Tom Scott
Thomas Wright Scott (born May 19, 1948) is an American saxophonist, composer, and arranger. He was a member of The Blues Brothers and led the jazz fusion group L.A. Express.
Scott was born in Los Angeles, California, US. He is the son of film and television composer Nathan Scott, who had more than 850 television credits and more than 100 film credits as a composer, orchestrator, and conductor, including music for Dragnet and Lassie.
Tom Scott’s career began as a teenager as leader of the jazz ensemble Neoteric Trio, and the band Men of Note. After that, he worked as a session musician. In 1970, Quincy Jones said of him: “Tom Scott, the saxophonist; he’s 21, and out of sight! Plays any idiom you can name, and blows like crazy on half a dozen horns.”
Scott wrote the theme tunes for the television shows Starsky and Hutch and The Streets of San Francisco. In 1974, with the L.A. Express, he composed the score for the animated movie, The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat. He played the soprano saxophone solo on the number-one hit single “Listen to What the Man Said” by the band Wings. In 1976, he played the theme “I Still Can’t Sleep” in Taxi Driver. Scott also composed the soundtrack for 1980’s Stir Crazy. In 1982, he collaborated with Johnny Mathis on “Without Us”, the theme to the 1980s sitcom Family Ties. He also played the lyricon, an electronic wind instrument on Michael Jackson‘s “Billie Jean“, as well as lyricon and saxophone on The Grateful Dead‘s album Terrapin Station.