Born in Providence, RI, in the mid-1950's, Scott is the son of two graphic artists, Robert Hamilton, who taught painting at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), and Nancy Hamilton, who taught art at the Community College of Rhode Island.

As a youngster Scott studied clarinet, which gave him familiarity with reed instruments and the tricky fingering of them. He loved music and would listen to his father's jazz record collection, hearing all the great saxophonists: Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins, Stan Getz, Ben Webster and many others. Later, when Scott started playing the saxophone he would try to emulate them, and because he did, older jazz musicians rapidly accepted him.

When "Little Jazz," Roy Eldridge heard him, he said, "Scott sounds like the ‘Bean,’ (Coleman Hawkins)," and he encouraged Scott to move to New York, which Scott did at the age of 21, in 1976.

He began working with many well established players because of his sound and musical ability. The pianist Dave McKenna, who worked worldwide with Scott, said recently: "Scott is one of the greatest saxophonists of all time. He sounded at first like many of the masters, but then he incorporated them into his own playing, and made them his own."

Scott always loved music, though his clarinet studies only lasted a short time. He started playing the harmonica, and in his early 'teens, met some blues players from the Westerly area of Rhode Island. He began to work in the band of one of them, the guitar player/singer Duke Robillard, who later started a band called Roomful of Blues. Both the band and Robillard have become world famous, though Duke left his own band many years ago to travel solo and with smaller groups.

Scott enjoyed the band work, but he wanted a saxophone, and so on his fourteenth birthday, his parents bought him one. As his father, now deceased, tells the story, Scott took the saxophone home and practiced with it all day, figuring out the fingering from his experience with a clarinet. In the evening, he was getting what he though was a decent sound. Living near Brown University, Scott walked over to the campus and sat in with a jazz band that was practicing. Music came easily to Scott.

A short time later, he and some high school friends, Preston Hubbard, bass; Fred Bates, guitar; Chuck Riggs, drums, formed a group that they called "The Blue Flames." The band started working around Providence, and they were joined by a singer, Sue Melikkian, who later sang with Benny Goodman. Though Hubbard and Bates left the band, Scott and Riggs continued, getting Chris Flory to play guitar and Phil Flanagan on bass. The band developed a reputation around Rhode Island, and then Scott decided to strike out for New York City.

He went into Jimmy Ryan's on 52nd Street and asked Roy Eldridge if he could sit-in. Eldridge later recalled, "I thought this kid is either crazy or he is a great player. Well, he was a great player, and I encouraged him to come to New York."

Scott went with the entire band, and they began working with the famed soprano saxophonist Bob Wilber. Scott started making records with others, including Al Cohn, Buddy Tate, and another Rhode Islander, Dave McKenna. Scott almost always included his own band. As his fame spread, Scott latched onto Concord Records; he still records for that label, and has made nearly 40 recordings for them. "I'm there Billy Joel," Scott jokes.

Scott now lives in London, playing gigs throughout Europe and the Orient, and of course in the United States. He has taken up doing a duo with another saxophonist from Rhode Island, Harry Allen.