Scott Grooves

Alex Smoke

Soma Records are proud to present to you one of Detroit's finest producers, Patrick Scott aka Scott Grooves. Scott received his house music baptism from Jeff Mills' legendary The Wizard radio shows and going to the legendary Music Institute. It was at this seminal club that he met Kevin Saunderson. After forging a friendship with Kevin, Scott tinkled the keyboards for Inner City. After hearing a Soma (Funk D'Void) record in a Detroit record store Scott Grooves sent a demo of his album to the Soma office. The rest is history!

Scott made his debut on Soma with the sublime "A New Day" (Soma 58). With heart-stopping chords and stunning stuttering breakbeats, the first mix takes you on a wonderful ten minute ride through rhythm and melody, Detroit stylee! On the flip, the second mix is one for the proper house heads with its piano riffs and uplifting strings. This mix was caned by the Slam boys and the Sub Club's Harri with roof raising effects.

Scott's next release was his collaboration with Roy Ayers in a rendition of Lonnie Liston Smith's classic "Expansions" (Soma 65). This release originated after Scott approached Roy when he was playing a concert in Detroit. The superb track also featured the talents of Charles Green on Rhodes, Carl Homes on Bass. Remixes come from Spiritual Life's Joe Claussell and the Ballistic Brothers. After being Pete Tong's essential new tune and being hammered by the likes of Giles Peterson and Bob Jones, this release briefly enjoyed a national chart position (68).

These two releases were a prelude to his debut album "Pieces of a Dream" (Soma LP/CD11). This is an exquisite collection of pure house music. Featured on the album are tracks which showcase the talents of actual Detroit musicians. "The Sax Speaks" is pure street jazz soul featuring the spectacular saxophone talents of Keith Kaminski. "The Scat Groove" features scat vocals by Gwen Fox, a singer in Blues clubs around Detroit. Perry Hues, who has worked with George Benson (and in fact plays this on a guitar gifted to him by Benson), inputs guitar riffs on this laidback house version of the Wes Montgomery classic "Bumpin' on the Sunset", here entitled "Bumpin' on the Underground". On the final track on the album "Feels So Good" Scott is accompanied by Charles "The Maestro" Hicks on this sublime house track.

The most talked about track from the album is "Mothership Reconnection". This sees Scott coming together with Parliament/Funkadelic legend George Clinton in a remake of the original classic "Mothership Connection". This collaboration began when Scott found live tapes of George Clinton and Parliament / Funkadelic in his recording studio — which is owned by Clinton! When Scott approached them about a house remix he was told "it better be good!"; they certainly were not disappointed. This is due for release in single format with stunning remixes from Daft Punk (their only mix of 1998), Slam, and Funk D'Void. The Daft Punk mix has also been Pete Tong's Essential new tune.

Scott is currently working on his second album for Soma.