Track Listing

1. All the Way
2. Embraceable You
3. Angel Eyes
4. At Last
5. Someone to Watch over Me
6. Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye
7. I'll Be Around
8. My Foolish Heart
9. I'm Getting Sentimental over You

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #52653 in Music
• Released on: 1992-06-30
• Number of discs: 1

Album Details
Japanese Version featuring a Bonus Track: Sicamore Trees.

Amazon.com
Jimmy Scott is beyond category, an interpreter of ballads at tempos so languorous they seem practically motionless, hovering atmospherically in the air like the smoke in a barroom. All but forgotten when he recorded this album in 1992 at the age of 66, it stands as his finest achievement, the capstone of a career marked by extraordinary promise and devastating disappointment--including a legendary Ray Charles-produced album in 1962 that had to be withdrawn because of a contractual dispute. Scott's voice is uniquely androgynous and capable of marvelous subtlety; the closer you listen, the more it seems to blur (and transcend) characteristics of sex and age. That quality has made him a favorite of folks like director David Lynch, but his musicianship makes all other concerns superfluous. Here he's accompanied by first-class jazz musicians: Kenny Barron (piano), Ron Carter (bass), Grady Tate (drums), John Pisano (guitar), and David "Fathead" Newman (sax). And the songs are world-class as well: "Embraceable You," "Angel Eyes," "Every Time We Say Goodbye," and of course the title tune. But perhaps the greatest of all is "My Foolish Heart." Never was there a voice more suited sing these words: "There's a fine line between love and infatuation/That's hard to see on a night such as this." Like I said: beyond category. --Jim Emerson

Customer Reviews

You keep hearing it
We saw Jimmy Scott at Yoshi's Dec 99 in a guest appearance with Jimmy Mcgriff and Hank Crawford. I never heard of Jimmy Scott, and to tell the truth, was slightly uncomfortable during the performance. This was not like anything I had ever heard before, and its not often that you see an artist so totally involved with the presentation - not just going through the motions or putting on a show. But I kept hearing the singing. We purchased ALL THE WAY on the way out of Yoshi's , and have listened to it often. Sinatra does a classic ALL THE WAY, and it took me a couple of listenings to fully appreciate Scott's version. Its totally unique and affecting. Get the CD and listen to it through at least 3 times ... you'll keep coming back for more.

Amazing Jimmy Scott
Listen closely to this amazing vocalist, and I dare your musical soul not be both exhilerated and smoothly relaxed at the same time! Hidden and/or unrecognized for decades (at least to this listener, who, by chance heard him in 1995.) "All The Way" played on my auto stereo for nearly a year....a two hour commute each way. Just Jimmy Scott. Each word/lyric...so filled with his distinctive soulful yearning, pleading, love. This is not just singing/vocalizing. This is the love and joy and angst of life somehow captured in the voice of a man, who...if you let him...reaches clear to your toes. I dare you not to sing along with him, throwing the opening lyrics of "At Last" as far as you can, or visualizing someone from the past as you "accompany him" with "Everytime We Say Goodbye". And...each time you listen to Jimmy....he sounds brand new, all over again.

An unsung American Master
Jimmy Scott, this superlative singer is an unsung American Master. His distinctive voice--high and crystalline--is freighted with emotion unlike any singer I have heard. Many of us are lazy listeners of lyrics, but Mr. Scott's evocative interpretations of American popular ballads so engross the listener that he has us hanging on to every word. His renderings are invested with a longing and a melancholy of a life lived on the hard side. It is true that Mr. Scott is an emotive singer, but he is also a singer of high sophistication. I first came across Jimmy Scott when he was appearing at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco. The reviews were glowing, but what struck me was that here was this artist with a superb talent who had traveled a very rocky road. However, his travails infuse his talent and what results is incomparable. On "All the Way," Mr. Scott is accompanied by estimable jazz musicians, pianist Kenny Barron, bassist Ron Carter, drummer Grady Tate, guitarist John Pisano, and saxophonist David "Fathead" Newman. Five stars doesn't get it; "All the Way" is off the charts.