DRED SCOTT – RIDES ALONE – ROPEADOPE RECORDS

Dred’s new album, Dred Scott Rides Alone, was recorded in rural northern California. Dred wrote all the songs and played all the instruments. It is a standard jazz piano trio format - piano, bass and drums. The songs, written during an artist residency at the UCross Foundation in Wyoming, are sublime, perhaps dred’s most accessible and gentle writing and playing in his storied career. Dred Scott Rides Alone stands as a mature and melodic statement of life, love and the pursuit of beauty.
 
Dred grew up in St. Louis and went to college in Ohio to study piano and composition with Pat Pace. But it is the San Francisco Bay Area that will always be home. There, he first gained a reputation as an innovative and eclectic pianist and multi-instrumentalist. He has recorded 11 self-produced albums as a leader and has performed on over 50 others. He was co-founder of the ground breaking hip- hop jazz group, Alphabet Soup. He has recorded with Anthony Braxton, Cecil McBee, Andrew Cyrille, Joe Morello, Charlie Hunter, Bob Minter, Dave Samuels, Don Byron, Paul McCandless, Marshal Crenshaw and has performed with Zigaboo Modeliste, Steve Smith, Mike Clark, The Paul Dresher Ensemble, Pete Seager, Arlo Guthrie, Levon Helm, Norah Jones, Moby, Bob Weir, Joe Henderson, The Berkeley Symphony (Kent Nagano), Ricky Lee Jones, Dave Garibaldi, Larry Schneider, Nina Hagen and Peter Apfelbaum.

Dred was the musical director 5 years in a row for the AMFAR Cinema Against Aids gala held every year during the Cannes Film Festival. His band backed up Alan Cumming, Mary J. Blige, Chris Tucker, Milla Jojovich and Patty Smith.

Dred produced award winning recordings, Rock and Roll Garden and Anna and The Cupcakes for The Bari Koral Family Band and also was the on-camera musical director for the 51 episode yoga-for-kids TV show, Yogapalooza. Dred produced the first recording of Country Joe and the Fish bassist, Bruce Barthol, The Decline and Fall of Everything. He composed the music for the film, Home, starring Woody Allen, Liam Neeson, Mike Myers, Susan Sarandon, Al Molina, Rosie Perez, Colin Quinn and Fran Leibowitz.

Dred composed music and performed in 6 San Francisco Mime Troupe productions and performed in the film, Once More With Feeling, with Linda Fiorentio and Chazz Palmenteri. Dred produced the Carol Lipnik recording, M.O.T.H. and produced the debut album of The Former Members, a jam band supergroup featuring former members of Country Joe, Steve Miller and The Blues Project. Dred has written and played on dozens of TV commercials.

Dred has composed music for choreographers, Alan Danielson, ,Mary Lisa Burns, Maxine Steinman, SQUAD and Jo Kreiter from Zaccho. Dred has also worked for choreographers Margaret Jenkins, Joe Goode, Oberlin Dance Collective, Mark Morris and Merce Cunningham.

Dred is currently based in NYC and regularly performs with Sasha Dobson, The Bari Koral Family Band, Bump City, The Munchies, and The Dred Scott Trio. For the last 6 years, Dred has been the house pianist at Del Posto, the 4-star Lydia and Joe Bastianich restaurant in NYC.
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ABOUT THE ALBUM:
Dred’s new album, Dred Scott Rides Alone, was recorded in rural northern California. Dred wrote all the songs and played all the instruments. It is a standard jazz piano trio format - piano, bass and drums. The songs, written during an artist residency at the UCross Foundation in Wyoming, are sublime, perhaps dred’s most accessible and gentle writing and playing in his storied career. Dred Scott Rides Alone stands as a mature and melodic statement of life, love and the pursuit of beauty.

Dred Scott Rides Alone is the new release from an artist typically known for his work at the piano. But this isn’t a solo-piano album. It’s a trio album on which Scott plays all the parts: piano, bass and drums. This isn’t a common occurrence — nor is it some kind of attention-grabbing stunt, judging by the depth of the music here. On “Wild Turkeys,” one of the album’s groovier tracks, Scott offers a tip of the fedora to the definitive New Orleans piano man Professor Longhair. The end result has some of the tumbling grace you might associate with a band like Medeski Martin & Wood — though it’s worth noting again that, thanks to the art of overdubbing, this is literally a one-man band.
- Nate Chinen, WBGO

These songs conjure up places and scenes. Scott’s album has some of that feel for the mountain west and is all the better for it.
-Jim Motavalli, NYC Jazz Record

“dred scott trio exudes the kind of extroverted swing that made hard bop the indie rock of the late ‘50s & early ‘60s.”
-Jon Garelick, BOSTON PHOENIX

“...reorienting the compass of jazz.”
-Derk Richardson, SAN FRANCISCO BAY GUARDIAN

PLAYERS AND INSTRUMENTS:
Dred Scott - piano, bass, drums, shaker, keyboard
all songs written by dred scott dredrum music, sesac
except, ‘remember, pn’ by eric crystal

TRACKS AND TIMES: 
01: Coal Creek Road 3:40
02: Wonder 5:55
03: Gateway 6:43
04: Flying Bighorn 6:29
05: Remember PN 6:36
06: Consolations 5:13
07: Wild turkeys 4:18
08: Goodbye America 6:24