Scott Harris has been performing Jazz and Classical music professionally in Northern California since 1980. Born and raised in the Berkeley area, he moved to Santa Cruz in 1979 to attend the University of California, and never managed to successfully escape.
Since earning a bachelors degree in music in 1981, he has become involved in a plethora of musical experiences, covering the entire spectrum from Big Band Jazz, various forms of Pop music, world music, experimental, electronica, Symphony Orchestra, and Musical Theater.
In addition to playing Trombone, he also plays Soprano Sax, Flute, Piccolo, and EWI (Electronic Wind Instrument).
Scott founded the Santa Cruz Brass Quintet in 1983, which is still performing, with very little change in personnel over these many years.
He is an accomplished arranger in both the Big Band and Brass Quintet forms and several of his Brass Quintet arrangements have been published by Solid Brass Music Company.
He has extensive recording credits, including the 1989 Jupiter II CD "Pacific Skies" which he composed, recorded, and produced in collaboration with his two partners, Vicki and Lindy Mack.
Scott led his own 15 piece big band for twenty years. The bandís greatest moment was in 1989, when they performed at the famous San Francisco Exotic Erotic Ball for 11,000 enthusiastic (and mostly naked) fans. He is now "retired" from the big band leading business and instead plays in several other bands including the Esquire Big Band, The Robin Anderson Big Band, and The Musician's Warehouse Big Band where he rehearses and performs frequently with legendary Jazz drummer Louie Bellson.
Scott has also is a concert sound and recording engineer.
Scott's various musical activities have afforded him opportunities to travel to many foreign countries. Over the last 25 years he has performed in Romania, Hungary, the former Czechoslovakia (both sides) , the former USSR (Russia and Ukraine), The Netherlands, the island of St. Lucia, Canada, Austria, Poland, and Bulgaria. In 2001 he went on a three week concert tour to the Peoples Republic of China with the eight piece swing band String Of Pearls. They performed many shows including an appearance on Chinese national television (CCTV 4) and a sold-out concert in a 6000 seat sports arena. Their final performance in China was made into a DVD.
Scott is a biographer of the late Trumpeter, Bandleader and composer Don Ellis, and has published several articles on the man's life and music.
In 1990, Bulgarian National Radio described Scott as "one of the most prominent names in American Jazz today." (This may actually have been true -- that day -- in Bulgaria...)