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Bay Area African American Women in Music: E.C. Scott’s Blues Inspired by Life Story

Published

10 years ago

July 17, 2015

Oakland-born vocalist E.C. Scott specialized in performing songs popularized by other artists – Etta James, Nancy Wilson and Al Jarreau among her favorites – during the early stages of her career.

After bluesman Joe Louis Walker suggested she write her own, Scott had little trouble coming up with lyrics. She drew from her own personal experiences for her original odes, many of them filled with wit and wisdom.

“I started off getting them from ex-husbands,” Scott said at her hillside home in Union City, having been married three times and currently single. “Anything they did to me, I could write a song about it. I lived those songs.”

Scott’s compositions combine her often-sassy delivery and tight backing band, which she calls Smoke. Her arrangements appealed to Blind Pig Records in San Francisco, which led to a contract and her recording three CDs between 1995 and 2000.

Her fourth, 2003’s “The Other Side of Me” on the Black Bud label, featured guest appearances by blues great Little Milton.

Since beginning her career as a blues recording artist two decades ago, Scott has performed throughout the United States and Canada, as well as in Spain, France, Germany, Poland and other European countries.

Vocalist E.C. Scott

Her start in music began at age 16. While attending Skyline High School, Scott was broadcast every Sunday on KDIA as a soloist with the St. John’s Missionary Baptist Church choir.

During that same time, she began sitting in with jazz pianist Slim Slaughter at Lancer’s on Lakeshore Avenue, where she started performing. Scott performed first for tips only until the club owner hired her to sing for $35 a night, a substantial amount of money in the late 1960s.

“I was making money, and I was still going to high school,” she said. “I felt rich. I even had a car.”

Scott initially thought that the predominately female audiences at Lancer’s were simply housewives until Slaughter asked her if she knew what “lesbian” meant.

“What do you call women who like other women?” she recalled the pianist asking.

“Naturally, I used the other word,” she remembered.

“Oh, my God! Don’t ever say that word,” she recalled Slaughter saying.

Now for the past nine years, Scott has produced and hosted a half-hour television program, “EC’s Jook Joint” that is currently carried on six commercial stations and over 300 community access stations across the country.

“Whereas the older artists send in DVDs of their performances and they’re standing up,” she said, “the younger artists are giving you videos where the storyline is unfolding right in front of your eyes, sort of like a mini-movie. I’m loving that.”

Scott is currently working on a single titled “Preacher” that she plans to sell through iTunes. Her next scheduled performance will be Aug. 22 at the Winnipeg BBQ & Blues Festival in Manitoba, Canada.

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Oakland Housing and Community Development Department Awards $80.5 Million to Affordable Housing Developments

Published

7 months ago

June 17, 2025

Oakland Post

Special to The Post

The City of Oakland’s Housing and Community Development Department (Oakland HCD) announced its awardees for the 2024-2025 New Construction of Multifamily Affordable Housing Notice of Funding Availability (New Construction NOFA) today Five permanently affordable housing developments received awards out of 24 applications received by the Department, with award amounts ranging from $7 million to $28 million.

In a statement released on Jan. 16, Oakland’s HCD stated, “Five New Construction Multifamily Affordable Housing Development projects awarded a total of $80.5 million to develop 583 affordable rental homes throughout Oakland. Awardees will leverage the City’s investments to apply for funding from the state and private entities.”

In December, the office of Rebecca Kaplan, interim District 2 City Councilmember, worked with HCD to allocate an additional $10 Million from Measure U to the funding pool. The legislation also readopted various capital improvement projects including street paving and upgrades to public facilities.

The following Oakland affordable housing developments have been awarded in the current round:

Mandela Station Affordable

238 Affordable Units including 60 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $15 million + previously awarded $18 million
Developer: Mandela Station LP (Pacific West Communities, Inc. and Strategic Urban Development Alliance, LLC)
City Council District: 3
Address: 1451 7th St.

Liberation Park Residences

118 Affordable Units including 30 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $28 million
Developer: Eden Housing and Black Cultural Zone
City Council District: 6
Address: 7101 Foothill Blvd.

34th & San Pablo

59 Affordable Units including 30 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $7 million
Developer: 34SP Development LP (EBALDC)
City Council District: 3
Address: 3419-3431 San Pablo Ave.

The Eliza

96 Affordable Units including 20 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $20 million
Developer: Mercy Housing California
City Council District: 3
Address: 2125 Telegraph Ave.

3135 San Pablo

72 Affordable Units including 36 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $10.5 million
Developer: SAHA and St. Mary’s Center
City Council District: 3
Address: 3515 San Pablo Ave.

The source of this story is the media reltations office of District 2 City Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan.

Oakland Post

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Activism

Oakland Housing and Community Development Department Awards $80.5 Million to Affordable Housing Developments

Published

11 months ago

January 30, 2025

Oakland Post

Rebecca Kaplan, interim District 2 city councilmember. File photo.

Special to The Post

The following Oakland affordable housing developments have been awarded in the current round:

Mandela Station Affordable

238 Affordable Units including 60 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $15 million + previously awarded $18 million
Developer: Mandela Station LP (Pacific West Communities, Inc. and Strategic Urban Development Alliance, LLC)
City Council District: 3
Address: 1451 7th St.

Liberation Park Residences

118 Affordable Units including 30 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $28 million
Developer: Eden Housing and Black Cultural Zone
City Council District: 6
Address: 7101 Foothill Blvd.

34th & San Pablo

59 Affordable Units including 30 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $7 million
Developer: 34SP Development LP (EBALDC)
City Council District: 3
Address: 3419-3431 San Pablo Ave.

The Eliza

96 Affordable Units, including 20 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $20 million
Developer: Mercy Housing California
City Council District: 3
Address: 2125 Telegraph Ave.

3135 San Pablo

72 Affordable Units including 36 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $10.5 million
Developer: SAHA and St. Mary’s Center
City Council District: 3
Address: 3515 San Pablo Ave.

The source of this story is media reltations office of District 2 City Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Alameda County

Oakland Acquisition Company’s Acquisition of County’s Interest in Coliseum Property on the Verge of Completion

The Board of Supervisors is committed to closing the deal expeditiously, and County staff have worked tirelessly to move the deal forward on mutually agreeable terms. The parties are down to the final details and, with the cooperation of OAC and Coliseum Way Partners, LLC, the Board will take a public vote at an upcoming meeting to seal this transaction.

Published

12 months ago

January 11, 2025

Oakland Post

Alameda County Board of Supervisors Chairman David Haubert. Official photo.

Special to The Post

The County of Alameda announced this week that a deal allowing the Oakland Acquisition Company, LLC, (“OAC”) to acquire the County’s 50% undivided interest in the Oakland- Alameda County Coliseum complex is in the final stages of completion.

Oakland has already finalized a purchase and sale agreement with OAC for its interest in the property. OAC’s acquisition of the County’s property interest will achieve two longstanding goals of the County:

The Oakland-Alameda Coliseum complex will finally be under the control of a sole owner with capacity to make unilateral decisions regarding the property; and
The County will be out of the sports and entertainment business, free to focus and rededicate resources to its core safety net

In an October 2024 press release from the City of Oakland, the former Oakland mayor described the sale of its 50% interest in the property as an “historic achievement” stating that the transaction will “continue to pay dividends for generations to come.”

The Board of Supervisors is pleased to facilitate single-entity ownership of this property uniquely centered in a corridor of East Oakland that has amazing potential.

“The County is committed to bringing its negotiations with OAC to a close,” said Board President David Haubert.