Rhoda Scott


Rhoda Scott is an American soul jazz organist and singer. She is nicknamed "The Barefoot Lady".

Biography and musical career

Scott was born and raised in the Dorothy neighborhood of Weymouth Township, New Jersey, the first child to a Black travelling minister father and a white mother. She has six siblings.
Her parents were themselves musicians, playing piano and organ, and singing as well. As a minister, her father moved frequently to different small churches and he would take her along with him to where he worked, where she heard her first gospels and spirituals.
Scott was first attracted to the organ in her father's church at age seven. "It's really the most beautiful instrument in the world", she stated in a 2002 interview. "The first thing I did was take my shoes off and work the pedals." From then on she always played her church organ in her bare feet, a practice she continued for decades. As a nine-year-old, she took over as the church organist when her predecessor called in sick.
Around 12 or 13, Scott served as a piano tutor at her boarding school, work she continued into high school at the New Jersey Manual Training School in Bordentown, New Jersey. She enrolled at Westminster Choir College at age 16, and there discovered Bach. She remained at Westminster for two years, before financial concerns led to her leaving for a job as a bookkeeper at a fashion designer. She later studied music theory at the Manhattan School of Music.
At 20 years old, Scott began to play the organ in an R&B group. She soon founded her own groups, gigging around metro New York, eventually opening for Count Basie in Newark, where he invited her to play his Harlem club. In 1963, she recorded her first album, Live! at the Key Club. She also met Eddie Barclay, who paid $75 to acquire one of her songs, Hey Hey Hey that became a big hit.
Little by little, Scott toured in every state in America, but tired of her group:
In 1967, Scott moved to France, where she has since spent most of her career.
As well as making a career in jazz, Scott has also continued playing the organ in church: For forty years, she was the organist at her parish church in Perche, France.

Personal life

Scott married a Frenchman, actor-singer Raoul Saint-Yves, in 1968, after which he became her manager. They had two children, both adopted, who were born in Haiti.

Discography

  • Hey! Hey! Hey!
  • Live! at the Key Club
  • A L'Orgue Hammond: Take a Ladder
  • A L'Orgue Hammond, Vol. 2
  • A L'Orgue Hammond, Vol. 3: Come Bach To Me
  • Live at the Olympia
  • A L'Orgue Hammond: Ballades No. 1
  • A L'Orgue Hammond, Vol. 4: Mach 2
  • Live at the Club Saint-Germain
  • A L'Orgue Hammond: Ballades No. 2
  • A L'Orgue Hammond: Ballades No. 3
  • Rhoda Scott Budapesten
  • Rhoda Scott in New York
  • Rhoda Scott + Kenny Clarke
  • Les Orgues de Noël
  • Molybdenum
  • Rhoda Scott Live
  • Stay
  • Negro Spirituals
  • Classiques & Jazz
  • Frame For the Blues
  • Feelin' the Groove
  • Alone
  • The Hammond Organ of Christmas
  • Encore, Encore, Encore...
  • Very Saxy: Live Au Meridien
  • Live in Concert! Christian Röver Group Live with Rhoda Scott at the Organ!
  • From C to Shining C
  • Rhoda Scott Lady Quartet: Live at the Sunset, Paris
  • Soul Sisters Come Together in Paris
  • The Look of Love: A Tribute to Burt Bacharach
  • Beyond the Sea
  • Organ Masters: Rhoda Scott Invites Emmanuel Bex, Thierry Eliez, Stefan Patry, Benoît Sourisse
  • Rock My Boat
  • On the Road Again: Live at Jazz Club Etoile
  • Rhoda Scott Lady Quartet: We Free Queens
  • Blanc Cassé
  • Time For Love
  • Movin' Blues
  • Lady All Stars
  • ''Fly Me To The Moon ''

    Compilations

  • Succès de L'Orgue
  • 16 Grands Succès
  • Le Disque D'or: Rhoda Scott
  • Take Five / In the Mood / Summertime... - note: LP1= previously unreleased material; LP2= compilation of material from 1975-1977.
  • Summertime - CD compilation
  • Rhoda Scott Live - CD compilation; different from Barclay 91.063
  • Rhoda Scott and Guests - CD compilation
  • Negro Spirituals - CD compilation; different from Barclay 817102
  • Stardust - CD compilation
  • Take Five - CD compilation
  • Les Orgues de Noël - CD compilation; different from Barclay 90.147
  • Paris-New York - CD compilation/reissue of Barclay 920.168, 920.350, 90.068