Nauman Scott, Co-Founder, Black Top Records
MKAldin
Nauman Scott, 56, record label owner Nauman Scott, co-owner of Black Top
Records, a New Orleans label that gained an international reputation for its
blues, rhythm-and-blues and zydeco recordings, died Tuesday of heart disease at
his home. He was 56.
Mr. Scott and his brother Hammond founded Black Top Records in 1980. The
label's first release was Anson Funderburgh and the Rockets' "Talk to You by
Hand."
Since then, the label released records by such artists as Earl King, Snooks
Eaglin, the Neville Brothers, Solomon Burke, Maria Muldaur, Tommy Ridgley and
Carol Fran.
"We're a blues label. That's what we want to be," Mr. Scott said several years
ago. "Blues, R&B, soul -- that's what I grew up listening to."
A 1991 article in The Times-Picayune said, "As owners of Black Top Records, the
brothers Scott have for the past decade been like an emergency medical team
giving R&B mouth-to-mouth." Writer Scott Aiges said the company's "10 to 12
releases each year frequently enjoy enthusiastic critical response, if not
smashing sales,"
and noted that the magazine Bay Area Music had included the Scotts in its "100
Most Important People in Music" list, alongside Clive Davis, David Geffen, Bill
Graham and Mick Jagger.
Black Top releases picked up two Grammy nominations and won more than 30 W.C.
Handy Blues Awards. The label also sponsored an annual Black Top Blues-A-Rama
concert and live recording session at Tipitina's during the New Orleans Jazz
and
Heritage Festival.
Producing records and running a record company was a second career for Mr.
Scott, who was born Nauman Steele Scott III in New Orleans but grew up in
Alexandria, where his father was a lawyer and later a federal judge. The elder
Scott died in
September.
Mr. Scott graduated from Bolton High School in Alexandria; Washington and Lee
University in Lexington, Va.; and Louisiana State University Law School.
After getting his law degree in 1972, he practiced law for several years in
Monroe, specializing in the oil and gas industry. He co-founded Primos
Production Co. and lived in Dallas for several years before moving to New
Orleans in the mid-1980s.
Hammond Scott, meanwhile, spent some time on the road managing Slidell bluesman
Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown before graduating from law school and becoming a
prosecutor in the New Orleans district attorney's office.
"When the oil business went down, we said, āEUR~Let's do this,' " Mr. Scott
said
of their recording business. The brothers ran the company from a house on Camp
Street, recording most of their albums at New Orleans studios.
Nauman Scott also was known as a major collector of and dealer in American
antiques and collectibles, such as guitars, radios, watches and vintage cars.
He was a member of the National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors, the
National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, the National Association of
Independent
Record Distributors, and the Louisiana Bar Association.
Besides his brother Hammond, survivors include a son, Nauman Steele Scott IV; a
daughter, Sarah Stafford Scott; another brother, John W. Scott of Alexandria;
and a sister, Ashley Scott Rankin of Dallas.
A funeral will be Friday at 2 p.m. at Trinity Episcopal Church, 1329 Jackson
Ave. Visitation will be today from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at Bultman Funeral Home,
3338 St. Charles Ave., and Friday from 1 to 2 p.m. at the church. Burial will
be Saturday at 11 a.m. in Metairie Cemetery.