Album Notes

Since 1968, Rhoda has lived in Paris, France where she has performed and recorded for the European jazz lovers unselfishly. Her reputation as one of the world's leading jazz organists, always heralded in Europe, may now be brought to the attention of those American Jazz fans awakening to the Hammond groove. With her roots in Newark, she knows the rich and colorful history of the Jazz organ and it's versatility in modern music. "I think the organ can do just about anything one wants to do with it. It can be a single instrument or a whole big band. It can be a hard driving instrument or it can be a smooth, mellow, soft instrument. It can set just about any mood and can play just about any rhythm or style. The organ is one of the most amazing instruments that exists."

Rhoda Scott was born outside of Atlantic City, New Jersey on July 3, 1938. Although the family moved around, she has become most associated with the city of Newark. She learned to play organ in her father's church beginning at age seven. She was schooled in the "proper" way of playing. That is, achieving a "full" organ sound using all its facility. To this day, Rhoda plays her bass line exclusively with the foot pedals; not relying on the left hand finger-bass and "popping" action of only a few pedals. This technique frees up her left hand to chord through the changes while her right hand plays melody and solos. She bridged this classic style from Church to Jazz with the help of her close musical friends. "That's something I like to talk about because I like to give a lot of credit to a couple of people. The first organists I really heard were Richard "Groove" Holmes and Trudy Pitts. Groove started having me come to his practice sessions at a club in Camden, New Jersey...and he would have me sit down while he practiced and he'd pull out stops and tell me: "This is how you do it if you want to accompany a horn" and so forth...Then I used to go sit-in with Trudy Pitts. I did not want to sit-in, but her husband, Mr. C, would make me come up and play. He told me a lot and gave me many hints, saying things like: 'If you want to play the bass, you've got to do it like this'...and to this day, whenever I meet young organists who come up, especially in France, I try to always pass along whatever I can to them, mainly because of Mr. C, Trudy Pitts and Richard 'Groove' Holmes."


Rhoda's Newark, New Jersey was loaded with fine organists, many of whom never recorded but literally made up the foundation of Jazz organ education in this country. Learning from one another, jazz organists in Newark, Philadelphia, New York and other big cities, formed a crudible for the so-called "Soul Jazz". Rhoda readily recalls this era: "About twenty-five or thirty years ago when we used to have an organ in every club, we used to have what they called a 'battle of the organs'...Four or five organists would take turns on the same organ; each one trying to out-do the other one.

It was all in great fun; there was no real rivalry. Organists have a history of appreciating each other and that's one reason why these reunions go so well because organists love other organists and we love to listen to each other...We love any new idea that somebody finds to do on the organ...We're all happy about it and, I think, there's a great fraternity in organists."

Rhoda continues to tour Europe regularly. Her reputation as one of the swinging-est jazz organists continues to grow as she encounters new fans throughout the world. She is currently re-claiming her fame in the States with multiple festival appearances and her newest recording, 'From C to Shining C',