Final Performances
Her final performances included the 2003 Sydney Cabaret Convention where she received two standing ovations for her performances of the jazz anthem "Something Cool" and Stephen Sondheim's "Send in the Clowns". Dr David Schwartz, writing for Cabaret Hotline Online said in his review, "It is hard to describe her to you without sounding as if I were a little bit insane. Her performance provided me with one of those life-changing and totally defining cabaret experiences that was instantly committed to memory, along with my first exposure to Mabel Mercer, Julie Wilson, Sarah Vaughan, Sylvia Syms and a host of other greats. Gery Scott's set represented that rare moment in cabaret when the singer and her song are indistinguishable. This sort of alchemy comes only after many years; to witness it is to be blessed". She was also special guest in a 2003 Sondheim review, and two fund raising concerts for fellow performers in 2004.
Her last major expose was in the form of a biographical essay in The New Yorker magazine, 18 & 25 August 2003 entitled "The Jazz Singer", by Larissa MacFarquhar.
At the age of 82 and in a wheelchair, Scott gave her very last performance on 9 October 2005 at the Hyatt Hotel Canberra, accompanied by her longtime pianist in Australia, Tony Magee, where her wish to do 'just one more gig' was ably delivered with a sparkling opener of Got A lot Of Livin' to Do, and later in the concert, with pianist Wayne Kelly, a moving version of Body And Soul.
Read more about this topic: Gery Scott
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