Friday, June 22. One dinner show at 8 pm

2 – 40 minutes sets and a brief intermission. Seating begins at 6:45

A veteran musician for over 30 years, one can hear the entire spectrum of jazz singing in the performance of vocalist Scotty Wright. With a warm, rich-toned voice and relaxed delivery, Scotty possesses a unique sound that is deeply rooted in the jazz tradition. His style features harmonic sophistication, a playful rhythmic approach and insightful phrasing of the lyric.

When Scotty takes the audience into the world of the blues, there is no doubt he has been there before. While he’s singing a romantic ballad, the listener feels each note, hearing and believing every word. And in his uptempo songs, he generates an energy that ignites the room, especially during his thrilling forays into wordless ‘scat’ singing.

Scotty’s repertoire includes interpretations of classic songs by Gershwin, Porter, Kern and Rodgers & Hart; jazz standards by Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Horace Silver, Thelonious Monk, Wayne Shorter and Billy Strayhorn, as well as his own well-crafted songs. In everything he sings, one is certain that the song has never been heard quite the same way before, nor will be again. It is this element of the unexpected, what Scotty calls the ‘music of the moment’, that is the essence of great jazz.

While his style is informed by the masters of jazz singing – Louis Armstrong, Sarah Vaughan, Jimmy Scott, Carmen McRae, Johnny Hartman and Billie Holiday, among others – Scotty’s way with a song is unmistakably his own.

Although this will be his debut appearance at the North Coast Brewing Company’s jazz venue, Scotty is no stranger to Mendocino County. Local music lovers have heard his warm, toneful voice and supple, knowing phrasing (not to mention his unique, allusive scat singing) at Cotton Auditorium, the Mendocino Arts Centre, Caspar Community Center, Headlands Coffee House, and several jazz vocal workshops.