Howard E. Scott (born March 15, 1946) is an American funk/rock guitarist and founding member of the successful 1970s funk band

War War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

Biography

Scott grew up in Compton, California. He began playing bass at a very young age under the guidance of his cousin, Jack Nelson, and in 1961 began playing guitar. A year later, he formed a group called the Creators with Harold Brown, and together they played at high school dances, car club parties and small nightclubs in southern California. Scott was influenced by blues artists T.J. Summerville, Howlin Wolf,

Muddy Waters McKinley Morganfield (April 4, 1913 April 30, 1983), known professionally as Muddy Waters, was an American blues singer and musician who was an important figure in the post-war blues scene, and is often cited as the "father of modern Chicago ...

Jimmy Reed Mathis James Reed (September 6, 1925 – August 29, 1976) was an American blues musician and songwriter. His particular style of electric blues was popular with blues as well as non-blues audiences. Reed's songs such as "Honest I Do" (1957), " ...

and Wayne Bennett. He frequented the local blues clubs in

South Los Angeles South Los Angeles, also known as South Central Los Angeles or simply South Central, is a region in southwestern Los Angeles County, lying mostly within the city limits of Los Angeles, south of downtown. It is "defined on Los Angeles city maps as a ...

to study professionals such as

Lowell Fulson Lowell Fulson (March 31, 1921March 7, 1999) was an American blues guitarist and songwriter, in the West Coast blues tradition. He also recorded for contractual reasons as Lowell Fullsom and Lowell Fulsom. After T-Bone Walker, he was the most imp ...

Johnny Guitar Watson Johnny is an English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germ ...

and

T-Bone Walker Aaron Thibeaux "T-Bone" Walker (May 28, 1910 – March 16, 1975) was an American blues musician, composer, songwriter and bandleader, who was a pioneer and innovator of the jump blues, West Coast blues, and electric blues sounds. In 2018 ''R ...

. Howard graduated from

Compton High School Compton High School is a high school in Compton, California, United States, part of the Compton Unified School District. History The school opened in 1896 as Compton Union High School and was later re-established as Compton Senior High School i ...

in 1964 where he was on the school's dance band and cross country team. He toured with

The Drifters The Drifters are several American doo-wop and R&B/soul vocal groups. They were originally formed as a backing group for Clyde McPhatter, formerly the lead tenor of Billy Ward and his Dominoes in 1953. The second group of Drifters, formed in ...

for a short time until he was drafted into the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

in 1966. Upon his return, he formed his second group, The Night Shift, with Harold Brown. In 1969, the Night Shift was performing at the Rag Doll club in North Hollywood , when

Eric Burdon Eric Victor Burdon (born 11 May 1941) is an English singer. He was previously the lead vocalist of R&B and rock band the Animals and funk band War. He is regarded as one of the British Invasion's most distinctive singers with his deep, pow ...

and

Lee Oskar Lee Oskar (born 24 March 1948) is a Danish harmonica player, notable for his contributions to the sound of the rock-funk fusion group War, which was formed by Howard E. Scott and Harold Brown, his solo work, and as a harmonica manufacturer. H ...

stopped in to hear them play. Lee Oskar went to the stage to join in on a jam, and the next day Eric Burdon, Lee Oskar, Charles Miller,

Papa Dee Allen War (originally called Eric Burdon and War) is an American funk/rock music, rock/soul music, soul band from Long Beach, California, known for several hit songs (including "Spill the Wine", "The World Is a Ghetto (War song), The World Is a Ghett ...

Lonnie Jordan Leroy Jordan (born November 21, 1948) is an American singer-songwriter. He is a founding member of the American funk band War. Jordan had a number of roles over the years, acting as vocalist and playing guitar, piano, synthesizer, and percussion ...

and

Peter Rosen Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a su ...

joined Scott and Brown to form the band War. Scott contributed lyrics, music and co-produced some of War’s greatest hits, such as " Cisco Kid", "Slipping into Darkness" and " Why Can’t We Be Friends?". He was also the frontman and leader of the group. Scott and other members eventually left the original band in the 1990s, losing the right to use the band's name. Scott now performs regularly with his nephew,

B.B. Dickerson BB, Bb, or similar, may refer to: In arts and entertainment *BB, abbreviation for a catalogue of works by Béla Bartók * ''BB'' (album), by Mod Sun (2017) *"BB Talk", 2015 song by Miley Cyrus * BB (Transformers), a character in the franchi ...

and Harold Brown as the

Lowrider Band The Lowrider Band consists of three of the four surviving original core group members of the multi-platinum selling band War: Howard E. Scott, Lee Oskar, and Harold Brown. These members lost the right in federal court to use and tour under the na ...

.Lowrider Band Stands the Test of Time, Brooks, Brandon. Los Angeles Sentinel, 08-06-2009

References

External links

* Howard E. Scotton

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

Howard Scott BandLowrider Band
*https://www.facebook.com/Lowriderband {{DEFAULTSORT:Scott, Howard E. 1946 births Living people 20th-century American guitarists African-American guitarists American funk guitarists American male guitarists American rock guitarists Guitarists from Los Angeles Compton High School alumni People from San Pedro, Los Angeles War (American band) members