Saturday, January 15, 2005

Aunt C



A couple of years ago, I can’t really remember the exact time frame, the (time-date stamp in my brain has never worked properly), one of my cousins from St. Louis came to Houston to visit. While he was in town, we had the opportunity to ‘catch up’ and hang out a bit. This particular cousin is on my mother’s side of the family His father and my mother are siblings and part of the family of 12 children(6 boys and 6 girls) born to Bishop Sam Scott and his lovely wife Artelia. So when I say he’s my cousin, he’s my cousin FO-REAL, not none of that ‘play-cousin’ type hype.

Corey is a few years younger than I am, he’s the younger brother of my cousin Jamar who tore up a spirit filled rendition of ‘My Soul’s Been Anchored in the Lord’ at Big Daddy’s funeral 2 years ago. Corey definitely has a strong dose of the humor gene in the family, as characterized by how he approached his brother Jamar after we were leaving the gravesite at Big Daddy’s funeral and walking back to our cars. The emotional tension that seems to creep up at funerals had already evaporated as those last ‘ashes to ashes and dust to dust’ words were said over Big Daddy’s casket and it left us leaving the cemetery feeling cleansed and blessed to have the sun peek out on an otherwise very cool and chilly day.

I know I wasn’t the only one that felt that Spirit move when Jamar got up to sing that song, but my cousin Corey hit the nail on the head in a way that tingles with ‘Scott-ness’..

"Jamar!! (Corey exclaimed in a sudden loud voice that broke the silence with it’s twinges of laughter already spilling out into his voice) Boyyy…you sang like somebody that know the Lawd today!!"

Of course, the obvious joke was the fact that he said that Jamar sang ‘like’ somebody that knew the Lawd..you get it? The humor is in the unspoken, but inferred slander that Jamar does NOT know the Lawd..oops, I mean Lord for himself. Ya get it? No? Too bad, it must just be a Scott thang, cuz when I heard Corey say it, I bust out laughing immediately, cuz it was funny to me. Jamar started laughing too..that’s just how we do it..it’s a kinfolk thang.

Well this same cousin Corey who happened to give me one of the biggest compliments that I’ve ever received, simply for the fact he showed me a viewpoint that I had never considered before. We were just hanging out chilling and just out of the blue, he said point blank,

"You know D…when you graduated from Stanford…it did the whole family good."

I had never thought about the fact that I had other relatives, younger and older, who used my educational achievement as a strengthening momentus for them. But once I thought about it, I could remember how I had other relatives who’s achievements I looked up to with great admiration and the first person that jumped into my head was my Aunt Cynthia or Aunt C. Our family is known to butcher the pronuniation and all her Ain't “Sin-tay" . I know it sounds kinda country and ‘Buckwheatish’, for someone to mispronounce ‘Aunt Cynthia’ as ‘Ain’t Sin-TAAAY‘, but you gotta remember, these people are from Arkansas. Okayy, I’m kinda joking, but I’m kinda serious too..that’s why it’s so funny. But Aunt C is definitely one of those shining beacons that has been a source of pride and admiration for the whole family.


Aunt C is definitely what history would consider as a pioneer. Hopefully you’ve read her biography on her website (http://www.cynthiascott.com/) to learn more about the brave path she took toward chasing her passion in life. She started out as an airline flight attendant, while she took every opportunity she had to follow her love of singing. You see Aunt C is one of those talented Scott 12, almost all of the 12 kids could sing, dance or play a musical instrument. Notice I said ALMOST all, everybody in the family ain’t got it like that and rest assured, the Scott’s WILL let you know if you sound tired and need to go sit down. But Aunt C’s voice was not one of the tired ones, she took the hustle of Big Daddy and the warmth of Big Mama and put it to work through her vocal chords.

Those who have seen her perform on stage know what I mean. Aunt C didn’t stop with her God given talents, she put in her work at her trade. And those days of nightclub singing opened the door of opportunity and she landed a gig with Ray Charles, performing as one of his famous Rae-lettes for 2 years and eventually moving on to her more treasured world of pure jazz. Of course, myself, along with the rest of the family always loved to tell people that our Aunt C was a professional singer that sang with Ray Charles!

When I was a young kid, maybe 9 or 10, I went to Dallas with my mother and sister to spend a weekend with Aunt C. We all stayed in her condo there in Dallas and I can vividly remember a particular moment that really went a long way toward making me realize my resoluteness of being a lifetime heterosexual. We were in Aunt C’s apartment and I had to go to the bathroom. I don’t know if the door was already open, or I forgot to knock or what, but basically I walked into the bathroom at the exact moment when Aunt C was stepping out of the shower.

Mmmhmm..you got it..full frontal nudity. Like most of the other young male relatives, I already had my ‘secret’ crush thang going on with Aunt C..but of course you can’t REALLY follow through with nothing like that cuz that’s your aunt and the Bible got those incest laws and stuff, but I’m just SAYING…anyway, after I stood there for what seemed like an eternity staring, Aunt C said the strangest thing as she grabbed a towel and covered herself,

“Aww baby, I’m sorry.”

Can you believe THAT?? She was apologizing to ME??? I think I mumbled something like ‘That’s alright’ as I had that weird little perverted smile that young boys destined to be dirty old men seem to have when they see something they really like, yet they’re still not at the age where they know what to do with it. Ya feel me? Anyway..I already know some of ya’ll are tripping on the somewhat incestuous laden ‘joke’, but the point is, I’ve admired my Aunt C for a LONGGG time.When I had just started high school, Aunt C gave me one of the thickest books I had ever seen and said,

"You need to read this nephew. Poitier has a very powerful story."

The book she gave me was Sidney Poitier’s autobiography, This Life. I’m a big Sidney Poitier fan, especially the roles he played with Bill Cosby like Uptown Saturday Night or Let’s Do It Again. I was a bit intimidated by the size of the book at first, but when I latched in and READ it, I was captured and mesmerized. Poitier’s upbringing in the Cat Islands of the Bahamas is a very frank and real portrayal of life as it T-I-S. Born into the family of a struggling tomato farmer, Poitier depicts his childhood and upbringing with such candor that it made me feel better to know that there is no situation of poverty that hard work and training can not progress past. But along with the hard work and training, you have to have ambition. The world is full of ‘I coulda’, “I shoulda’ been superstars, success is definitely a blessing from God, but that doesn’t mean we’re not supposed to grind and do all we can do to BE READY when it comes knocking at the door.

Later on in life, I reflected back and realized why Aunt C gave me that book. It was because she always wanted me to know that excellence comes with the price of hard work and dedication, and that I definitely had the potential to go farther than most hard headed boys from the Southside. She even signed my guest book for servinemup.com with some very inspiring words:

"You make an aunt mighty proud to be in your family that you are so proud of. David not amazed at your success. Expected it AND SAW IT COMING. Let's get busy writing that book. More later when I return from Africa and boy could I use a bowl of collard greens and a jalapeno pepper. Even though some black people feel that they are not African ..... Africa is in us ALL. Love you Aunt C"

It is this ambitious drive, pioneering spirit and realness of life that I admire the most in my Aunt C. Because when you imagine the reality of the 10th child of a Southern sanctified minister, a black WOMAN extending beyond the boundaries of what folks SAY you can’t do and going out and pursuing her dreams to the fullest? I’ll always applaud my Aunt C, because she has definitely pioneered a course to let all of us remember that a dream deferred is still a dream denied. If you want to do it, you gotta get up and DO IT.

One of the best things about talking to Aunt C, is being able to hear her wonderful stories of the life of a jazz singer. When I was in college I hung out with Aunt C in New York for a couple of days and we went to this lil hole in the wall jazz club in Manhattan, and as we’re sitting at the bar talking, just out of the blue Terence Blanchard happens to amble on stage and starts blowing with the band!! I’m by no means a jazz aficionado, as a matter of fact, I’m teetering on being completely jazz ignorant and Homer Simpson-ish enough to fall asleep and start snoring so loud at a Betty Carter performance in Brooklyn, that I had to be nudged awake. But every time I’ve had the opportunity to see my Aunt C do her thang on stage, it is always an uplifting experience.

Most recently we had a chance to go to Flood’s jazz club in downtown Detroit the last night of our family reunion this summer and wouldn’t you know, Aunt C ended up on stage singing an impromptu version of ‘Summertime’ with the band. The thing that tripped me out the most about it, was that she didn’t know ANY of these musicians, had never seen them or practiced with them, but once she told the dude on the keyboard what she wanted and in what key? They ripped it up (that’s GOOD) so tight that it had the whole club on their feet applauding. It is this ambitious energy and dedication to the art of jazz that shows when Aunt C lifts her voice to sing. And this marvelous voice has taken her to places of the world that most black women from El Dorado have never even imagined.

From touring throughout Asia and Japan, Africa, the Caribbean, Europe, South America, Aunt C has been putting it down for her purpose for over 20 years now. And there have been times along my journey when I might have hesitated, because I felt I was too black or from too humble a beginning to achieve, but fortunately, I’ve always had pioneers, such as my wonderful Aunt C, who has shown us all, that we CAN chase our dreams to the fullest, no matter what the world may say.

If you’re ever craving some pure jazz, not that ‘junk they play on the radio’ as Aunt C often says, then I would definitely encourage you to check out Aunt C’s CD’s, which can be ordered from her website. And if you happen to be in Brooklyn, then you can see her perform live at Club Reign (Brooklyn’s newest hot spot located on Washington Ave. at Flushing !) on February 3, 2005.


Now I know some of ya’ll are probably still tripping on that full frontal nudity reference, but ya’ll know I don’t have to front to kick it I’m sure there’s some people shaking their head and saying I need to go sit on somebody’s couch and discuss latent Oedipal complexes with a professional, but I don’t care, it’s funny to me. I mean, you see how fine she looks now, so you can only imagine how fine she looked 25 years ago! Besides, I shared that story with her awhile ago and she couldn’t quite remember the incident, but after I told her how I would NEVER forget it, she started laughing and said, ‘Hell nephew, if I would have known that, I would have told you 'Merry Christmas!!’