Scott Oakley

Discography

Biography

Scott Oakley was born in York, Pennsylvania, starting on the piano when he was five. He first heard jazz in high school when a friend gave him Mose Allison’s Your Mind Is On Vacation and Charles Lloyd’s Forest Flower. “When I got out of high school, after a short stint of operating heavy equipment in a construction business, I went to Berklee. I was a beginner when I walked in the front door but Berklee was very good in developing a foundation for its students. In a matter of a year and a half, I was playing on a higher level than I ever thought I could.” Oakley’s first piano teachers were Dean Earl (who had played with Charlie Parker) and James Williams. He also learned a lot from his roommate at the dorm who played him Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock records, particularly Herbie Hancock’s “Chameleon” and Chick Corea’s Light As A Feather.

After Berklee, Oakley studied with Charlie Banacos and enrolled at the New England Conservatory Of Music partly because Jaki Byard was one of the teachers. After graduating in 1978, he spent six months freelancing in New York City. But after realizing how difficult it is to make a living playing jazz, even in NYC, and spending a brief period playing commercial music, Oakley started working for Yorktowne Paper Mills, playing the music he loved at night. While living in Maine, he worked for a period teaching at the University of Maine, Augusta, and made his recording debut with Raphael’s Revenge. “All four of my records prior to Canción Para Mi Amor are trio records that feature mostly original material along with a few standards.”

Scott Oakley moved to Los Angeles in 2000, developed some contacts, and worked locally including two years with his trio at the Money Tree in Burbank. Then he discovered the Afro-Latin program at Cal State L.A., immersing himself in Cuban jazz and even visiting Cuba for two weeks with other musicians. “There were 20 of us and we had private lessons, classes, and visits to the great music clubs of Havana. We had the incredible fortune of having Pupi Pedroso playing at our last goodbye dinner at a small restaurant. I sat four feet away from Pupi as he led his band through the fabulous music.” Oakley dedicates “Al Estilo de Cesar ‘Pupi’ Pedroso” to the great pianist on his new CD.

Now that Cancion Para Mi Amor has been released, Scott Oakley looks towards the future with enthusiasm. He plans to resume teaching because he loves passing down his knowledge to students, he hopes to become involved in writing soundtracks, and the pianist wants to get the group from the CD working regularly so the music can continue to grow. “I look at the finished results of this CD with awe and wonder for it came together fast and had a life of its own. The study of Cuban music has been so powerful for me that it changed my life.”