白人灵魂乐教父 Boz Scaggs

Selection, HIFI / June 1, 2021

William Royce Scaggs是Blue-Eyed Soul的最具代表人物。在Grammy Award首位得到此奖强的白艺人也就是Boz Scaggs。他的声音里表现出温柔带著性感，在融合摇滚、蓝调与爵士的乐风下赢得众多乐评与乐迷的肯定。另外他也非常擅长利用小型爵士四重奏，营造出一种舒活自在、宛如深夜小酒馆一般轻松的情调，加上他独到的断句技巧，新鲜而充满魅力。

成长期
喜欢音乐的Boz Scaggs在12岁时开始摸索学习吉他。在大学时期和蓝调摇滚巨星Steve Miller同一间威斯康辛大学一同玩蓝调摇滚。Boz Scaggs前往英国伦敦的蓝调摇滚圈加入当地的乐团，後来更跑到瑞典发展个人音乐事业，很可惜却没有任何发展。

成名的道路
在被邀请加入Steve Miller’s Band后录制了Children Of The Future以及Sailor两张专辑。1972年所发的 My Time以及1974Slow Dancer两张个人专辑更是展现Blue-Eyed Soul迷人的音乐质地。直到1976年酝酿多时的音乐能量顿时爆发，专辑Silk Degree以”Lowdown,” “Lido Shuffle”, “It’s Over”、”What Can I Say”4首打入排行的歌曲，让他终於得到市场的肯定。

William Royce “Boz” Scaggs (born June 8, 1944) is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He became prominent for his series of albums in the late 1970s, and songs “Lido Shuffle” and “Lowdown” from Silk Degrees (1976), which peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200. Scaggs continues to write, record music, and tour.

Scaggs took a long break from recording and his next album, Other Roads, did not appear until 1988. “Heart of Mine”, from Other Roads, is Scaggs’ last top-40 hit as of 2018. Also in 1988, he opened the San Francisco nightclub, Slim’s, and remained an owner of the venue through the club’s closure in 2020.

From 1989 to 1992, Scaggs joined Donald Fagen, Phoebe Snow, Michael McDonald and others in The New York Rock and Soul Revue. His next solo release was the album Some Change in 1994. He issued Come On Home, an album of rhythm and blues, and My Time: A Boz Scaggs Anthology, an anthology, in 1997.

In the summer of 1998 Boz went on tour as the opening act for Stevie Nicks.

After another hiatus from recording, his next album, Dig, got good reviews, although the CD was released on an unfortunate date – September 11, 2001. In May 2003, Scaggs released But Beautiful, a collection of jazz standards that debuted at number one on the jazz chart. In 2008 he released Speak Low, which he described in the liner notes as “a sort of progressive, experimental effort … along the lines of some of the ideas that Gil Evans explored.” During 2004, he released a DVD and a live 16-track CD Greatest Hits Live that was recorded August 2003 at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco.

After a break in recording, he undertook a series of shows across the US in 2008. Two years later he joined Donald Fagen and Michael McDonald for concerts entitled the Dukes of September Rhythm Revue. His next album Memphis was released in March 2013. It was recorded in that Southern American city at the Royal Studios. The album included some of his favorite compositions from other artists. A tour of the United States, Canada and Japan followed the release. Before the year ended, he added live dates across North America and Australia for 2014. In 2015, he released A Fool to Care, a compilation of mostly covers, including “Whispering Pines” with Lucinda Williams, and one original blues composition, “Hell to Pay,” performed with Bonnie Raitt. The album rose to number one on the Billboard Blues Album chart and number 54 on the Billboard 200.