Kim Scott

Kim Scott first stepped onto the national stage in 2011 as a flute specialist whose warm, genre-blending approach merged jazz phrasing with R&B grooves. Her profile rose sharply when the single “Sizzle,” taken from the 2016 album Southern Heat, reached listeners across the country. She also performed extensively with the all-female collective Jazz in Pink, and in 2019 she claimed the top spot on the smooth-jazz airplay chart with the track “Emerge.”

Born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama, Scott was immersed from childhood in both faith and music; her father, saxophonist and one-time Dynamic Soul Machine member Albert Felder, and her mother, pianist, singer, and educator Belinda Floyd, provided a household rich in live performance and instruction. Drawn to the flute early, she pursued classical studies at the Alabama School of Fine Arts. After graduation she earned a full scholarship to the University of Alabama, where she completed an undergraduate degree in music performance before obtaining a master’s degree at Oklahoma State. She later returned to her alma mater as a faculty member and, in 2006, was appointed musical director of the school. Throughout the following ten years she earned respect in the Birmingham community for her commitment to teaching. At the same time, her longstanding admiration for flutists Bobbi Humphrey and Hubert Laws fueled an urge to step onto the bandstand herself. In 2010 she posted an online rendition of Beyoncé’s “Deja Vu,” which drew encouraging responses and prompted her to begin performing live. Guitarist and producer Keith Cashmere Williams noticed her work and offered her opening slots on tour; he also helmed her first album, Crossing Over, released in 2011. Subsequent projects included Rite of Passage and Southern Heat, the latter featuring the single “Sizzle,” which she co-wrote with trumpeter Lin Rountree. In addition to her solo output, Scott became a touring member of Jazz in Pink. Her fourth album, Free to Be, arrived in 2019 and yielded the Billboard Smooth Jazz Songs number-one single “Emerge,” recorded with Jonathan Fritzen.