Scotty discovered his love for Jazz when his parents took him to see The Count Basie Orchestra at the age of twelve. At age seventeen, this passion was fueled with a serious desire to learn to play Jazz after seeing the Basie Orchestra in concert again and having a long conversation with Basie veteran trumpeter, Sonny Cohn. Two weeks later, while touring Europe with the Jazz Abroad Tour, Scotty met Wynton Marsalis in London's famed Jazz club, Ronnie Scott's.
A friendship began and Marsalis recognized Scotty's talent and gave him one of his own custom designed trumpets when Scotty began playing with Marcus Roberts, who had been pianist/orchestrator for Marsalis for six years.

Opportunities with Roberts and others were almost ended when mistakes by dentists left him unable to play the trumpet for eleven months. Repeated surgery was required to repair and rebuild after orthodontists caused severe bone and tooth loss. Down, but not out, Scotty used this period to listen to countless Jazz recordings and study jazz piano, composition, and arranging, and he became the pianist for the FAMU Jazz Orchestra until he could resume playing the trumpet.

"Barnhart...a warmly communicative artist...he knocked me out!!"
Leonard Feather, Los Angeles Times – Author of The Encyclopedia Of Jazz

The Deep In The Shed recording, Scotty's first, reached the number one spot on the Billboard charts. New York Magazine declared it as "potentially the most important Jazz recording of the 1980's." Other recordings featuring Barnhart are Robert's As Serenity Approaches, on which he plays the title track, written especially for him by Roberts; and Pontius Pilate's Decision, the debut recording from trombonist/producer Delfeayo Marsalis. All of these critically acclaimed recordings feature what Marsalis calls "one of the fattest and prettiest trumpet tones I have ever heard."

"Scotty... a musician with high intelligence... his focus is unwavering and his seriousness of purpose evident... a young Walt Whitman of the trumpet." Jim Merod, San Diego Voice and Viewpoint