was time for me to regroup,” he said, “to stop spreading out in so many diversified directions, and to begin to focus my energies in a single direction. I decided to concentrate on my solo career.”

Intimate Strangers is the result. Not only is Intimate Strangers Tom’s first work for Columbia, his new label, but it is conceptually different from anything else he has done in the past. The entire first side is a three-part, six-song suite, consciously constructed to tell a story.

“The story is about a certain unnamed saxophone player,” Tom grinned, “who is finishing up a set in a nightclub somewhere, like the Bottom Line in New York, perhaps, or maybe the Roxy in L.A.”

“He sees a girl in the audience and is instantly enthralled by her. As he’s playing, he dreams about being with her. That dream, that fantasy, forms the body of the suite.”

“The beginning and the end of the suite take place in the same club environment, and are the same tune, ‘Hi-Steppers,’ written in a slow but up-mood funky 6/4 tempo.”

“At the end of the first part of ‘Hi-Steppers,’ I say ‘I’d like to dedicate this song to the lovely lady in the third row.’ We play, and then the song fades on a high note. The high note sustains, taken over by the synthesizer, and there we begin the fantasy journey itself.”

Opening the fantasy is the love theme, “Lost Inside The Love Of You,” featuring Tom’s yearning, full-bodied tenor saxophone and a 15-flute “orchestra,” with Tom overdubbing all of the parts. Eric Gale takes a soulful, love-struck guitar solo, miking his electric guitar and playing it acoustically.

“Then the girl and I have a wonderful whirlwind day out together, each of us sort of playing hookey from our respective routines. It’s called ‘Getaway Day.’”

On “Getaway Day,” a sparkly, medium-tempo piece full of sunshine and new love, Tom utilizes three soprano saxes for the lead lines. The clicking sounds in the rhythm track are from Steve Gadd’s use of four drum sticks against the rim of his snare.

“Getaway” ends on a Db7+9 chord. The +9 note, “E,” becomes the tonic, tonal “home base” of the next piece, “Night Creatures.”

“We use two drummers on ‘Night Creatures,’ Steve Gadd and Rich Marotta. It’s a sort of sophisticated disco piece, portraying our night out on the town. There’s a whole montage of city night sounds — having dinner, laughing, out on the street, traffic noise, 52nd Street, a disco, Harlem, girls singing. These two tunes together — Getaway Day and ‘Night Creatures’ constitute the suite’s second movement.”

“After a brief reprise of the love theme, utilizing a synthesizer ‘orchestra,’ and featuring acoustic solos, one of which is by bassist Jaco Pastorius, we segue into the ballad, ‘Do You Feel Me Now,’ which I sing.”

“Do You Feel Me Now” is a poignant ballad in which new love conflicts with the necessities of being on the road, for indeed, “a music man is a one-night stand.”

“At the end of ‘Do You Feel Me Now,’” said Tom, “I hold a high note — the same high note we heard initially at the end of the first ‘Hi-Steppers.’”

“I go to the high note. The rhythm section fades out from ‘Feel Me Now.’ The note remains. And then, we’re back in the nightclub again at the same point we were before, in a ‘Hi-Steppers’ vamp. The fantasy is over. I introduce the guys in the band, the people clap, and we fade out while the band is still playing.”

“In films,” Tom continued, “I’ve often written in relation to previously established story situations, but I’ve never before done it for an album of my own. Here, I envisioned the story in my head, and then composed the music to bring the situation alive.”

“The story line in no way diminishes the content or the quality of each individual song. Each composition is complete in itself and functions on its own. The listener can listen to one song at a time, or to the whole work in one sitting. I intended the overall concept and each separate piece to work hand-in-hand.”

The second side consists of four separate tunes. Tom’s “Breezin’ Easy” is a relaxed, appropriately easygoing piece, with a haunting melody played on the Lyricon (an electric woodwind instrument, a kind of cross between synthesizer, organ, and clarinet). Keyboardist Richard Tee is colorfully and sensitively complimentary.

“Puttin’ The Bite On You,” perhaps one of the strongest Scott compositions on the album, is a sexy, funk-oriented piece featuring Scott overdubbing six tenor saxes playing three different ensemble parts (2-2-2). One of the highlights is Tom’s impassioned Lyricon solo.

Richard Tee’s “You’re So Good To Me” is mellow, on the chic-funk side of it all, with marvelously full and sensual chordal voicings by guitarist Hugh McCracken. You can also hear Ralph MacDonald in the background pumping out the rhythms by clicking two cable jacks in each hand.

“Beautiful Music,” written by MacDonald, whose percussion work throughout Intimate Strangers is often stunning, is a fast, bright, buoyant number, speedy and catchy in much the same way as Dixieland music. In fact, those obsessed with labels will find it irresistible to call “Beautiful Music” Dixie-funk.

So there it is. At the young age of only 29, Tom Scott already has behind him the glories of studio stardom. He now has a new record label, a new solo direction, a new album, and a new concept. In the light of Intimate Strangers, he has only just begun.

– Lee Underwood West Coast Editor down beat

Track Listing

Side 1

1. Hi-Steppers
2. Lost Inside The Love Of You
3. Getaway Day
4. Night Creatures
5. Do You Feel Me Now

Side 2

1. Breezin’ Easy
2. Puttin’ The Bite On You
3. You’re So Good To Me
4. Beautiful Music

Album Information

• Artist: Tom Scott
• Catalog Number: JC 35349
• Catalog Numbers: JC 35349
• Label: Columbia
• Liner Notes: Lee Underwood West Coast Editor down beat
• Source: NO_CATALOG_NUMBER-9q044
• Sale Price Sticker: #23 Sale $1- Price
• Liner Notes Author: Lee Underwood, West Coast Editor, down beat