Joel Scott (1956-2015) made his way from the music scene of New York's New Rochelle to Los Angeles in the 1980s. He is an accomplished keyboard artist, accompanist, and arranger who has worked with everyone famous, starting with the Jackson 5 and known best for his tenure as music director for Lou Rawls.

 

If you say Brian McKnight or El Debarge or Dionne Warwick, Joel has played with them.  If you talk about Kool and the Gang or Justin Bieber or Eric Benét, Joel has worked with them.  If you mention famous jazz vocalists, Joel has accompanied the best, including Freda Payne and Esther Satterfield. He's recorded with Ella Fitzgerald's son Ray Brown, Jr. and also with the well-known Jazz Crusader drummer Stix Hooper.  He's played everything from R&B to funk to classical to gospel to jazz.  He even wrote and directed music for the Broadway hit "Baby It's You."   And he still makes time to play with his friends and with his own trio in the Los Angeles area.

 

While this is the bio, the best thing about Joel is what he gives.  He always serves the music.  He always gives the audience what it wants: more good music. In the eyes of the band, Joel lives up to the Wynton Marsalis description of the great trumpeter Clark Terry (CT)--someone who lives "as a jazz man, full of soul and sophistication, sass, grit and mother wit, and he made us want to become real jazz musicians." Marsalis also noted that CT  "always had a way of lifting you up."  Joel is that man, and in this endeavor, he's been bringing up and blessing "Great Aunt Ruth."