Mabel Bernice Scott (April 30, 1915 – July 20, 2000) was an American gospel music and R&B vocalist. She lived in New York and Cleveland before arriving on the West Coast blues scene in 1942.
Mabel is probably remembered more for her 1948 hits "Elevator Boogie" and "Boogie Woogie Santa Claus" than for her 1949–1951 marriage to the featured piano player of "Elevator Boogie", Charles Brown of Johnny Moore's Three Blazers.
Mabel Scott was born in Richmond, Virginia, the daughter of Rachael and Thomas Scott.
By 1930, she was living in New York City with her mother.
She developed her singing voice in church, eventually forming an all-girl gospel group, the Song Cycles. Around 1932 Scott began singing at Harlem's Cotton Club with Cab Calloway's Orchestra and the dancing Nicholas Brothers.
Scott moved to Cleveland, Ohio in 1936, then she and pianist Bob Mosley went to England and recorded on the Parlophone Records label.
World War II forced her to stop her European tours, and she settled in Los Angeles, where she became part of the postwar West Coast jazz and R&B scene.
Disillusioned with the music business and unhappy after her second marriage, Mabel Scott returned to her gospel roots, singing only in church for the rest of her life.
She was given a Pioneer Award by the Rhythm and Blues Foundation in 1995.
She died in Los Angeles in 2000, aged 85.
