Scott is 45 years old. His black hair has thinned to a few shreds over his forehead but he makes up for this by wearing it long down his neck and over his collar. Bundled in a great coat, a jaunty hat flaring down over his long, pointed noise, he has the challenging air of an impresario who has the audiences of the world at his back and command. He has stayed doggedly with the clarinet and with jazz because, he says, he finds both of them fulfilling, emotionally, spiritually, mentally:

"The whole thing of the jazz clarinet kind of dried up after Artie Shaw and Benny Goodman, every instrument, every sound has its time. But, as Thelonious Monk once said, "That's all I can do". The way I play the clarinet is my style. It's personal. When I was in Japan I asked a clarinetist what he thought of the Tony Scott style. "Good' he said ' but it's too difficult to copy" I'm back now to try for a rebirth of the instrument... I think a clarinet can be played as strongly as a saxophone or a trumpet, and I think I can do that now. It can be a delicate instrument, but it can be robust, can be played with the vitality that some guys have on the other horns..." (Tony Scott)

Returned from the Orient and resuming his New York life, he was faced with the players of the 'New Things':

"Things change, and you find yourself on the outside. If there were just some places to jam, so you could get your horn out and blow without feeling that you're stepping on someone's toes or trying to play music that's someone else's private property - but now nobody says 'come and blow' which is bad…I meet guys who don't seem to know that other music exists besides their own… I seem to be among different nations. On 52nd St. everybody went to the White Rose or Reilly's bar for intermission to drink and talk and you always could look into the next joint and hear what was going on, Musicians don't seems to listen to each other anymore… You live nervous when you play jazz. I've been playing for 32 years. There's no pension. If your chops go, you don't even get a gold watch. At the end nobody says thank you because they don't owe you anything. We are all 'relics' The Five Spot has turned its front into a pizza counter. The Village Gate has taken up catering. Nobody's making it on jazz any more. I want to play in all kinds of styles. The old type of swing is like a log burning; the new, hard type is like setting gasoline afire. I'm going to stick around for a while, see and hear everybody, play with all kinds of musicians, and plug away at getting people to hear me. If it doesn't work out, I'll go overseas again and see the rest of the world." (Tony Scott)

In 1965,July 3 Tony Scott was reintroduced to the American Jazz public at the Newport Jazz Festival, by Norman Granz.
The most exciting day of the festival included Frank Sinatra (with Quincy Jones conducting the orchestra), Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Art Blakey, Count Basie Orchestra, Duke Ellington Orchestra, Dave Brubeck quartet and Herbie Mann Octet :

"Tony Scott had the crowd eating out of his hand."
"Singer Mieko Hirota, from Tokyo, and Scott combined vocal efforts to give the fans a lesson in scatology." (Ted Williams- The world of jazz)

-August 8th, at New York's Jimmy Ryan's: concert in honor of the 65th birthday of Tony Parenti, the historic Dixieland clarinetist:
"I recalled one night that encompassed Tony Parenti and Cecil Taylor. Taylor is very exciting. By coincidence, I went down to hear him at the vanguard after I'd dropped in at Jimmy Ryan's. It was Tony Parenti's 65th birthday, and I had a ball sitting in and playing in that style, with Zutty Singleton and Cliff Jackson - I love those guys. And then I went down to hear Cecil. I'd have loved to sit in with him too. As long as it swings, it's a ball. I asked him some questions about his music, but nobody can really answer that. It comes out in the playing. I admire those guys." (Tony Scott)

"Scott and a few friends showed up at New York's Jimmy Ryan's, one of the few remaining Gotham clubs featuring traditional jazz. He made a big production of wishing his friend well and then sat in with him. Parenti, deeply touched by the salute, made happy music; the feeling communicated to Scott and the musicians in the resident band. The result - a memorable evening." (Burt Korall: International Musicians, Nov.1967- Tony Scott Jazzman )

- August 12th, Harlem: Scott participated at the most ambitious of the Street Jazz Concerts sponsored by the Harlem Cultural Council. He led the band composed of musicians Marshall Brown, Jimmy Nottingham, Pepper Adams, Milt Hinton, and Osie Johnson. They played elaborate arrangements of old and new songs of Black Jazz history (St. Louis Blues, Perdido…)

- New York City's Village Vanguard Scott began a series of Monday night Jam Sessions, attempting to resurrect some of the 'old spirit'. The first night featured Jimmy Giuffre on clarinet and tenor sax ("The first time I've played chord changes in three years" Giuffre quipped) Jimmy Knepper(tb), Roger Kellaway(p), Chuck Israels(b), Roy Haynes(d), Howard Johnson(tuba and brs), Elvin Jones(d), (to whom they dedicate a wildly free rendition of Happy Birthday.)

During these informal sessions of the type he holds dear an attempt to rekindle the old spirit, but they have since been taken over by disc jockey Alan Grant, a development about which Scott is not bitter:

"I enjoyed myself, I had a chance to meet some new faces, and to give a little work to good players. Grant is able to draw more of an audience with his Radio listeners. Of the guys sitting in, there were a few, very few, who could play anything that came along - like Roger Kellaway, who covers the piano from stride to abstract. But a lot of guys get into their own little world because they can only play one way." (Tony Scott)

"Without experimenters, jazz would die a lingering death. Critics and observers of the musical scene would do well to open themselves more fully to what surrounds them. I believe in being receptive to all music. You don't use or enjoy all that's around, but at least you know what's going on. All kinds of musicians sit in with my band. Some might not fit in with what we do; that doesn't matter. Sometimes a cat comes along and says something very strong, in a new way, and we learn from it. If you stop learning, you might as well throw your horn away." (Tony Scott)

-Slug's Saloon: playing a week.
- August 25th, Sterling Forest Jazz Festival: he played accompanied by Dick Hyman(p), Jeremy Steig(fl), and Leon Thomas(vcl).
- September 8th, The Johnny Carson Show: Scott's Quartet played on what was the most famous American TV Show for 20 years - Jaki Byard on piano, Henry Grimes on bass, Eddie Marshall on drums.
- September 28th Half Note Club: he played two weeks accompanied by Bill Evans(p), Gene Wright(b), Walter Bolden(dr), and Eddie Daniels(ts).

In 1966 Tony Scott began the new jazz era playing for fifteen months at The Dom club in East Greenwich Village - also named St. Marks Place (8th street between 3rd & 4th Ave ), fostering an interest in the room among jazz fans. Playing in his group: Horace Parlan(p), Henry Grimes(b), and Eddie Marshall(d). Other musicians who worked there with Tony were Bill Rubenstein, Keith Jarrett, McCoy Tyner, Jaki Byard, Harold Mabern (pianists), Paul Chambers, Richard Davis, Teddy Smith, Arvell Shaw (bass players), Philly Joe Jones, Roy Haynes, Papa Jo Jones, Jack De Johnette, Mickey Roker (drummers) and others.
Among the numerous soloists in jam sessions were Pharoah Sanders(ts), Lew Soloff, Randy Brecker, Tommy Turrentine, Kenny Dorham, Bill Hardman, C. Sharp(as), China Lin(vocal), and Miles Davis. A repertoire was developing between BeBop and the influences of ethnic music which Scott brought back with him from his travels. Having become the 'in' spot in New York with a constant presence of musicians, a big band would form between 3 and 4 in the morning to play Scott's arrangements, re-living the '40-'50 Harlem jazz years.
After being displaced at the club by Andy Warhol and his psychedelic rock group, the Velvet Underground, Scott and his unit performed at Poockie's Pub and at the Five Spot Café, also in the Village, and as guest star of Stan 'the Man' Hunter's Organ Trio at New Jersey Shady Soaks Lodge April 21, 22, 23.

- July 20th of 1967, Scott played at The Museum of Modern Art in New York, for Jazz in the Garden Series, bringing with him, to the surprise of American critics, his musical 'portfolio' gathered in the Orient. The exceptional, provocative, and innovative program which resulted, united jazz with blues, ethnic influences, African and Japanese songs, avant-guard, contemporary music, Indian Raga, Turkish songs, suggestions of oriental music, and jazz scat. The group was composed by Tony Scott(cl, brs, vcl), Bill Rubenstein(p), Richard Davis(b), Jack De Johnette(d), Steve Addis(Koto), Bill Crofut(sitar, banjo), Colin Walcott(Sitar, tabla, d). - August 1, 1967 this recorded concert was transmitted by NYC Channel 13.

In November 1967 Scott recorded Homage to Lord Krishna (Verve), with musicians Richard Davis(b), Attila Zoller(g), Jimmy Lovelace(d), Beril Rubenstein(p) Milt Hinton(b), John Berberian, Souren Baronian, Colin Walcott, and Steve Pumilia(oud, dumbeck, sitar and percussion) :

"The Eastern flavor is present in Scott's new album, but there are several tracks in which he concentrates on playing jazz in the acerbic way that brought him prominence in the early fifties,…his intensity and the oddly fragmented character of some of his lines remind me of the late Pee wee Russell." (Doug Ramsey, Broadcast)

He recorded also in New York Music For Yoga Meditation and Other Joys in duo with Colin Walcott (sitar):
"I came back to New York for challenge to play with real musicians. This is where you make the name. This is the hub of the wheel. I don't dig going out-of-town to little places. Everything that's important-career, friends -is here. But this is one hard New York City. Charlies Mingus once said: 'If you were a giant and you looked down on New York City, do you know what you'd see? Tombstone.' You have to give up a hell of a lot to play jazz. So maybe I'll have to go out of town, like the other guys do -go to Alberta and Massachusetts. But I'm very tempted to go to Europe. I'd like to go to Spain. I've never been there. I talked about it to Tate, the Spanish pianist who's playing at the Top of the Gate. He says I shouldn't go now because it's out of season. If you want to work for people, you can work for people. Once, at a military post overseas, they told me they only liked Hillbilly music there. I said, Sergeant, I can play anything. I don't care if the season's in Spain or if it's out. I'll find somebody to reach. I can reach everybody." (Tony Scott)

Tony Scott, at forty-six, remains unrelentingly dedicated to the performance of jazz, in its many forms. The clarinet is nourished and continually renewed by the music and, during thirty-two years as a practicing musician, he has given much of himself in return. While other jazzmen bemoan the declining interest in their music and the disappearance of major and minor sources of work through the country, Scott searches for outlets. More than that, he develops work situations.
It has become increasingly clear to him over the years that a musician not only must have the talent to work and create, but the drive to make breaks and take advantage of them as well.
In 1967, Jazz was at such a low that Charlie Mingus, Elvin Jones, Lee Konitz had no work. Tony was not about to stay around for a funeral. He took off with Philly Jo Jones for the Berlin jazz festival which Joe Achim Berendt, the famous jazz producer, critic, author had organized. (International Musicians p. 5, 26 - Tony Scott Jazzman by Burt Korall)