A vocalist whose smooth delivery glides between jazz, adult contemporary pop, and soul, Marilyn Scott counts Aretha Franklin, Donny Hathaway, Janis Joplin, and Sam Cooke among her primary influences. She launched her professional career as a session singer for the likes of Tower of Power, Etta James, and Spyro Gyra before charting with her solo recording debut, a cover of "God Only Knows," and subsequent debut album, 1979's Dreams of Tomorrow. She later landed on the Billboard jazz charts with releases including 1992's Smile and the 2005 collection Handpicked. Her 12th solo LP, Standard Blue, appeared in 2017.

Born and raised in southern California, Marilyn Scott began performing in local clubs and school functions when she was 15. She moved to San Francisco to attend college on an art scholarship, and fronted Top 40 and Latin jazz bands around the San Francisco Bay area. Among the many friends she made was Emilio Castillo of Tower of Power, who recognized her gifts as a vocalist and hired her to do lead and backing vocals with the horn-based band. Those recording sessions led to her making her way back to Los Angeles as a studio session singer, where she recorded and performed with musicians and groups including Spyro Gyra, the Yellowjackets, Hiroshima, Etta James, and Bobby Womack. She was subsequently the only white female cast member hired to tour with the musical Selma, which dealt with the life and times of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Scott's first recording as a solo artist was a 1977 version of Brian Wilson's "God Only Knows'' that hit number 61 on the Billboard Hot 100, leading to a contract with Atco/Atlantic for her first album, Dreams of Tomorrow. The full-length cracked the Billboard 200 in 1979. Scott's second album, 1983's funk-injected Without Warning! (Mercury), brought her to the positive attention of jazz critics. It generated two Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, "Only You" and "10 x 10." Meanwhile, her Los Angeles base and years as a studio singer led to movie soundtrack work including contributions to the soundtracks to Torch Song Trilogy and Twins in the late '80s.

After teaming up with Bobby Caldwell, she recorded 1991's Sky Dancing, which became a hit in Japan and led to her own headlining tour of the country. A year later, she released Smile, which featured a duet with Brenda Russell ("That Man on My Mind"). The album rose to number 23 of the Contemporary Jazz Albums chart.

On Take Me with You, her 1996 debut for Warner Bros., she combined her interest in classic R&B and blues, pop, jazz, and Brazilian music. It included collaborations with Dori Caymmi, George Duke, Russell Ferrante, Ricardo Silvera, Boney James, Jimmy Haslip, and keyboardist Bob James. Co-produced by Ferrante and Haslip, both members of the Yellowjackets, the follow-up, 1998's Avenues of Love, saw Scott interpret songs like Stevie Wonder's "Bird of Beauty" and Dexter Wansel's "I'm in Love Once Again." Album-closer "The Last Day" reached the Top 20 of Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart. Her seventh solo outing, Walking with Strangers, marked a moved to independent label Prana in 2001. Scott reached a career-high number 22 on the Jazz Albums chart with 2004's Nightcap. Curated by Scott, the next year's Handpicked selected 16 favorites from 1992 to 2001, including "The Last Day" and a cover of Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes" that had yet to be released in the U.S. Handpicked peaked at number 25 on the Jazz Albums chart and number 15 on the contemporary jazz chart. Scott closed out the decade with the Prana releases Innocent of Nothing (2006) and Every Time We Say Goodbye (2008), which was concurrently released by Venus Records in Japan.

Scott re-emerged on Prana in 2014 with her first holiday album, Get Christmas Started! It included appearances by a dozen guests, including a horn section arranged by Tower of Power's Greg Adams. Ferrante provided the arrangements for her next studio album, 2017's more intimate Standard Blue. It featured guitarist Michael Landau, drummer Gary Novak, and Haslip on bass. Scott continued to perform on occasion in Los Angeles and New York through the end of the decade. ~ Marcy Donelson & Richard Skelly, Rovi