L.A. Express

The L.A. Express emerged among the pioneering supergroups that defined the jazz-rock fusion movement during the mid-1970s. Saxophonist Tom Scott guided the group’s earliest lineups through two albums issued on Lou Adler’s Ode imprint. Those initial configurations united Scott with veteran jazz bassist Max Bennett, now playing electric bass guitar, legendary Los Angeles studio drummer John Guerin, keyboardist Joe Sample, and electric guitarist Larry Carlton. Their debut LP, Tom Scott & the L.A. Express, contained the crossover hit “Sneakin’ In The Back,” a reading of a John Coltrane piece, and several early contemporary jazz explorations that incorporated Middle Eastern rhythms and melodies. The follow-up, Tom Cat, featured Scott, Bennett, Guerin, guitarist Robben Ford, and keyboardists Larry Ford and Larry Marsh.

After Scott departed for a solo career in 1976, the remaining musicians kept the band name and issued two further LPs, L.A. Express and Shadow Play, on the Caribou subsidiary of the Epic/Columbia labels. David Luell assumed the lead saxophone role while Bennett and Guerin functioned as de facto co-leaders; they retained Ford, brought in guitarist Peter Maunu and keyboardist Victor Feldman, and added vocalist Paulette McWilliams for Shadow Play. During the same period, several L.A. Express members appeared on Joni Mitchell’s The Hissing of Summer Lawns and Miles of Aisles, and Mitchell contributed to Tom Cat in return.

Tom Scott reassembled the L.A. Express in 1999 with an entirely new roster of West Coast musicians, resulting in the CD Smokin’ Section. Among the participants were Alex Acuña, Harvey Mason, Ralph MacDonald, Vinnie Colaiuta, Lenny Castro, George Bohannon, Pete Christlieb, Robbie Nevil, Melvin “Wah Wah” Watson, Patty Smyth, Paul Jackson, Jr., Chuck Berghofer, Mitchell Foreman, Phil Perry, and Lynne Scott. The original Tom Scott & the L.A. Express LP received a CD reissue in 1996, while Wounded Bird Records re-released the album L.A. Express in 2008.