Mabel Bernice Scott (April 30, 1915 – July 20, 2000) was an American gospel music and R&B vocalist. She lived in New York and Cleveland before arriving on the West Coast blues scene in 1942. Mabel is probably remembered more for her 1948 hits "Elevator Boogie" and " Boogie Woogie Santa Claus" than for her 1949–1951 marriage to the featured piano player of "Elevator Boogie", Charles Brown of Johnny Moore's Three Blazers.CD line notes: Billboard Greatest R&B Christmas Hits, 1990 Rhino Records

Early life

Mabel Scott was born in

Richmond, Virginia (Thus do we reach the stars) , image_map = , mapsize = 250 px , map_caption = Location within Virginia , pushpin_map = Virginia#USA , pushpin_label = Richmond , pushpin_m ...

, the daughter of Rachael and Thomas Scott. By 1930, she was living in New York City with her mother. She developed her singing voice in church, eventually forming an all-girl gospel group, the Song Cycles. Around 1932 Scott began singing at

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater Harl ...

Cotton Club The Cotton Club was a New York City nightclub from 1923 to 1940. It was located on 142nd Street and Lenox Avenue (1923–1936), then briefly in the midtown Theater District (1936–1940).Elizabeth Winter"Cotton Club of Harlem (1923- )" Blac ...

with

Cab Calloway Cabell Calloway III (December 25, 1907 – November 18, 1994) was an American singer, songwriter, bandleader, conductor and dancer. He was associated with the Cotton Club in Harlem, where he was a regular performer and became a popular vocali ...

's Orchestra and the dancing

Nicholas Brothers The Nicholas Brothers were an entertainment act composed of biological brothers, Fayard (1914–2006) and Harold (1921–2000), who excelled in a variety of dance techniques, primarily between the 1930s and 1950s. Best known for their ...

Europe

Scott moved to

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U ...

, Ohio in 1936, then she and pianist Bob Mosley went to England and recorded on the

Parlophone Records Parlophone Records Limited (also known as Parlophone Records and Parlophone) is a German–British record label founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as Parlophon. The British branch of the label was founded on 8 August 192 ...

label.

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

forced her to stop her European tours, and she settled in Los Angeles, where she became part of the postwar

West Coast jazz West Coast jazz refers to styles of jazz that developed in Los Angeles and San Francisco during the 1950s. West Coast jazz is often seen as a subgenre of cool jazz, which consisted of a calmer style than bebop or hard bop. The music relied rela ...

and R&B scene.

Los Angeles

Following a short spell with

Jimmie Lunceford James Melvin Lunceford (June 6, 1902 – July 12, 1947) was an American jazz alto saxophonist and bandleader in the swing era. Early life Lunceford was born on a farm in the Evergreen community, west of the Tombigbee River, near Fulton, ...

's Orchestra, Scott was a regular performer by 1943 at Club Alabam, along with master of ceremonies

Wynonie Harris Wynonie Harris (August 24, 1915 – June 14, 1969) was an American blues shouter and rhythm-and-blues singer of upbeat songs, featuring humorous, often ribald lyrics. He had fifteen Top 10 hits between 1946 and 1952. Harris is attributed by m ...

. She sang with a group led by Lorenzo Flennoy and began recording for the Hub and Excelsior labels. In 1948 she toured and scored

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

R&B hits with "Boogie Woogie Santa Claus" and "Elevator Boogie." Scott married her pianist, Charles Brown, in 1949, and was divorced from him about three years later. In the early 1950s Scott recorded for King Records,

Coral Records Coral Records was a subsidiary of Decca Records that was formed in 1949. Coral released music by Patsy Cline, Buddy Holly, the McGuire Sisters and Teresa Brewer. Coral issued jazz and swing music in the 1940s, but after Bob Thiele became head ...

Brunswick Records Brunswick Records is an American record label founded in 1916. History From 1916 Records under the Brunswick label were first produced by the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company, a company based in Dubuque, Iowa which had been manufacturing prod ...

, and

Parrot Records Parrot Records was an American record label, a division of London Records, which started in 1964. The label usually licensed (or leased) recordings made by Decca Records, England, for release in the United States and Canada, most notably by the ...

. Her final recordings were on

Festival Records Festival Records (later known as Festival Mushroom Records) was an Australian recording and publishing company founded in Sydney, Australia, in 1952 and operated until 2005. Festival was a wholly owned subsidiary of News Limited from 1961 t ...

as part of an Australian tour backed by Les Welch's band.

Later life

Disillusioned with the music business and unhappy after her second marriage, Mabel Scott returned to her gospel roots, singing only in church for the rest of her life. She was given a Pioneer Award by the

Rhythm and Blues Foundation The Rhythm and Blues Foundation is an independent American nonprofit organization dedicated to the historical and cultural preservation of rhythm and blues music. The idea for the foundation came in 1987 during discussions about royalties with ...

in 1995. She died in Los Angeles in 2000, aged 85.

References

External links

Mabel Scott
via artistdirect.com

– Marv Goldberg's R&B Notebooks. {{DEFAULTSORT:Scott, Mabel Musicians from Richmond, Virginia 1915 births 2000 deaths