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WHAT
THE MEDIA IS SAYING ABOUT JIM SCOTT
Columbus
Indiana, The Republic
Folk Singer to Deliver an Activist's Message
By Brian Blair
bblair@therepublic.com Jim
Scott sees his guitar as an instrument, all right. But he views it
as an instrument to build bridges between
people.
His performances
are "celebrations of the common humanity of all cultures - our connections
with each other and the earth," as he puts it.
Scott
will lead a celebration, then, at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation
of Columbus. He is scheduled
to speak and
sing while focusing on, "Cultivating
Peace - The Green Sanctuary Program." He has worked for several
years helping develop the program for churches to become more ecologically
aware and proactive.
Scott
intersperses original songs and readings with his reflections on a
spiritual and ecological awareness.
The performer's
work on songs
such as "Common Ground" and the "Missa Gaia/Earth Mass" with
the illustrious Paul Winter Consort pushed him into the national spotlight
and he has since collaborated with top jazz, classical and folks artists,
plus appearing often now with concert choirs.
Today,
Scott writes music, poetry, and short stories and has just completed
Volume One of "The Earth and Spirit Songbook" an
anthology of songs of earth and peace by many well-known songwriters.
He also visits
schools to perform and teach improvisational music workshops.
ARTS & LIFE:
Scott Helps
Kids See World Through Rhythm and Rhyme
By Mary Spicer
MEADVILLE TRIBUNE
Since Monday, Jim Scott has been Meadville's artist in residence, using
music to give teachers and students from Crawford Central School District
and Allegheny College what he calls "the experience of being in
harmony." Rhythm and rhyme are part of the experience. If the songs
created involve topics not usually associated with music - like science
and math - so much the better. "When things rhyme, we remember them," Scott
told a group of more than 30 Crawford Central teachers at a Thursday
afternoon workshop. "Shakespeare understood that. But, much more
than that, the song can transport us to the experience again and again
letting us feel something emotional beyond the intellectual. The rhythm
and melody can have cultural meaning in themselves, acquainting us
with people different from us but making a connection we understand
that stays
with us. Throughout the week, Scott worked with second-, third- and fourth-grade
students from First District Elementary School. Tonight, Scott will give
a free public concert, which will include songs the fourth-grade students
wrote during his visit, at 7:30 in Allegheny College's Ford Chapel.
Drew Finton, one of the fourth-graders who will join Scott on the stage
tonight in the song they co-wrote "Everything's Connected",
is finishing the week with a lot to think about.
Finton
explained. "It's just really amazing. It's such a big world
and everything is connected. It's hard to believe, and making poetry
comes closest to describing it. Other songs composed reflected the current
studies in Fourth Grade Science classes, including “Moving Around
the World,” about animals’ mobility with legs, wings, fins,
etc. and “Where Would We be without Flowers.”
"Looking back at the whole experience," Challenge Center teacher
Bobbi Wonders recalled; "you can say connection was certainly the
theme.” “That was the idea, said Beth Etter, director of
the Allegheny College Music Outreach 'Program co-sponsor of Scott's residency. "So
much research shows what music does for academics," she said, explaining
music gives students ways to focus on things they might otherwise not
understand.
The
week's focus, however, was not only on the students. Funding for Scott's
visit came as well from Crawford
Central's
teacher staff development
funds. Kathy Thomas, Crawford Central's director of curriculum and instruction,
has been a partner in developing the program and is a co-sponsor of the
residency. "The primary focus is to educate teachers as to how the
arts can be integrated into other academic disciplines," Thomas
said. "This is our first step in addressing the use of multiple
intelligences, and teachers are the primary focus, although kids will
be the obvious recipients of the benefits." Teachers usually turn
their kids over to Scott when he visits, but working with the teachers
pointed up ways they might include this approach with other activities.
For
Scott, the combination of science and music came from his songwriting. "(It)
just evolved that I wrote about the earth and natural things - and what
I consider beautiful and amazing," he said. A classically trained
musician, who graduated from Eastman School of Music and Berklee College
in Boston, he performed with the Paul Winter Consort for many years. "A
Song for the Earth," a song he wrote more than 20 years ago, led
to invitations to perform for ecological conferences and other events,
where he would learn more and pen songs from his experience.
Invited
by friends, who were teachers or parents to play in schools, he began
to write songs specifically
for kids.
To keep a young audience's
attention, he adapted a celebratory stance involving humor and lots of
audience participation. Eventually, his school experiences combined with
his longtime work teaching music improvisation to adults. The outcome,
he calls "a creative response" to the problems of the world. "We
can respond to the trouble we're in either with violence and anger and
defense, or we can know there's a creative solution we can come up with
somehow. Not just a Band-Aid fix for the problem, but another way to
approach things. When we play around with this, I find kids expressing
themselves more readily. I find they are more centered and they speak
more clearly. The carry themselves differently, it affects everything," he
said.
The
Challenge Center at First District, is designed to provide educational
opportunities for the district's
gifted students.
For Challenge Center
teacher Diane Mariani, the connections were also clear. "He was
also connecting with different subjects - talking about not separating
science from music from mathematics from history, but connecting them
all together."
Sharon
Herald (Dec. 2000)
JIM SCOTT WILL PERFORM AT MCKEEVER
By Joe Pinchot
As a child, Jim Scott was given two albums that profoundly
affected him: one by Elvis Presley and the other by classical guitarist Andres
Segovia.
"I played those records for a long time," said Scott, who performs
at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at McKeever Environmental Learning Center, Lake Township. "I
knew everything on them."
While the music Scott performs and writes probably couldn't
be confused with either superstar, it shows the range he's capable.
He's written orchestral and choral works, a stage musical and
songs for voice and guitar; played "earth music" with the Paul Winter Consort
in large halls, jazz in the Army and rock with bar bands; and it trained in classical
guitar.
Scott grew up in a musical family, the son of musician parents,
and his brother, Tom, is a Grammy Award-winnning sound engineer.
He "seriously pursued" guitar from elementary school into high
school, then got into percussion.
"As college wore on, the guitar won out," he said, calling
from his home in Shrewsbury,, Mass.
Scott graduated from Eastman School of Music, Rochester, NY,
with a bachelor's degree in theory, played in the Army in the late 60's and early
70's, studied for a year at the University of Maryland, then received a bachelor's
in guitar from Berklee College of Music in Boston.
His musical legacy was forged at Berkelee.
"The first week I was there someone said,"You know, there's
a notice on the board that Paul Winter is looking for a guitar player."
Winter has played in groups using some form of his name since
the early '60's and the consort made its name with an album produced by Beatles
producer George Martin. Winter, a saxophonist who plays what he calls "Earth
music," surrounds himself with top-notch players such as guitarist Ralph Towner.
"I became the second Ralph Towner," Scott said. "People would
come up to me and say, "Are you Ralph Towner?" I'd say, "No," and they'd say, "Oh."
He not only came to be accepted by the group's fans but wrote
songs, arrangements and orchestrations.
"I went from being in a bar band where you're trying to get
people to listen to you and maybe make them dance to sitting on a stage where
everyone is silent and every note you play is significant," he said.
Scott joined in 1977 and stopped as a full-time member in 1984,
although he has played with the group occasionally since then.
Scott said he had ideas he wanted to explore outside of the
band, without the interference that comes from being a member of a band led by
someone else.
"He (Winter) didn't write much himself, but he collaborated
a lot and he always had his own agenda," said Scott, adding that Winter would
scribble all over Scott's scores in pen, sometimes obscuring what was originally
written.
"It was frustrating for someone who came from classical music
school to work with this type of guy."
Scott left but was initially uncomfortable with the decision.
"I was going out and playing on my own occasionally, but I
knew I wouldn't be able to play big concert halls on my own."
Scott and Winter remain friends and Winter's influence is most
noticeable in Scott's concern for earth and environmental issues.
"I had written songs about the earth before I first met Paul
Winter," said Scott, who wrote parts of the group's "Missa Gaia/Earth Mass." "But
being with Paul Winter got me more into that."
Scott usually performs these days with only his guitar for
support, and while his environmental songs could easily be thrown in with the
tradition of folk singers pounding out protest songs, he feels he's more musically
advanced.
"It's a celebration of the earth in music," said Scott, who
is writing and performing the soundtrack for the PBS series "Body and Soul." "I
have a lot of songs that are about nature, ecology, and even some that are political/social
protest about the state of the earth.
"But the music is first. I try to make it a real positive thing.
I feel I play more guitar than the average folk singer."
The McKeever show will draw heavily from his most recent recording, "Sailing
With The Moon," from 1997, but will include instrumental guitar pieces and other
works.
He also leads sing-alongs and breaks the audience into parts
for some choral singing.
"I try to make it enjoyable. I kind of size up the audience
when I get there."
Brockton
MA Enterprise (Feb 1999)
JAVAWOCKY OPENS WITH JIM SCOTT'S MUSIC
by Gill Bliss
Lewis Carroll might object, but city residents will son be
enjoying a new performing-arts coffeehouse at the Universalist Unitarian Church
of Brockton.
The title is taken from Carroll's famous "Jabberwocky" poem
in "Through the Looking Glass," but the Saturday-night opening of the long-awaited
local arts forum is not a fantasy.
Giving the room at 325 West Elm St. a musical baptism will
be Jim Scott, a former member of the Paul Winter Consort, and he's a musician
who champions themes of peace, brotherhood and protection of the environment.
Scott is the perfect choice to open the series because he has
developed a reputation as being a "UU activist," having visited more than 300
Unitarian Universalist churches, both for concerts and church services.
Following the Saturday night concert at 8, Scott will participate
in the Sunday morning church service.
The Marshfield native gained national recognition for his work
with Paul Winter and also the improvisational music group Radiance. He spent
the last decade on a solo career that has combined performing and composing with
a commitment to a progressive social agenda.
In opening Javawocky, organizer Dave Bassett of Brockton and
his associates join network of folk and acoustic venues across the region that
are housed in Unitarian Universalist facilities, including coffeehouses in Bridgewater,
Kingston and New Bedford.
"We though it would fill a void in Brockton and be a good way
to get he church out to the local community," said Richard Wayne, commissioner
of Worship and Program, a 30-year church member and a retired Bridgewater State
College theater professor.
Scott said he can be found "almost every Sunday at a church
someplace." He now lives in the Boston area after spending 11 years in Oregon.
Although he grew up attending a Universalist church in Norwell
and then a Congregational church in Marshfield, "I didn't realize we were all
that different from other Protestant groups," he recalled.
As a youth, he heard of many different philosophies, many with
an "activist leaning," Scott said, about topics such as the peace movement and
ecology.
"Now I have three songs in the hymn book," Scott said, including
the popular "Gather The Spirit."
While it was songs like "Common Ground" and "A Song For the
Earth" that put Scott, 53, in a national spotlight with the Winter group, he
is just as comfortable writing children's music, teaching improvisational music
workshops or composing for choirs, such as when he premiered "Vessels of the
Sun" on March 7 at a Unitarian church in Worcester.
His social activism is an ongoing theme in his art, and "I've
gone from being outspoken to having it be my personal growth philosophy," Scott
said. "Making art of our lives is a social/political/activist thing to do," he
said, a philosophy he brings to his workshops.
You can check out that philosophy online at www.jimscottsongs.com,
where his several compact discs are also available.
In addition to his concerts, Scott is the composer of the soundtrack
for the PBS documentary series "Body and Soul."
Scott said Central Music in Brockton is providing sound services
for his concert, which brought back memories of guitar lessons he took there
around 1959-60 from jazz guitarist Phil Cooper.
For the opening, Javawocky will also present readings by local
poets Fay George, Dianne Holcomb and Marc Swayne, and art work will be on display
from members of "The Artists Circle at the Fuller Museum."
Warye said organizers hope to produce one show per month, with
another evening of entertainment planned for March 13, with performers still
undetermined.
A suggested donation of $5 will be collected at the door, which
opens at 7:30 PM. For more information call 508-559-0241.
Centre
County Times (Dec. 1999)
SONGWRITER PREACHES WITH PASSION ON LATEST ALBUM, "SAILING WITH
THE MOON"
CD Review by Matt Swayne
Jim Scott sounds a lot like what James Taylor would sound like
if he were a little bit smarter and a bit more well-rounded.
Nothing escapes this curious winger-songwriter, whether it's
the environment, history, spirituality or the metaphysics of braided rugs.
The songs, musically, at least, are simple and elegant creations
centered around guitar and vocals. They range from sweet ("May Your Life Be As
A Song") to angry, or at least indignant ("Nothing We Haven't Seen.")
Scott, a former member of the Paul Winter Consort, is an organic
songwriter. The sound and feel of a song is intimately connected with the subject
of the song.
"The Rainforest Song" contains not only one of the catchiest
melodies on the album, but masterful counterpoint work which seems to create
a sonic rain forest with dewy vocal lines bursting, then fading into the main
melody.
"The Braided Rug," a cut about a rug made from old clothes
and the memories they spark, has a twisting melancholy to it.
"Pioneers" is a slice of 19th-century American History 101
that also alludes to Middle East conflicts and Mexican illegal immigration. That's
an awful big chunk of world to save in a little-over-five-minute song.
Overall, "Sailing With the Moon" is a pleasurable experience...
and who knows, you may learn something.
Watertown
Daily Times (Oct. 1998)
JIM SCOTT BRINGS "EARTH, JUSTICE, PEACE" TO NNY
by David DeMar Jr.
In the song "The Oneness of Everything" from his most recent
release "Sailing With the Moon," Jim Scott sings, "Peace is in the dance of trees
who stir before the first breath of wind is yet perceived."
"Trust in the song, becoming one with the dance, and all mysteries
can be believed."
That message will be delivered along with others when "Earth,
Justice, and Peace - A Jim Scott Concert" is presented at 7 PM Saturday at All
Souls Unitarian Universalist Church, 1330 Gotham St.
The evening is one of several events celebrating the congregation's
175th anniversary, and a portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Thompson
Park Conservancy in support of The Zoo at Thompson Park.
Aside from his solo career, Jim Scott is likely best known
for his long association with the Paul Winter Consort, particularly as the voice
of that ensemble's "Common Ground." As a composer and arranger for the consort,
he created a concert in collaboration with the Indianapolis Symphony, and co-created
their choral work "Missa Gaia/Earth Mass." Paul Winter has said that his music "sings
of the life spirit."
One critic described Jim Scott as "a story teller and word
painter accompanying his messages with striking harmonies." No less a critic
than Pete Seeger called him "some kind of magician."
Jim Scott's harmonic magic is helped by the fact that he holds
a degree from Rochester's prestigious Eastman School of Music, and pursued graduate
studies a Berklee College and the University of Maryland. Like Pete Seeger and
others, he has long been known as "an activist musician" who uses his music not
only to entertain, but also to advocate for environmental, peace, and social
justice causes.
On "Sailing With the Moon," those commitments can be heard
on cuts including "The Rainforest Song," "Winter to Spring," "Plant More Than
You Harvest," and "Nothing We Haven't Seen," among others. For those who aren't
exactly fans of the Paul Winter Consort, it should be noted that Mr. Scott is
a gifted singer/songwriter whose music is sometimes reminiscent of James Taylor,
and a guitarist who blends jazz, folk, Latin, Caribbean, and other influences.
And as for peace, Jim Scott asks in "Nothing We Haven't Seen":
"Was it for law and order, that rights were wronged? / In
the name of justice, the war prolonged?
"Yet through it all some greater love was grown / And weren't
there moments beyond anything you've ever known?
For those familiar with Scott's talents and those who aren't,
the chance to hear music not often available locally shouldn't be missed.
Vero
Beach FL Press Journal (1997)
SCOTT MAKES MUSIC MAGIC
by Elliot Jones
"There's a dream of peace not so far away." Professional musician
Jim Scott strums his guitar and sings of peace coming. "If we will just release,
and let it be that way."
It's a peacenik message, but with an upbeat modern twist that
keeps Scott busy on the road performing across the nation.
He laughs and describes himself as "A white guy with guitar
who sings," but there is much more. He's an excellent guitar player with a soothing,
quality voice. Scott uses both well to deliver his messages: peace, justice and
save the environment. I'm not much of an "I need you baby" kind of singer," he
said. Somebody-done-somebody-wrong songs are not in his repertoire. "People are
more likely to come back when you celebrate, rather than remind them of stuff
we all know is bad." In his songs, he tries to give a positive end to old problems.
Brockton
MA Enterprise (1997)
JIM SCOTT AIMS FOR "A HEALING TIME" AT CONCERTS
by Gill Bliss
After some years living and working from Eugene, Oregon, Jim
Scott has returned to his native turf. The Marshfield native is a former member
of the Paul Winter Consort and has forged a career out of making music
that supports environmental and humanitarian causes. "I don't want to be known
only as a socio-political songwriter," Scott said. "My repertoire keeps growing,
I've written a lot of songs, and I guess I'm less totally focused on the agenda.
I want to provide a healing time where people can come to a concert and hear
beautiful music."
Beautiful music has been an indelible part of Scott's career,
both with the Winter Consort and as a soloist. Scott said his goal is to get
people of all ages and factions together "to make a universal music. I find that
it's less important to harangue about a certain thing, and now I try to tell
a good story."
As he matures as a composer, Scott has also dabbled in other
forms, including choral concert music and a stage musical.
Erie
PA Showcase (1996)
FOLKIE JIM SCOTT LOOKS DOWN THE BARREL OF DESPAIR AND DISARMS
IT WITH A SMILE AND A CHORUS
by Dave Richards
When a guy names an album "Earth, Sky, Love and Dreams" you
can assume he's not Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails. Says Jim, "I would own up
to a little edge of sarcasm now and then." That edge surfaces now and then on
his 1995 CD "Earth Sky Love and Dreams." It showcases an aware, concerned, heartfelt
composer who writes about big issues including war and peace and the environment,
as well as the need to maintain a hopeful spirit.
Scott says he's always been positive. "That's my nature," he
said. "I've been fortunate to get in with some visionary political activists
who've given me a sense of optimism. And certainly working with Paul Winter I
learned you can do what you want to do, say what you want and the message and
the market will find each other."
"Earth Sky..." also reveals there's a bit of James Taylor lurking
with in Scott's style. Songs like 'There's a Way" and "Season of Change" feature
sublime flowing melodies and his delicate voice.
Scott's created a musical, which debuted at Jamestown Community
College a few years ago, and also taught classes there and at Oberlin College.
Along the way he's refined his craft, which often incorporates influences from
his classical and jazz experience. His songs and harmonious acoustic guitar fit
the expanded definition of folk.
"The folk music tradition is the voice of the people," Scott
concludes. "That's what I like to think I'm representing."
Eugene
OR Register Guard and KUGN Radio (1996)
JIM SCOTT IN CONCERT WITH THE EUGENE VOCAL ARTS ENSEMBLE
by Fred Kraft
Formidable Eugene singer-guitarist Jim Scott is one of the
most engaging and warm performers ever encountered. Given half a chance, he can
make you feel as though just you and he and sitting in your living room pulling
out songs. I am a great admirer of Jim's work. His songs have extraordinary lyricism
and grace, with hopeful messages that promote peace and harmony.
In a benefit concert for the Eugene Education Fund, Scott led
a large entourage - his Emerald Valley Band, including the especially talented
steel drummer Christopher Kern and the spectacular 22-voice Eugene Vocal Arts
Ensemble.
The atractiveness of Scott's music and his charismatic delivery
is a magic combination. Nowhere was that more apparent than on two remarkable
songs from "Missa Gaia," a monumental work he created with the Paul Winter Consort.
These emotional grabbers were matched by the haunting "Common Ground," the catchy "Rainforest
Song" and the Brazillian jazzer "May Your Life Be As A Song."
Erie
PA Showcase (1996)
FOLKIE JIM SCOTT LOOKS DOWN THE BARREL OF DESPAIR AND DISARMS
IT WITH A SMILE AND A CHORUS
by Dave Richards
When a guy names an album "Earth, Sky, Love and Dreams" you
can assume he's not Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails. Says Jim, "I would own up
to a little edge of sarcasm now and then." That edge surfaces now and then on
his 1995 CD "Earth Sky Love and Dreams." It showcases an aware, concerned, heartfelt
composer who writes about big issues including war and peace and the environment,
as well as the need to maintain a hopeful spirit.
Scott says he's always been positive. "That's my nature," he
said. "I've been fortunate to get in with some visionary political activists
who've given me a sense of optimism. And certainly working with Paul Winter I
learned you can do what you want to do, say what you want and the message and
the market will find each other."
"Earth Sky..." also reveals there's a bit of James Taylor lurking
with in Scott's style. Songs like 'There's a Way" and "Season of Change" feature
sublime flowing melodies and his delicate voice.
Scott's created a musical, which debuted at Jamestown Community
College a few years ago, and also taught classes there and at Oberlin College.
Along the way he's refined his craft, which often incorporates influences from
his classical and jazz experience. His songs and harmonious acoustic guitar fit
the expanded definition of folk.
"The folk music tradition is the voice of the people," Scott
concludes. "That's what I like to think I'm representing."
Pensacola
News Journal (1996)
THIS GUY PROBABLY GOT KICKED OUT OF
"UP WITH PEOPLE" FOR BEING TOO NICE
By Troy Moon
 Scott's
songs are for grown-ups who need their own Barney. After listening to the tape
again, I realized that I was becoming sensitive and had a sudden urge to commune
with the wonders of nature. So I turned on the Discovery Channel and watched
a tiger eat a gazelle. But there are no gazelles in my neighborhood, so in order
to be more like the tiger, I went and bought a Big Mac, which for all I know
might actually contain gazelle.
While eating my Big Mac, I popped the tape back into my car
stereo and listened. It was all starting to make sense. We should all try to
live as one - everyone loving everyone and everything - while still reserving
the right to kill and eat whatever we want whenever we get the munchies.
The tape taught me trees are good. We should love them because
they, um ... well, I know they make good Louisville Sluggers. But no, that's
the old me talking. We must love trees as we love our own families. We must love
trees as we love our own spouses.
Or so I thought the music was saying to me. The police are
still looking through the books, but I think the only thing they have on me is "committing
an unnatural act with a pine." I tried to explain that we were just celebrating
our "oneness" together, but I think it's still going to trial.
Other people have blamed crimes on performers, saying "Judas
Priest made me do it." So, be ready for the subpeona, Mr. Scott, I'm blaming
it all on you.
Prescott
Sun (March 1995)
SONGS FOR THE EARTH
by Claudette Simpson
He sings songs for the earth.
Jim Scott, internationally noted for his "powerful songs," will
be in concert tonight at Prescott College. The concert is a benefit for the Agua
Fria Restoration Project.
People still remember him as the voice on the Paul Winter Consort's "Common
Ground." Paul Winter once said that Scott's music "sings of the life spirit."
In a telephone interview, Scott said he has an identity as "the
guy who writes all the songs about the earth. I've made it a point in a couple
of songs to write about personal healing, personal growth, self-realization.
This kind of thing is connected. You can't talk about healing the earth without
looking at our own addictions. Human ecology and nature ecology - it's the same
thing. Saving the earth and saving us is the same thing. I put it all in the
heading of peace. It's all peace issues."
Scott was the guitarist with the Paul Winter Consort from 1977
to 1986.
Scott is now doing his own material in over 150 concerts a
year, as well as numerous workshops and residencies.
"the earth is getting smaller. We're burning up our life support
system. Major changes have to come about," Scott said.
In his view, he sees people in the last throes of trying to
continue business as usual. "Groups that were 'me oriented' are starting to talk
about service.
"People who sold us wars for so many years, they're scrambling
for new excuses.
"War against humans is an incredible war against the earth.
We destroyed incredible parts of the earth in wars. The Exxon Valdez had nothing
on the Gulf War. Even to build nuclear missiles is destroying life forms."
Scott said that Paul Winter has been a primary influence "to
steer me in the interest of the earth."
Also, Scott spent some time in Nicaragua in 1984. "It really
changed my life. I've been addressing economic issues and what we can do as artists.
"I write about what's in my face," he said.
Recently Scott wrote a full-length musical title The Tree
and Me. It debuted in New York with good reviews and Scott now has some college
performances lined up for the musical.
Scott, who lives in Eugene, Oregon, wrote the musical around
the theme of a boy fighting to keep his favorite tree, a big Douglas Fir, from
being cut down. The musical, which includes 18 songs, has a social and environmental
message.
It tells the story of a young man who lives near an old-growth
forest in the Northwest. His mother is a Native American returning to her ancestral
culture and values. She speaks of Indian beliefs to her son as she works at replanting
the forest. The boy's father is a logger who loves the forest but is also dependent
on the logging industry to provide for his family. |
