Scatman John

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John Paul Larkin (March 13, 1942 – December 3, 1999), better known by his stage name Scatman John, was an American music artist who created a fusion of scat singing and dance music, best known for his 1995 hits "Scatman (Ski Ba Bop Ba Dop Bop)" and "Scatman's World" and 1996 hit "Everybody Jam!"

As a stutterer, Larkin stated that scatting was "turning [his] biggest problem into [his] biggest asset." Scatman John sold millions of recordings worldwide and was named "Best New Artist" in the Echo Awards in both Japan and Germany. He was a recipient of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association's Annie Glenn Award for outstanding service to the stuttering community and National Stuttering Association Hall of Fame.

Born in El Monte, California, Larkin suffered a severe stutter from the time he learned to speak, which led to an emotionally traumatic childhood. At age twelve he began to learn piano, and was introduced to the art of scat singing at the age of fourteen through records by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong, among others. The piano provided him with a means of artistic expression to compensate for his speech difficulties, as he "hid behind [the] piano because I was scared to speak."

Larkin became a professional jazz pianist in the 1970s and 1980s, playing many engagements in jazz clubs around Los Angeles.  In 1986, he released the self-titled album John Larkin on the Transition label. This album was produced by Philip Cacayorin at the Hollywood Central Studios.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02vDkMEdIkY

Scatman's World is an album by American musician Scatman John, recorded after the worldwide success of his debut single "Scatman (Ski-Ba-Bop-Ba-Dop-Bop)". It is somewhat of a concept album dealing with an imaginary Utopian society named "Scatland". He speaks about this at length in the liner notes: "If you're wondering where Scatland is, you don't have to look too far; it's between your deepest dreams and warmest wishes".

The songs deal with various elements of American society and many of them draw on Scatman's personal experience; "Popstar" is a tongue-in-cheek number about the shallow nature of stardom, "Quiet Desperation" deals with the homeless problem and "Time (Take Your Time)" is a harrowing song about his time in Alcoholics Anonymous.

The album climaxes with "Song of Scatland", a ballad dedicated to the imaginary kingdom that was released as a single. "Hi, Louis" closes the album proper with traditional scatting over jazz piano and steady beats; the title is a reference to Louis Armstrong, to whom he later paid tribute on the track "Everybody Jam!".

Scatman's World was very popular internationally, particularly in Japan, where it reached No. 2 and stayed on the charts for 40 weeks, selling more than 1,560,000 copies overall, and ranking as the 9th best selling album that was recorded by a non-Japanese artist of all time in that country.
Yamaha DGX-670 connected to a Yamaha MW12 Mixer connected to a pair of Yamaha MSP10's + Yamaha SW10 Subwoofer using Songbook+.
MacBook Pro  32 GB  1 Terabyte SSD
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