VIA PRESS RELEASE | I Go Back Home is the heroic creation of German producer Ralf Kemper who risked fortune and sanity to produce his longtime hero. The albumʼs tenuous and emotionally draining, yet inspiring creation is told in an accompanying award-winning documentary film, Jimmy Scott: I Go Back Home—a story as compelling as the album itself. The film captures the challenges and sacrifices that lead up to the recording sessions, a document that makes I Go Back Home an even richer record.
With the presidential inauguration occurring a week before the release of I Go Back Home, it is important to note that Jimmy Scott’s universally beloved voice sang at both the Clinton (Democrat) and Eisenhower (Republican) inaugurations forty years apart (1993 & 1953). An oppressive recording contract hounded Jimmy Scott through most of his recording career and prevented him from releasing albums (including the only album Ray Charles ever produced). It wasnʼt until 1992 that Jimmy, aged 63, recorded the first album with which he had creative control, All the Way.
Fittingly, the album was nominated for a Grammy and brought him to a new audience including director David Lynch who cast him in his television series Twin Peaks. Scott began touring and regularly releasing albums. Itʼs not untilI Go Back Home that Scott was given the budget that allowed him unfettered control over song selection, personnel, and orchestration. Recorded before Jimmy’s untimely death in 2014, I Go Back Home is ultimately a record of collaboration, companionship, and redemption; the sound of a singer going out on top.
With mixes produced by the late Phil Ramone, Kemper and Scott showcase the work of many exceptionally talented collaborators, several of whom sadly died since contributing to the album. Bossa nova icon Oscar Castro-Neves and legendary saxophonist James Moody, long-time associate of Dizzy Gillespie, both give career-best performances months before their untimely deaths.
Even Academy Award-winning actor Joe Pesci turns in a divine duet with Scott on “The Nearness of You” and “The Folks Who Live on the Hill.” Scott is ably backed on many songs by Weather Report drummer Peter Erskine, Stan Getzʼs pianist Kenny Barron, and the conversational style of organist and trumpet player Joey DeFrancesco. Jazz icon Dee Dee Bridgewater provides sterling accompaniment to Scott on “For Once in My Life.” “Everybodyʼs Somebodyʼs Fool” was Scottʼs only charting song, a modest hit with Lionel Hampton and his Orchestra. Here, Scott revisits the song 50 years after he first recorded it with James Moodyʼs saxophone.
As Jimmy explained: “The lyric is so important to me. I feel if youʼre singing a song or telling the story in a song it should mean something. Thatʼs why I protect what I have in it, because thatʼs where I believe it should go. It should mean something. It should make sense.”
Dave Nathan wrote on AllMusic that Scottʼs phrasing moves “beyond mere poignancy and close to reverence.” This is truer than ever on I Go Back Home. Scott shifts from speak-singing in album-opener “(Sometimes I Feel Like a) Motherless Child” to a lively bossa nova take on “I Remember You” to the full-throated commitment on “If I Ever Lost You.” And while we can mourn the decades he didnʼt record, the tragedies and injustices that never defeated him, I Go Back Home succeeds in capturing the essence of a life that was ultimately triumphant.
TRACKS
1. Motherless Child 5:23 – Featuring Joey De Fancesco
2. The Nearness of You 6:38 – Duet with Joe Pesci
3. Love Letters 4:08
4. Easy Living 4:17 – Duet with Oscar Castro-Neves
5. Someone to Watch Over Me 4:15 – Featuring Renee Olstead
6. How Deep is the Ocean 5:10 – Featuring Denny Barron
7. If I Ever Lost You 5:46 – Featuring Till Brönner
8. For Once In My Life 5:07 – Duet with Dee Dee Bridgewater
9. I Remember You 4:26 – Featuring Monica Mancini & Arturo Sandoval
10. Everybody is Somebody’s Fool 3:55 – Featuring James Moody
11. Folks Who Live On The Hill 4:57 – Featuring Joe Pesci
12. Poor Butterfly 4:56 – Featuring Gregoire Maret
Personel: Jimmy Scott: vocals; Joey DeFrancesco: organ (1, 3, 4, 10, 11); Kenny Barron: piano (1, 2, 5-8, 11, 12); Martin Gjakonovski: bass (1); Hans Dekker: drums (1); Joe Pesci: vocals (2, 11); Michael Valerio: bass (2-12); Peter Erskine: drums (2-12); Oscar Castro- Neves: vocals (3), guitar (3, 6, 9); Gregoire Maret: harmonica (3, 4, 12); John Pisano: guitar (4); Renee Olstead: vocals (5); Till Brönner: trumpet (7); Bob Mintzer: tenor saxophone (8); Monica Mancini: vocals (9); Arturo Sandoval: trumpet (9); James Moody: saxophone (10); HBR Studio Symphony Orchestra.
