Jazz in My Soul - Marvin Gaye & Bobby Scott

Jazz

in my soul

Marvin Gaye & Bobby Scott

By Edith Anderson

My play “Jazz in My Soul/a Marvin Gaye Story” never started out to be a stage play, I simply wanted to do a jazz show spotlighting the songs Marvin Gaye & Bobby Scott recorded back in 1968, beautiful torch songs from the Great American Songbook… songs Marvin Gaye had chosen to show the world his chops as a jazz singer. I was going to call the show “Marvin Gaye/On the Wings of Jazz.” I was ready!

After brainstorming the idea with my husband and others I concluded that I had work to do. Almost no one knew these songs existed and had no clue Marvin wanted to be a jazz singer. So, my job was clear… I had to tell Marvin Gaye’s story of his desire to be a jazz singer and have the concert at the same time. Simple right? Well it took about 6 years of starting, stopping, and starting again…reading, researching, fantasizing and dreaming. And at the end of the proverbial rainbow waiting just for me, all tied up in a big beautiful bow was “Jazz in My Soul/a Marvin Gaye Story.” New attitude, new title!

Now that I’m done writing, and after a successful “reading” I find myself thinking more and more about Mr. Scott, and the relationship between the two men. My research for the play was focused mainly on Marvin. I didn’t give Mr. Scott a voice, (a physical voice). But now I want to learn more about him.

One day recently I felt an urge to hear some music from “Vulnerable” (the album by Marvin Gaye which my play is all about.) Instead of going to my own music file, I decided to google “Vulnerable” and listen via YouTube. One of my favorite pastime activities on YouTube is checking

out the comments people leave underneath each song. I enjoy reading all the nice things said about Marvin Gaye’s incredible voice. I’m always taken-a-back at the amazement of younger people who are hearing him sing jazz ballads for the first time. That is always a treat for me.

But instead of getting Marvin Gaye’s “Vulnerable” a video popped up! It was the Berklee School of Music! WHAT?! It was the Berklee Music School doing “The Shadow of Your Smile” from the Vulnerable album with vocalist “Bilal” singing just like Marvin Gaye! Oh My God! I was blown away! Where was this video when I started my research for Jazz in My Soul? I didn’t see it! It was posted in May of 2015, why hadn’t I seen it?!

After I finished beating myself up about it all, I felt a sense of pure unadulterated validation. Suddenly I was not alone. It was no longer just a story I heard about back in the day, or some old songs Marvin just happened to record. NO! This made things different…this music is alive! It’s living and breathing right now in 2019!

The Berklee Music School brilliantly did what my play calls for at the very end, “A Concert!” The school recreated the entire “Vulnerable” album. (The album by Marvin Gaye arranged by Bobby Scott (some songs) released in 1997 after the death of both men.) It was beautifully done. Berklee’s rendition of the album was arranged and conducted by Miguel Atwood-Ferguson with the Berklee Neo-Soul Ensemble and Berklee Contemporary String Orchestra. The concert was produced by Revive Music founder Meghan Stabile. It’s on YouTube, check it out for yourself, just type Vulnerable in the search engine. Thank me later

I didn’t stop there, as a matter of fact I can’t stop. I keep finding extraordinary bits and pieces about Bobby Scott, and how much he and Marvin’s life paralleled. Bobby Scott was a child prodigy, he studied under

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Volume 5.7 January 29, 2019

Author/Playwrite Edith Anderson

Bobby Scott and Marvin Gaye

Bobby Scott and Catherine Howe

JAZZ IN MY SOUL... cont.

Edvard Moritz at the La Follette School of Music at the age of eight and was working professionally at 11.

Marvin Gaye was also a child prodigy, he started singing in church when he was four years old, he was encouraged to pursue a professional music career after a performance at a school play at 11 singing Mario Lanza’s “Be My Love.”

Bobby Scott was born in Mt. Pleasant New York, in 1937, Marvin Gaye was born in Washington D.C. in 1939. Bobby was a singer, songwriter, arranger, he played the piano, vibraphone, accordion, cello, clarinet, and double bass. Marvin was a singer, songwriter, arranger, he played piano, & drums. Okay, Mr. Scott had him beat in the “instrument category” but we’ve got to understand, Marvin had a rough life, grew up in tough neighborhoods. I don’t imagine there were many cellos being passed around. Never-the-less, I’m sure had he been presented with a cello or a vibraphone or whatever, he would have mastered them as well.

Bobby was known for writing and recording the iconic “A Taste of Honey.” Marvin was known for writing and recording the iconic “What’s Going On.” I have also learned that Bobby married twice and so did Marvin, Bobby has one child Marvin has three. Marvin passed away before Bobby in April 1984. Bobby passed away 6 years later in Nov. 1990 of lung cancer. (both men, very easy on the eyes)

I found all these little similarities buried in plain sight, but I still haven’t found what I long to discover…I want to talk to someone or read about someone who was in the room when Bobby Scott and Marvin Gaye recorded the songs for the “Ballad Album.” Or I’d like to talk to someone who knows something about the relationship between the two men. Now that would be golden! I can’t find anything, not a single word Mr. Scott has said about Marvin Gaye, directly or indirectly. That makes me sad.

But hold on! Just recently I googled Mr. Scott’s image (as I have many times before,) and for the first time I saw a new photo! This time with a lovely young woman, he had his arms around her waist. WHAT?! Wait a minute! Could this be his wife? No! She turned out to be a beautiful young singer-actress whom Mr. Scott recorded back in 1971 in London England. It was a lovely online JazzWax article by Mr. Marc Myers, dated August 04, 2011. The lady’s name is Ms. Christine Howe, and the album she and Mr. Scott collaborated on is yet

another masterpiece, it’s called “What a Beautiful Place” She sings like a bird on loan from heaven, and the interview read like a scene from a movie. The interviewer at one point asked Ms. Howe if she “loved” Mr. Scott, she answered YES! WHAT! Now of course that could mean anything, but to me it meant everything! Ms. Howe has quite a story herself, and yes, I have corresponded with her. She is fascinating! I won’t dare disclose our personal communication other than to say that Mr. Scott did not talk to her about Marvin Gaye. That was my main purpose for wanting to connect with her, however just getting to know her and hearing her life story is so amazing! I’m eternally grateful to Ms. Howe for sharing some of her story with me. I can tell you this, she is planning to write her own memoir, I can’t wait!

If you have read my play or if by chance you sat through our “reading” back in April of 2018, then you may have guessed by now that I am a “hopeless romantic,” and what I see in the story of Marvin Gaye & Bobby Scott is so intriguing. Every little taste of information I get the hungrier I become. So many questions dance through my head. Why did Marvin ask Bobby Scott to arrange his songs, why Bobby? Were the two men fans of each other? Mr. Scott was working with Quincy Jones a little during the time he and Marvin collaborated, did he ask Quincy first? What really happened in the recording studio in 1968? After the recording session did, they talk again?

You see, Marvin & Bobby still hanging around rent free in my head.

To Be Continued…

New news from Jazz in My Soul/aMarvin Gaye Story coming soon!Watch this space!

Click Here to read Ms. Anderson's interview of Catherine Howe.

pg. 62