Gloria Scott – So Wonderful
48 years after her Barry White-produced debut album “What Am I Gonna Do” came out in 1974, Texas-born singer Gloria Scott returns with her second album “So Wonderful”. At 76 now, she’s got the help of UK-based Snowboy who plays percussion throughout, and producer and drummer Andrew McGuinness. Gloria moved to San Francisco where she met Sly Stone who wrote the two songs for her first single for Gloria Scott & the Tonettes. She later sang backup for the Ikettes (Ike & Tina Turner) and was then caught by Barry White. Even though she had a deal for seven albums with White, she only released one LP, which yielded the top 20 hit “Just As Long As We’re Together” and the masterful “(A Case Of) Too Much Lovemakin'”, later covered by Lisa Stansfield.
But anyway, she still sounds pretty good and soulful, powerful and at times edgy, especially on the trimmed down “Come Back Baby”, a duo performance with pianist and keyboardist Paul Jobson. The two Barry White-written tunes here, “I’ve Got To Have All Of You” and “There’s No Cure For Me”, surprisingly don’t really gel with the other, more contemporary-sounding cuts on offer. I guess the strings are a bit over the top on those two. Especially rewarding is the album opener “All Of The Time, You’re On My Mind” with its sweet melancholy and drama and great backing vocals by Ria Curry and Gizelle Smith. It actually captures the 70s soul feeling more than the two Barry White tracks do. More 70s soul with a modern edge can be found on the title track, with great guitar work by Andrew Vickery and Charlie Allen and a small string section.
Side two opens with a bluesy “Running Away”, followed by the solidly swinging and swaying “Show Me”, and a nicely flowing midtempo “I Found Love”. The album closes with a cover of the 1988 house classic “Promised Land” by Joe Smooth with an uptempo, discofied version, welcoming back an almost forgotten singer, even though she regularly performed at the German Baltic Soul Weekender since 2009.
