Scott Hardy Then (’75) & Now
Bass & Guitar
A Houston native, acoustic bassist and guitarist Scott Hardy attended Houston’s High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. While in school, he worked with the legendary “Texas Tenor” Arnett Cobb. A few years later, he held one of Houston’s few steady jazz engagements with singer Roseanna Vitro at the Greenroom, where many well-known jazz artists—Oscar Peterson, Tommy Flanagan, Ralph Towner, to name a few—came by and “sat in” when they were in town.
In 1977, Scott moved to New York City, where he’s performed and/or recorded with Jack McDuff, Tal Farlow, Red Mitchell, Chris Connor, Kenny Barron, Rufus Reid, Bobby Watson, Jay Leonhart, Grady Tate, and Bob Kindred. In the early eighties, he led a trio backing the singer David Allyn at Gregory’s, then one of New York’s best-known jazz guitar rooms. He was also a member of clarinetist Perry Robinson’s group Pipe Dreams, an avant-garde quartet that toured Italy in the mid-eighties. The New York Times wrote that Scott “plays with an awesome rhythmic fluidity and solos as if the harmonic possibilities of any melody are simply endless.”
In that time, he met jazz pianist/composer Leslie Pintchik, with whom he started a musical partnership that has now spanned four decades. Renowned bassist Red Mitchell, after hearing a demo tape of Leslie and Scott’s duo, formed a trio with them (with Scott playing guitar), and presented the group’s music at Bradley’s, the legendary Greenwich Village jazz club, and one of Red’s favorite rooms in which to perform.
In the late eighties, Scott’s focus turned to the acoustic bass, an instrument that he feels, in retrospect, was always a secret love. A few years later, the Leslie Pintchik Trio was formed, with Scott on bass, and with drummers Keith Copeland, Mark Dodge, percussionist Satoshi Takeishi, and most notably, drummer Michael Sarin, with whom they have worked and toured since 2014. The trio was one of four finalists in the Cognac Hennessy Jazz Search, held at the Bottom Line in New York City. Jazz Times magazine called Scott “an exceptional bassist deserving wider prominence,” and a profile of him in Bass Player magazine praised his “lyrical phrasing, cross-register command, and burnished tone.”
The trio’s debut CD, So Glad To Be Here (2004), received four stars in DownBeat, and was followed by Quartets (2007). In 2010, they released their third CD, We’re Here To Listen, as well as a DVD, Leslie Pintchik Quartet Live In Concert. Jim Wilke, creator of the nationally syndicated Jazz After Hours radio show, included We’re Here To Listen on his “Best CDs of 2010” list. The New Yorker called their fourth CD, In The Nature Of Things (2014), “one of the more captivating recordings to come out so far this year.” True North followed in 2016; All About Jazz wrote, “Getting lost in this music is simply a joy.”
You Eat My Food, You Drink My Wine, You Steal My Girl! (2018) reached number 4 in the country for radio spins on JazzWeek, and remained in the top 10 for five weeks. Also in 2018, Scott’s song, “Scamba,” and Leslie’s tune, “In the Wrong Place at the Right Time,” were included in the soundtrack of Orson Welles’ final movie, The Other Side of the Wind. 2019’s release, Same Day Delivery: Leslie Pintchik Trio Live, was recorded live at NYC’s Jazz at Kitano, and received a four-star review in DownBeat, calling it “a stunning assortment of the bandleader’s originals.” About Leslie and Scott’s most recent album, Prayer for What Remains (2024), Marc Myers of JazzWax.com wrote “A gorgeous collection of songs that work their way to your heart.”
The third member of our trio, the exceptional drummer, Michael Sarin,performs worldwide, and has been at the center of New York City’s genre-bending jazz and improvisation community. Michael can be heard on recent recordings of Ben Allison, Frank Carlberg, Erik Friedlander and David Krakauer/Fred Wesley’s Abraham Inc. JazzReview.com wrote, “Sarin is simply masterful…. near magical drumming.”
