David Sanborn got the attention and Tower of Power got the ink, but Tom Scott And The L.A. Express were, at one time, as hot and nasty as any of them.

Scott was seemingly born to be a musician. His father, Nathan Scott, was a band leader who composed the famed theme from Dragnet, so it’s no wonder young Tom was playing as a pro by the time he was a teenager and was a first-call session player soon after.

Among other things, he’s

• won thirteen Grammy awards
• played with the likes of The Grateful Dead, Paul McCartney, The Carpenters, Whitney Houston, Barbra Streisand, Joni Mitchell, George Harrison, Blondie, Eddie Money, Steely Dan, Pink Floyd, Quincy Jones and Frank Sinatra
• composed music for a number of TV shows, including Starsky And Hutch
• appeared as a member of the band in The Blues Brothers Movie, and
• recorded 27 albums, including a new one as recently as this past year.

I have his first album (from 1973), Blow It Out and Street Beat on vinyl and, yesterday, picked up a copy of Tom Cat in digits. Here are the first 4 cuts…BLOW IT OUT, baby!

Tom Scott And The L.A. Express – Tom Cat
Tom Scott And The L.A. Express – Rock Island Rocket
Tom Scott And The L.A. Express – Day Way
Tom Scott And L.A. Express – Keep Doin’ It

Buy the rest of the disc at Amazon