Jimmy Scott - Legacy

Legacy

Scott's career has spanned sixty-five years. He has performed with Charlie Parker, Sarah Vaughan, Lester Young, Lionel Hampton, Charles Mingus, Fats Navarro, Quincy Jones, Bud Powell, Ray Charles, Wynton Marsalis, and Peter Cincotti. He has also performed with a host of musicians from other genres of music, such as David Byrne, Lou Reed, Flea, Michael Stipe, and Antony & The Johnsons. Scott performed at President Dwight Eisenhower's (1953) and President Bill Clinton's (1993) inaugurations, where he sang the same song, "Why Was I Born?". Most recently Scott has appeared in live performances with Pink Martini, and continues to perform internationally at music festivals and at his own concerts.

In 2007, Scott received the 2007 NEA Jazz Master Award. Scott also received the Kennedy Center's "Jazz In Our Time" Living Legend Award, and N.A.B.O.B.'s Pioneer Award in 2007. In September 2008 he did a "two-day video interview" at his Vegas home with the "Smithsonian Institute for the National Archives". Scott and his wife Jeanie have been living in Las Vegas, Nevada since 2007, after living in Euclid, Ohio, for 10 years.

Little Jimmy Scott's "If I Ever Lost You" can be heard in the opening credits of the HBO movie Lackawanna Blues. He was also mentioned on The Cosby Show, when Clair and Cliff Huxtable bet on the year in which "An Evening In Paradise" was recorded.