Raymond Scott Goes to Middle School

Guest blogger, Deb Scott Studebaker, who is the older daughter of

Raymond Scott and his 2nd wife Dorothy Collins, writes the following:

Tess, Zack H. and fellow poets perform "The White Clothesline"
at The Willows Community School. Photo: Tessa Posnansky

Take 100 middle school students and a lesson on poetry and art that embraces light and shadow. Add careful observation, thoughtful discussion, and provide an environment where these students can sketch, paint, write and share. 

What do you get? A poem called “The White Clothesline,” performed before an audience, with intro music from Raymond Scott Rewired. This mix of words, images and music holds a special meaning for me because Raymond Scott was my father.

Much has been written about Raymond Scott as an unswerving taskmaster, working his musicians relentlessly in pursuit of a lofty standard of perfection. His method of teaching me to play the piano as a young child—practicing endless scales—was anything but fun.

Aidan in "The White Clothesline."  Photo: Heidi Roberts

But my father also had a playful side, as well as a passion for combining and recombining sounds, styles, and genres. That was fun! It was fun for him, and for those who shared his vision. I must have inherited his fascination with combining art forms and modalities.

I’m the third of Raymond Scott’s four children; I am also a writer who teaches poetry at the Willows Community School in Los Angeles. On February 12, ten of my talented students performed a piece that embodied creative confluence—a process dear to my father’s heart. 

Confluence: a place where people or things come together. Confluence came to work with me over the past few weeks: Blending art with poetry. Connecting fragments written by 100 students into an ancient poetic form known as the “cento.” Weaving 6th and 7th graders’ voices and perspectives. Bringing ten of those students onstage to speak the truths hidden within a white towel, a pair of white ski pants, and a tiny white sweater. Finally, adding a musical introduction that was a mash-up in itself!

Schaedyn and Malaika perform. Photo: Tessa Posnansky

When I searched my music library for an intro cue, I wasn’t looking specifically for a Raymond Scott composition. In fact, I brought in three selections to play for my kids. But when I put on “Good Duquesne Air” (audio below)—one of my favorite tunes from the fascinating Raymond Scott Rewired project—we had an immediate groove going on. “That’s so cool!” “What is that?” “Who is that?”  I explained that it was my father’s music, reimagined by mixmaster Mark Vidler (of Go Home Productions). On Poetry Night, the vintage and modern elements of “Good Duquesne Air” gave the audience a mysterious feel for what was yet to come.

In a confluence, streams flow and merge together from various sources. Fusing art with poetry opened up wider vistas for our students. Distilling the writings of many young poets into a cento told a new story. 

And incorporating even a taste of my father's musical legacy into “The White Clothesline” reminded me that a creative confluence is a gift big enough to share.

Shooby Taylor Rewired

The new Basta album Raymond Scott Rewired features a radical overhaul of the entire Scott catalog by three of the music world's premiere remix artists — The Bran Flakes, Evolution Control Committee, and Go Home Productions. It was released on February 18.

The final track, Scott's iconic "Powerhouse," which was collaboratively layered by the three mixmeisters, features a special guest. The late, legendary outsider scat-master William "Shooby" Taylor, a.k.a. "The Human Horn," takes a few vocal turns throughout the mix. I chronicled Taylor's story over at a website devoted to my Y2K outsider music book and CDs, Songs in the Key of Z. Taylor's idiosyncratic vocal stylings were studio-recorded in the 1980s over commercial LPs by artists like Miles Davis, the Harmonicats, Erroll Garner, Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, and Johnny Cash. Needless to say, these artists were not consulted about the collaborations, and all went to their graves none the wiser.

I own the dozen or so Shooby master reels, which contain 94 tracks, many of which I intend to release digitally in the near term. The samples used in "Powerhouse" originated from a series of a cappella recordings by Taylor. Buy the album — or at least the track — to appreciate Shooby in a remarkable setting. You can hear (and buy) four Shooby solo recordings in the iTunes Store: "Stout-Hearted Men," "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing," "Indiana," and "It Gets Better All the Time."

REWIRED released

Street date: TODAY. As in, NOW. CD and digital.

Rhythmic redesigns by three extraordinarily talented sonic artists.

Contains real Raymond Scott music, as well as some original sounds. Over 250 RS samples went into the album's 19 tracks.

All the info at ScottRewired.com.

And contrary to some online listings, there is NO vinyl edition. Yet.

Shirley Temple (1928-2014)

We note the passing of legendary actress Shirley Temple yesterday at age 85. Despite her countless starring roles in major motion pictures, she is today best-known as the inventor of the non-alcoholic cocktail. Nonetheless, she has a Raymond Scott connection—or two. The first she knew about. The second, probably not.

A young (age 9) Shirley tap-danced with Bill "Bojangles" Robinson to Raymond Scott's "Toy Trumpet" in the 1937 film Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. (YouTube clip here.) The scene was apparently captured in one continuous take. The Raymond Scott Quintette performed the tune, but do not appear on camera (though they do appear in costume in the above publicity still).

After their breakout radio and recording success in New York in 1937, Raymond and his band were signed to 20th Century-Fox and whisked off to Hollywood. They provided music for and sometimes appeared in a half-dozen or so films with such major stars as Carole Lombard, Fred Allen, Eddie Cantor, and Sonja Henie. Scott reportedly disliked the film industry, which he found shallow. About studio execs he once griped, "They think everything is wonderful." The costumes in the above photo were no doubt another reason for Scott to despise Tinseltown. "We are musicians," he groused, "not comedians."

The Marr Archives, which houses the Raymond Scott collection, includes a disc with an unfinished composition entitled "Shirley's Tune." It dates from the RSQ's Hollywood sojourn, but the unreleased work never made it into the film and its purpose remains a mystery. However, it was sampled by The Bran Flakes on the forthcoming remix album Raymond Scott Rewired, on the track "Shirley's Temple Bells," which you can hear on Soundcloud.

Raymond Scott Rewired

UPDATE (Feb 6): Raymond Scott Rewired now has a website.

As a musician, composer, bandleader, and inventor, Raymond Scott was a perfectionist, but not a stylistic purist. His late-1930s six-man "Quintette" crafted novelty jazz that layered ethnic contours and pan-global riffs over a propulsive beat. In the 1940s Scott's antic melodies were adapted in Warner Bros. cartoons because WB music director Carl Stalling found the compositions genetically animated. Scott's mid-century orchestral works were danceable, except when they veered into complex, cerebral concert-jazz. In the 1950s and '60s Scott invented and recorded with electronic instruments. He was a genre-hopper, reflecting a musical restlessness and adventurousness. Scott loved what he did, but craved what came next.

As archivist for the Scott musical estate, I commissioned three remix artists to take apart Scott's catalog and reshape it in a fresh way. The Bran Flakes (Otis Fodder, Montreal), The Evolution Control Committee (TradeMark Gunderson, U.S.), and Go Home Productions (Mark Vidler, U.K.) were ftp'ed hundreds of Scott recordings in various genres, including unreleased material, spanning the 1930s to the 1980s. They were invited to have fun, but keep it rhythmic. Each contributed six audio montages with new titles, and they collaborated on Scott's signature tune, "Powerhouse."

The result is RAYMOND SCOTT REWIRED, produced for the Basta label. The album will be released in North America on February 18. Three tracks can be streamed on Soundcloud.

Over 250 sample sources were used in the construction of these 19 tracks. Those samples were edited, looped, flipped, and stretched; they were tweaked with EQ, pitch-shifted, compressed, and transformed. Disassembling one man's sonic legacy and reassembling the pieces into something different, something worth hearing repeatedly, requires an intuitive gift that approaches songwriting. Scott fans will recognize some passages, but in countless cases, the source recordings have been altered beyond recognition. The composer himself would have difficulty identifying his own works. The reconfigurations were done playfully, but respectfully. Nothing was destroyed. The originals still exist.

The cover art was adapted from an unfinished, untitled, black & white Jim Flora illustration from the 1950s.

A mixed-up, mashed-up composer

Coming from the Basta label in February 2014.

We turned over the entire Raymond Scott catalog ...

... to three celebrated mixologists who work under group names: The Bran Flakes, The Evolution Control Committee, and Go Home Productions.

They were given hundreds of recordings owned by the Scott estate, in all genres, including unreleased material, spanning the mid-1930s to the mid-1980s. Jazz, orchestral, electronic, experimental, studio chatter, one-of-a-kind rarities.

These gents were invited to have fun, keep it rhythmic, and make it percolate. Each contributed six audio montages with new titles, and they collaborated on Scott's signature tune, "Powerhouse."

The project is titled RAYMOND SCOTT REWIRED.

It's finished. Mixed, mastered, designed, packaged, and manufactured. You can preview three tracks on Soundcloud. Official release date is February 18.

Note: This post was originally published in May 2013. However, the US release was postponed due to a change of distributor for this release.