Joel Scott

American pianist, keyboardist, arranger, musical conductor and producer, born July 22, 1956 in Buffalo, New York and died 2015. He has backed such pop notables as the Jackson 5, Aretha Franklin, Lou Rawls and Dionne Warwick, crafting a new arrangement of her hit “Always Something There to Remind Me” on her 1998 album “Dionne Sings Dionne.” In the jazz realm Scott has worked with many first-rate singers, among them Marlena Shaw, Carmen Bradford and O.C. Smith. He can be heard playing the jazz piano parts that Jeff Bridges rendered in a nightclub scene in the movie “The Fabulous Baker Boys.” While he names jazz giants such as Wynton Kelly, Oscar Peterson and Bill Evans as key influences, Scott’s classical background permeates his jazz. “When I play bebop, I try to make it sound like Bach, if he were me,” he said.