Little Jimmy Scott, legendary jazz vocalist remembered

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Legendary jazz vocalist Little Jimmy Scott, 88-year-old, died on Thursday. According to his website, Scott's death was the result of complications from Kallmann's syndrome. From birth, Scott was marked as different, afflicted with the hormonal disorder, Kallmann's syndrome, which is characterized by delayed or absent puberty and an impaired sense of smell. The condition affects the production of hormones that direct sexual development. Males are often born with an unusually small penis. At puberty, most affected individuals do not develop secondary sex characteristics, such as the growth of facial hair and deepening of the voice in males. Affected females usually do not begin menstruating at puberty and have little or no breast development.

According to this blog, "Scott tried his luck on a smattering of labels, working notably with producer Fred Mendelsohn in the early 50's. They got some interest going with a tune released on the Roost label called "I Won't Cry Anymore", it eventually became a big hit, but for another larger label, called Columbia, and the singer was a white guy named Tony Bennett. Other labels he flipped obscure sides for included Coral & Regal.

It is said that 50's singing sensation Johnny Ray, stole his stage act after seeing "crying" Jimmy Scott perform. Ray went on to great acclaim, while Scott ended up humbly opening for the crooner who grew famous imitating Jimmy's heartfelt & teary eyed performances, turning it into a shtick also later aped similarly by James Brown.

Jimmy was finally signed to a steady record deal when he was almost 30, and it was a sorta bunk one at that. Herman Lubinsky of Newark's Savoy Records offered Cleveland's finest androgynous balladeer a shot circa 1954. Lubinsky, whose label was a great repository of jazz & blues recordings, was also a notorious shyster. In David Ritz's 2002 bio of Jimmy Scott "Faith In Time", Seymour Stein of Sire Records recalls past colleagues at the time calling Savoy Records Newark HQ the "Slave Barracks". Savoy hooked Scott up with Charlie Parker, and although they recorded some well received sides, due to Lubinsky's malfeasance, Scott still went uncompensated. Scott went on to record more material for Savoy, but as time wore on, he grew discontent, started retreating into booze and left the label's fold by the beginning of the 1960's."

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