Erik Scott (1/17/48-10/11/2019) enjoyed a career that started at NoWhere, and led him through a musical journey with Alice Cooper, Flo and Eddie, Sonia Dada, etal. A career where he became a renowned session bass player working with Carl Palmer, Franne Golde, Kim Carnes, Shawn Christopher, Tonio K, and garnering a Grammy Award for his work with Pop Staples. A career where you can hear his compositions when watching movies Waterproof or National Lampoon’s Vacation; or watching TV shows “Starsky & Hutch,” “Charlie’s Angels” or “The Love Boat.”
Growing up in Gurnee in the far northern suburbs of Chicago, Scott got his first taste of the bass guitar when he was playing trombone in the high school band. It was during a halftime show at school when the bass player didn’t show up. Pressed into service, Scott took on the challenge, “totally winging it,” in his words, faking it all the way. Awestruck by the instrument, it would be the beginning of his lifelong study of the art of playing and developing his own techniques.
Scott got his first taste of being a professional musician with Food. The group, which also featured drummer Barry Mraz who would later go on to notoriety as a renowned studio engineer working with the likes of Styx and the Ohio Players, would rehearse and become a favorite at a club called NoWhere in Round Lake Beach. In 1969, they signed with Capitol Records at the same time as Grand Funk Railroad. They headed west to record their first album. But when Grand Funk Railroad took off, Food was dropped. Their claim to fame was that two cuts from their album were used in a porno film called The Babysitter.
Still based in the northern suburbs, Scott next spent some time with Otis Plum which evolved into Jambalaya, garnering a contract with A&M Records and releasing the album High Rollers. It was with Jambalaya that Scott teamed up with guitarist Billy Steele with the two going on to become studio session teammates, and in 1974 joining former Turtles who were now touring and recording as Flo & Eddie. The late ‘70s would find Scott and Steele on a variety of sessions for Mo McGuire, Tonio K, the J.T. Connection, and re-uniting with Jambalaya lead vocalist Peter McIan for his 1980 solo project Playing Near the Edge.
In 1980, Scott was hired by Alice Cooper for the band’s Flush the Fashion world tour. Through much of the ‘80s, he served as musical director for Cooper, even taking on a role as producer on his albums, a role he would continue when labels would offer up Alice Cooper compilation albums. Tiring of the circus environment, Scott headed back home to Chicago.
There, he became a founding member of Sonia Dada. The octet, founded by Dan Pritzker when he discovered a trio of artists harmonizing in a Chicago subway station, built a repertoire of diverse rock and soul fusion that the Chicago Tribune noted, “If a band could ever be said to be a microcosm of Chicago, Sonia Dada is it.”
Of his involvement with the group, Scott said, “The artistic freedom is the most special thing. Bass players, in particular, are often held to playing very tightly regimented things, which is why so many of us end up playing jazz. But that same sort of freedom is in this band.”
While Chicago was home, Sonia Dada found success overseas. Their self-titled debut album was #1 in Australia with the single “You Don’t Treat Me No Good No More” https://youtu.be/D9WH8AfakFs hit #1 for four weeks, replacing Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You.” Retitled “Lover Lover,” the song took Jerrod Nieman to the top spot on the Billboard country chart, achieving platinum status.
With Sonia Dada going on hiatus in 2006, and Scott reaching the age of 60, he started re-analyzing his musical path. “It’s a different world. It’s a different life,” he said in an interview with a bit of hesitation.” “I was approaching a certain age that I’d been doing the popular commercial music for 40 years and I knew that I want to make some more use of the bass than had been generally allowed in commercial records. The melodies that I would sing or the events, sonic events even, I wanted to do them on a bass instead of thinking of them and suggesting a guitar part or a drum thing. So I started doing that and I didn’t know where it would take.”
Starting in 2008, where it took him was four self-released solo projects. Steering toward what was considered a more ambient New Age genre, the direction was as much metaphysical as musical. During that period, he was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. Having initially overcome the disease, it inspired him to produce the album In the Company of Clouds which went on to win two ZMR Awards including Album of the Year.
Unfortunately, the cancer returned. Scott produced one more album, A Trick of the Wind, but lost his battle with cancer on October 11, 2019.
Discography
1969 Food – Forever Is a Dream (Capitol ST-304)
1973 Jambalaya – High Rollers (A&M 4406)
1975 Flo & Eddie – Illegal, Immoral and Fattening (Columbia 33554)
1976 Flo & Eddie – Moving Targets (Columbia 34262)
1980 Peter McIan – Playing Near the Edge (Columbia/ARC 36190)
1981 Alice Cooper – Special Forces (Warner Bros. 3581)
1982 Alice Cooper – Zipper Catches Skin (Warner Bros. 23719)
1986 Idle Tears – Idle Tears (MCA 5863)
1988 Alice Cooper – Prince of Darkness (MCA 42315)
1989 Signal – Loud & Clear (Capitol/EMI 90973)
1992 Sonia Dada – Sonia Dada (Chameleon 61342)
1994 Sonia Dada – Sonia Dada plus two bonus tracks (Capricorn 42033)
1995 Sonia Dada – A Day at the Beach (Capricorn 42037)
1998 Sonia Dada – My Secret Life (Capricorn 314558390)
1999 Sonia Dada – My Secret Life (Calliope 30961)
1999 Sonia Dada – Lay Down and Love It Live (Calliope 30962)
2002 Sonia Dada – Barefootsoul (Calliope 7930185017)
2004 Sonia Dada – Test Pattern w/DVD (Calliope 7930185018)
2004 Sonia Dada – Instant Live – The Fillmore, San Francisco, CA 8/27/04 (Calliope 278230073)
2004 Sonia Dada – Instant Live – The Paradise, Boston, MA, 12/28/04 (Calliope 278230090)
2008 Erik Scott – Other Planets
2014 Erik Scott – Spirits
2016 Erik Scott – In the Company of Clouds
2018 Erik Scott – A Trick of the Wind