Western Connecticut State University Professor Dave Scott is a critically acclaimed performer and composer who recently released two albums–“In Search of Hipness” and “Ambiguity”. Residing in New York, Dave has been performing with and composing for his jazz quintet along with a new project featuring violin, guitar, piano, bass and drums. Both groups perform his own compositions exclusively and include some of New York’s finest jazz musicians such as Rich Perry, Gary, Versace, Jeff Williams, Billy Mintz, John Hebert, Jacob Sacks, Nate Radley, Sarah Bernstein, Ben Monder, and Mark Ferber.

Nonetheless, Dave Scott has never been a stranger to greatness–originating in Kansas City where he went to highschool with and had a band with Pat Metheny. His home city is where he first attended the Kansas City Jazz festival and fell in love. Since then he has classified himself a jazz musician. After highschool, he studied music at University of California before travelling to New York where he finds is “striving with creative musicians.” Since his early career days of salsa and various gigs, he has certainly carved out a piece for himself of the New York jazz scene with his many projects.

The quintet began releasing songs under the SteepleChase label in 2004. ​​The songs “Song for Amy,” “Naiveté” and “Nonchalant” have all received critical acclaim from JazzTimes, The Jazz Review, The New York City Jazz Record, and the blog Shanely on Music. The recent release “Ambiguity” has already received acclaim from the French publication Jazz Magazine.

However, the quintet had not performed since before the pandemic–until the last show at the Greenwich House Music School. The two CDs were first released one year apart, around the start of the pandemic. The show was made possible by the New York City Artist Corps grant. The grant, given to select artists, offers continued arts programming as the city reopens. There were two sets at the show, the first playing songs off of “Ambiguity” and the second performing songs from “In Search of Hipness.”

One will find the sound of Dave Scott’s music to be absolutely unique, using both complex rhythmic and harmonic structures. The title track, “Ambiguity” feels, well, ambiguous: with suspenseful melodies accompanied by the straight-driving rhythm played on Billy Mintz’s drums. Seriously, it is an eerie song. In person it is even more captivating as the players improvise. Billy Mintz plays with so much expertise and consistency that it appears unreal and compels me to tap my foot along. The following song, which is also the second track of the album, gave me a feeling of “Diligence,” utilizing an odd time signature of 7/4 which gives the piece a forward momentum, and showcases brilliant solos from pianist Gary Versace and double bassist John Hebert.

The next set, featuring songs from “In Search of Hipness” was particularly avante-garde, as there was more frequent improvisation while maintaining unique rhythmic structures. It sounded very free while maintaining an intermeshed and structured sound. Upon announcing the title track “In Search of Hipness”, Dave Scott said “maybe one day we’ll get there”–but I feel that the quintet certainly has. The song speaks to the ongoing pursuit of enlightenment, whether in music or otherwise, and how artists continually seek a higher level for their creative process.

After the show I had to ask: what does Dave Scott love most about playing? His wholesome answer is that the interaction with others is most joyful for him. He said he practices to be able to play with such great musicians, that they inspire him to get better, and that playing with them makes him better. “It’s not about getting better, though, as much as it is about the collective,” he explained.

The albums are available on Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon Prime streaming and iTunes.  The double album release concert can be watched on Vimeo.