February 20, 1937

Raymond Scott music travels at various velocities. It can be delivered on LPs that spin at 33-1/3 revolutions per minute. There are a handful of rare 45 rpm singles. His electronic music was captured on tape that rolled at 3-3/4, 7-1/2, or 15 inches per second. The rotational speed of a Basta compact disc of Scott's Soothing Sounds for Baby varies from 210 rpm (outer edge) to 480 (inner edge). But Scott's music first came to prominence on fragile platters that whirled at 78 rpm.

It is therefore fitting that 78 years ago today, Raymond Scott entered a New York studio with his legendary Quintette to record his first commercial sides. It was a productive day. While no one knows how long the February 20, 1937 session lasted, by the time Scott and his cohorts mopped their brows and went home, they had recorded two timeless classics — "Minuet in Jazz" and "Twilight in Turkey" — and two immortal works — "The Toy Trumpet" and "Powerhouse." Not only were these four recordings all approved for commercial release, they are inarguably the definitive versions of all four works.

How long did it take Brian Wilson to complete Smile? Is it done yet?

Al Brackman, an associate producer for the Master label, which signed the RSQ, told historian Michèle Wood: "Our studio at 1776 Broadway was basically just an office with a seven- or eight-foot ceiling. There was a long hall leading to it from the elevators. Opposite the office door, there was a men's room lined with tiles. Scott insisted on recording at night so he could put one mike in the hall and another in the men's room. With that and the other mikes in the office he achieved what they call 'echo' and gave the recordings a big auditorium sound."

We don't have any photos of that makeshift Broadway chamber, but we have lots of photos of the RSQ during radio gigs (see above—saxophonist Dave Harris was cropped out by the cameraman). 

The first RSQ release was "Twilight in Turkey," backed by "Minuet in Jazz." The disc sold out within a week. "It had nothing to compete with it," said Brackman. "If you liked Scott, you had to buy Scott."

Fans first bought "Powerhouse" on the Master label, which went bankrupt in late 1937. The track was reissued on Brunswick in 1938, and in 1939 on Columbia. Same recording each time.

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.

Marathon Cadenzas

Last August, Dance Heginbotham, led by John Heginbotham, danced to the music of Raymond Scott at New York's Lincoln Center Out of Doors. The work, Manhattan Research, was premiered with live accompaniment by the Raymond Scott Orchestrette.

The dance world's new-found romance with Raymond continues when the Paul Taylor Dance Company premieres MARATHON CADENZAS at Lincoln Center in March. The work features choreography to the Raymond Scott Quintette's classic 1937-39 recordings of "The Penguin," "Oil Gusher," "Minuet in Jazz," "Girl at the Typewriter," "Twilight in Turkey," and "Peter Tambourine." (What—no "Powerhouse"?) Four performances are scheduled at LC's David H. Koch Theater on March 14th, 20th, 22nd, and 30th.

The Taylor Dancers will be at LC for a three-week run, which will include other repertoire. Package deals for multiple performances can be purchased here.

Marathon Cadenzas will also be performed on tour, but venues have not yet been announced.

75 Years of Hungry Cannibals

75 years ago, on this date, Raymond Scott returned to CBS studios with his Quintette for their third session to record "Dinner Music For A Pack Of Hungry Cannibals." It was an immediate hit when it was released in 1937, and is immortalized in "Which Is Witch" and at least 16 other classic LOONEY TUNES. Download the vintage Columbia recording from the iTunes store, or Amazon, and check-out this cover by Kronos Quartet. Details about our year-long celebration of the 75th Anniversary here.

75 Years of Reckless Nights

On this date, 75 years ago, Raymond Scott returned to CBS studios with his Quintette for their second session to record "Reckless Night On Board An Ocean Liner." The tune was a hit when it was released in 1937, and is immortalized in the classic LOONEY TUNES, "Jumpin' Jupiter," "Hare Lift," and "Mouse Warming." It also serves as the soundtrack for this strange YouTube video by Silent Banana Theatre. ("Note: this film contains banana nudity and references to ambiguous fruit sexuality.") Download the vintage Columbia recording from the iTunes store, or Amazon — and see details about our year-long celebration of the 75th Anniversary here.

Watch two new TV Spots with Hugh Jackman and Stephen Fry

Two new television spots featuring Raymond Scott's music as their soundtracks have hit the air. Hugh Jackman stars in the ad above for Lipton Ice Tea with the 1938 classic "The Penguin," while Stephen Fry, Rupert Grint of "HARRY POTTER," Michelle Dockery, and Julie Walters are seen in the commercial below for British tourism, set to the 1939 tune, "In An 18th Century Drawing Room."

75 years ago today, in 1937...

1937 was a memorable year in US history. Disney released SNOW WHITE, the first full-color, feature-length animated movie. The Hindenburg disaster occurred on May 6. Howard Hughes established a record by flying from LA to NYC in under 8 hours. The Golden Gate Bridge opened in San Francisco. Amelia Earhart disappeared. George Gershwin died. And Daffy Duck was born — on April 17, in the animated short "Porky's Duck Hunt," directed by Tex Avery for the LOONEY TUNES series. This last factoid dovetails with a coincidence that would immortalize Raymond Scott's music in pop culture.

Exactly 75 years ago today, Raymond Scott recorded his iconic hit tune, "Powerhouse." On the same date, following 8 months of rehearsals with his Quintette at CBS, he also recorded "Twilight In Turkey," "Minuet In Jazz," and "The Toy Trumpet" — not a bad day's work. The 27 year-old couldn't have known at the time, but these compositions jump-started his stellar career, and came to underscore cartoon antics for future generations.

To celebrate the milestone, check out this collection of 75 YouTube clips of Scott's classic "Powerhouse," here — and see details about our year-long 75th anniversary events schedule here.

P.S. Thank you to Cory Doctorow at Boing Boing:
http://boingboing.net/2012/02/20/happy-75th-birthday-to-raymond.html

JOHN WILLIAMS: Watch Exclusive Video

Movie music maestro John Williams turns 80 years-old today. To celebrate, I'm releasing never-before-seen footage of Williams remembering Raymond Scott. This rough footage was shot by me, Jeff Winner, while Stan Warnow (Scott's son) and I interviewed John Williams at Tanglewood, in Massachusetts, on August 4th of 2008. Some of Stan's professional camera footage appears in the new feature-length, award-winning documentary film, "DECONSTRUCTING DAD," but this segment has never been seen before. Watch here <<<

From Wiki: John Williams was born on February 8, 1932 in Long Island, New York, the son of Esther and John Williams, Sr. (aka Johnny Williams). His father was a jazz percussionist who played with The Raymond Scott Quintette.

John Towner Williams is an American composer, conductor, and pianist. In a career spanning almost six decades, he has composed some of the most recognizable film scores in the history of motion pictures, including the Star Wars saga, Jaws, Superman, the Indiana Jones films, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Hook, Jurassic Park, Schindler's List, Home Alone, and the first three Harry Potter films. He has had a long association with director Steven Spielberg, composing the music for all but two of Spielberg's major feature films.

Other notable works by Williams include theme music for four Olympic Games, NBC Sunday Night Football, the NBC Nightly News, the rededication of the Statue of Liberty, the DreamWorks Pictures production logo, and the television series Lost in Space. Williams has also composed numerous classical concerti, and he served as the principal conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra from 1980 to 1993; he is now the orchestra's conductor laureate.

Williams has won five Academy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, seven BAFTA Awards, and 21 Grammy Awards. With 47 Academy Award nominations, Williams is the second most nominated person, after Walt Disney. John Williams was honored with the prestigious Richard Kirk award at the 1999 BMI Film and TV Awards. The award is given annually to a composer who has made significant contributions to film and television music. Williams was inducted into the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame in 2000, and was a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors in 2004.

75th Anniversary of Raymond Scott's Music: 1937—2012

2012 marks the 75th Anniversary of Raymond Scott's music, which is forever associated with Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck — though bandleader-composer Scott had no interest in cartoons. Ever!

Composer, electronic music pioneer, inventor, and bandstand drill sergeant Raymond Scott was born Harry Warnow, in Brooklyn, in 1908. After graduating from Juilliard, he wrote the 1934 hit song “Christmas Night In Harlem,” recorded by Louis Armstrong. In December 1936, Scott debuted his six-man “Quintette,” which featured jazz giant Bunny Berigan on trumpet and drummer Johnny Williams, father of famous movie score composer John Williams. By early 1937, Scott's Quintette were stars on radio, on records, and — after landing a contract with 20th Century Fox — in Hollywood films. The RSQ reeled off a string of quirky hit records, including “Powerhouse” (recorded February 20, 1937 in New York at their first studio session). Thanks to its being quoted by Carl Stalling in dozens of LOONEY TUNES, the "Powerhouse" melodies have become genetically encoded in the DNA of every earthling.

The Raymond Scott Archives celebrates the 75th with a series of live events and special projects (listed below). If you plan to coordinate an event, record Scott's tunes, or write about Scott, contact: info@RaymondScott.com. We can provide sheet music, photos, and historical resources. We are available for interviews and to host local programs.

• On December 1st, 2011, the New York-based Raymond Scott Orchestrette reunited to perform at Lincoln Center, as part of the Target® Free Thursday series — watch the new video slideshow with music: here

• Basta Audio-Visuals, the European label is planning several releases, including two vinyl LP replicas (which are available now — details here): Scott's 1957 orchestral THIS TIME WITH STRINGS, and a rare stereo mix of 1959’s THE UNEXPECTED, performed by Scott’s all-star jazz ensemble The Secret Seven. And a new 2-track single has also been released on the iTunes store — info: here.

• The award-winning Raymond Scott documentary, DECONSTRUCTING DAD will be screened at movie theaters and international film festivals: ScottDoc.com

Live performances of Scott's animated compositions (jazz, pop, and electronica) will take place around the globe, including:

• UK: Stu Brown Sextet and Mr. McFall's Chamber present ongoing concerts of Scott repertoire

• USA: The West Point Band’s Quintette 7 perform RSQ repertoire

• Norway: The MeaNensemble presents “White (Brain) Wash in concert: A Tribute To Raymond Scott & the Perfect World of Commercials”

• New York: Brian Carpenter’s Ghost Train Orchestra performs “Powerhouse Stomp: A Tribute To Classic Cartoons” 

• Spain: Racalmuto recreate the RSQ's six-man lineup and repertoire

• San Francisco: Jeff Stanford’s Cartoon Jazz Orchestra and Septet perform Scott classics accompanying cartoons

• Colorado: The Expedition Quartet present “An Acoustic Dinner with a Pack of Hungry Cannibals”

• Los Angeles: A multimedia show at the Redcat theater in the Walt Disney Concert Hall, curated by composer Ego Plum, and movie score orchestrator/composer Steve Bartek of Oingo Boingo on Friday, November 9th, 2012

________________________________________________

CONTACT:

Jeff E. Winner • The Raymond Scott Archives

RaymondScott.com • info@RaymondScott.com

Phone: 267-970-4396
View or Download Press Release: here

________________________________________________

P.S. Check-out this new collection of 75 YouTube clips of the Raymond Scott classic, "Powerhouse," celebrating the 75th anniversary of the RS Quintette's debut studio recording, on February 20, 1937, in New York: HERE <<<

Portrait of RSQ © by Drew Friedman

Twilight(s) in Turkey

We offer a free pdf of Raymond Scott charts (which are available in pdf format for token sums). Recently, while scanning new additions to our inventory—which contains arrangements for solo piano, sextet, dance band, accordion, and some miscellaneous instruments and configurations—we discovered three identical solo piano arrangements of Scott's 1937 "Twilight in Turkey" with different covers. Herewith the scans (slightly restored) of published versions from (respectively) Australia, the UK, and the US: We've got most of your Scott favorites—"Powerhouse," "In an Eighteenth Century Drawing Room," "The Penguin," "War Dance for Wooden Indians," "Siberian Sleigh Ride," etc.—as well as more obscure Scott titles, such as "Dead End Blues," "Tenor Man's Headache," "Circle Themes," "Kodachrome," and "Coming Down to Earth." We even have a computer printout of Scott's last known composition, "Beautiful Little Butterfly," which he composed using MIDI software in 1987 shortly before a debilitating stroke.

"Christmas Night" with Louis Armstrong

Christmas figured prominently in the early career of Raymond Scott (the son of immigrant Jews). He wrote his first hit, "Christmas Night In Harlem," in 1934 at age 25. During Xmas 1936, he debuted his soon-to-be world-famous band live on the Saturday Night Swing Club radio show. Two Christmases later, Paul Whiteman featured the Quintette, accompanied by PW's huge orchestra, performing Scott compositions at Carnegie Hall as part of the long-running Experiments In Modern American Music series where Whiteman had debuted Gershwin's Rhapsody In Blue in 1924.

"Christmas Night In Harlem" was recorded as an instrumental in 1939 by Scott's Quintette. With lyrics by legendary Tin Pan Alley wordsmith Mitchell Parish, who co-wrote "Stardust," "Deep Purple," and another Yuletide standard, "Sleigh Ride," the tune was covered by Perry Como, Benny Carter, Johnny Mercer, Banu Gibson, The Beau Hunks, Clarence Williams, Paul Whiteman, Maria Muldaur, and Jack Teagarden. A new CD, 100 CHRISTMAS, presents Lester Lanin's version alongside classics by Bing Crosby, Willie Nelson, and Roy Orbison.

The most celebrated of all "Harlem" covers, however, is by Louis Armstrong, framed above alongside Scott during a 1938 CBS radio broadcast. Satchmo's recording is perennially reissued on holiday collections, including WHAT A WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS.

Download The Metropole Orchestra's version of "Christmas Night In Harlem" from the CHESTERFIELD ARRANGEMENTS album here, as our holiday gift to you. And explore more of the many incarnations of Raymond Scott's earliest hit at Amazon.com or the iTunes Store.

The Quintette 7

The West Point Band has been developing a classic Raymond Scott Quintette repertoire for several years, with occasional live performances. They aren't just learning music from Scott—they're studying math. Raymond called his six-man group a "Quintette." The WPB's ensemble is the "Quintette 7." (FWIW, Scott's "Secret 7" band counted as many as a dozen players.)

The Q7 just released a CD, Quintette 7 Plays the Music of Raymond Scott. A Sunday afternoon CD launch recital takes place on October 24 at the Academy on the Hudson. It's open to the public, and a reception follows the performance. I've seen the band in concert, and they're terrific. They deliver over a dozen RSQ nuggets in a finely honed chamber-jazz fashion.

Jean Shepherd:"You'll Shoot Your Eye Out, Kid!"

Although best-known as writer and narrator of the classic 1983 holiday movie, A CHRISTMAS STORY, Jean Shepherd began a long radio career in 1948. He was not a traditional DJ who kept silent while playing records; he was a monologist who carefully chose music beds to underscore his unique narrative style. At least twice he pontificated over Raymond Scott:

 • In 1965 Shep, fascinated by Scott's SOOTHING SOUNDS FOR BABY electronic lullaby series, built an entire program theme around it, according SSFB perhaps its only airplay until the CD reissues more than 3 decades later.

 • The following year, Shep delivered one of his trademark rants about amusement parks as he spun "In An 18th Century Drawing Room," which Scott composed in 1937: listen here.

Spike Shieks the Q

For some reason we've never posted the film clip of Scott's legendary 1937-39 Quintette miming "Twilight in Turkey" in the 1937 Eddie Cantor farce Ali Baba Goes to Town. It's both entertaining and historically significant. There is precious little footage of the 1930s RSQ, and despite the gag performance, the viewer gets the sense of the band's chemistry. Scott typically assumes a minor role—no close-ups, a mere background prop, as befits his often acknowledged discomfort being on camera. What immediately comes to mind is Scott's derisive quote about why he left Hollywood and flew his band back to New York a year later: "We are musicians, not comedians." Nevertheless, it's great to see drummer Johnny Williams even when he's faking it.

We were reminded of this great film clip by the discovery of this 1942 Spike Jones Soundie (short music film), "The Shiek of Araby." It's an obvious homage to the RSQ performance:

record collector's heaven

Jeff Winner of RaymondScott.com on a research expedition at UMKC's Marr Archives, June 2008, reviewing archival press clippings

The Raymond Scott audio collection (thousands of discs and tapes from 1930 to 1980) were donated to the Marr Sound Archives at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, in 1995. Here's a great 6-minute tour of the place, "Momentum and Marr," produced, directed, and edited by Jordan Kerfeld in 2008.

In the mini-doc, Marr director Chuck Haddix explains his mission: "I don't collect records—I collect collectors."

Hat tip to our buddy Mark Greenberg at the Mayfair Workshop blog for noting the video and providing a concise overview of what's in the collection. As a member of Chicago's legendary Coctails, Mark was in the forefront of the Scott revival. The band was performing "Powerhouse" in 1991, when Scott was still a forgotten footnote in music history.

Our Raymond Scott CD releases (on Basta) were compiled from recordings stored at Marr. On a number of occasions, Gert-Jan Blom, Jeff Winner, and I have conducted on-site audio archeology for such projects as Manhattan Research, Inc., Microphone Music, and Ectoplasm. More releases are planned; it's a deep collection of unheard music. Scott was a maniac about recording rehearsals, demos, radio airchecks, mic placement takes, and idea development. An electronica follow-up to Manhattan Research is in the pipeline.

Unfortunately, despite technological progress in field of archiving science, not everything can be restored and preserved:

Dinner Music for a Pack of Hungry Cannibals

Dave Harris played tenor sax in Scott's legendary late 1930s six-man Quintette. In 40 years as a highly sought horn-for-hire in New York and L.A., Harris (1913-2002) released only one record as a bandleader: DINNER MUSIC FOR A PACK OF HUNGRY CANNIBALS, a 1961 tribute to his old boss, for whom he held deep respect. Basta recently released this long out of print album on CD.

After the RSQ, Harris remained with Scott's first swing band, then compiled an impressive resume as a session player on radio and TV, and in the recording studio. In a career that extended into the 1970s, he worked with Billie Holiday, Gene Krupa, Eddie Cantor, Mickey Katz, Stan Webb, Russ Case, Bob Haggart, and countless others.

In late-life interviews, Scott claimed that his 1937-39 Quintette was his favorite band. That opinion was doubtless shared by Harris, who (unlike dozens of embittered RS sidemen) always spoke fondly of working under Scott. Such was Harris's affection that his sole outing as a leader was an album of RSQ favorites in modern high fidelity, with a sextet dubbed The Powerhouse Five. The ensemble recaptured the manic elegance and rhythmic wit of the composer. Nostalgia was the inspiration, but sharp musicianship and a celebratory gusto mark this album as a missing link in the Scott legacy.

Chesterfield lites

Paul Whiteman loomed large in the 1920s and 1930s. Regardless of how one measures his actual jazz chops (his reputation as the "King of Jazz" was a laughable marketing ploy), he hired and encouraged some of the top talents of his day, including George Gershwin, Bix Beiderbecke, Bunny Berigan, Bing Crosby, the Dorsey Brothers, and composer/arranger Ferde Grofé.

He also worked with and obviously admired Raymond Scott, as The Chesterfield Arrangements will attest. In 1938, for his "Eighth Experiment in Modern Music" (a series that began in 1924 with the public premiere of Rhapsody In Blue), Whiteman commissioned large orchestral arrangements of three Scott tunes: "Mexican Jumping Bean," "Bumpy Weather Over Newark," and "Suicide Cliff." These were performed, with the original Scott Quintette, at Carnegie Hall on Christmas. Besides the RSQ, this spectacular showcase included Artie Shaw, Louis Armstrong, and dozens of jazz and Tin Pan Alley legends in their prime, performing works by Ellington, Gershwin, W.C. Handy, and others. The 1938 concert proved to be the "Experiment" series finale.

Five arrangements from the 1938 concert—including the three Scott titles noted above—will be recreated at the Berklee School of Music on May 5. The concert is part of a day-long tribute to Whiteman.

An afternoon forum, commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Carnegie Hall gala, will include 94-year-old saxophonist Al Gallodoro (who performed at the '38 concert) reflecting on his Whiteman days. A young Gallorodo is pictured above with the legendary bandleader.

Routining

Over the years, Raymond Scott has been jeered by jazz purists because as a bandleader he didn't permit improvisation. Actually, original RS Quintette saxophonist Dave Harris (1913-2002) told Storyville magazine's Ben Kragting, Jr., in a 1993 interview: "Although Scott did the composing and arranging, he never suggested what to play on the jazz. That was up to you. But what you did was fit the jazz within the character of the tune." In a phone conversation with me around that time, Mr. Harris added that once you created a solo that Scott liked, he insisted that it stay that way, thus becoming an intrinsic part of the composition. In this sense, Scott's works are more through-composed than most of what qualifies as "jazz." Listening to countless takes (and re-takes, ad infinitum--Scott liked to rehearse!) in the archives, I can attest that many solos evolve and become set, although few are note-perfect identical (a superhuman feat).

This approach could be considered an extreme form of "routining," best explained by Richard M. Sudhalter in Lost Chords: White Musicians and Their Contributions to Jazz, 1915-1945 (Oxford University Press, 1999). This talmudic brick of a book has generated its share of controversy. Nonetheless, Sudhalter is a rare musician who is also a fine writer, storyteller, historian, and musicologist, so his views are worth sharing:

"Routining" [is] working a solo to a high point of development, then presenting it more or less the same way each time. ...

Jazz listeners--fans, critics, historians--seem always to have resisted accepting, even understanding, such practices. From earliest days, the romanticized view of hot music has demanded that a solo be wholly extemporaneous, creation of a given moment's circumstance and stimuli. For many, the thought of a player working on a chorus over time, shaping and buffing it, then performing it like a theatrical set-piece, each time with the enthusiasm of first creation, seems profoundly disturbing. Some have been inclined to view musicians who practice such methods as not genuine, their creations at best a simulation of "the real thing."

The attitude differs little in kind or effect from the Rousseau-esque ("noble savage") primitivism once prevalent among fans and canonists of early New Orleans music; any musician who had studied his instrument, it seemed to say, or knew harmony, or could even read music was somehow contaminated, less authentic than his unlearned colleagues.

"Routining" came about for reasons intrinsic to the mechanics of professional music-making. Having to play nightly, sometimes repeating the same number, in the same arrangement, several times in an evening, can quickly sap inspiration. If the player is a featured attraction or bandleader, it becomes all the more necessary to deliver, each time, an inspired and convincing performance, easily recognizable as his work. The result, inevitably, is a distillation, gradual creation of a generic solo which, when completed, contains the player's essence.

Recording exacerbates the process. The need, in a studio, to deliver a quality performance for the microphone, the chance that any one of a number of "takes" will be chosen for issue, exerts pressure to have something ready--even though that something may not, strictly speaking, be improvised on the spot. Once in place, it is subject to infinite variation; but the shape and structure remain. If the player is feeling especially inspired he will take liberties; if not, he can still deliver the "routined" solo with appropriate elan and pass muster.

Neither false nor dishonest, this is an expedient, born of the conditions under which hot musicians of the '20s and '30s had to work. Multiple takes from famous record sessions, some issued years after the event, reveal that [Bix] Beiderbecke, [Frank] Trumbauer, Louis Armstrong, Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Adrian Rollini, Jack Teagarden, Harry Carney, and Bunny Berigan were among many others who worked oft-featured choruses into fixed shape and kept them there.

In the words of British trumpeter-commentator Humphrey Lyttelton:

The creation of jazz is a more mysterious process than the mere pouring out of spontaneous ideas. The requirements of "improvisation" can be satisfied, in jazz terms, if an identical sequence of notes is played with the subtlest alteration in rhythmic emphasis, the slightest change in the use of dynamics or vibrato, the almost imperceptible raising or lowering of the emotional temperature. Likewise, "originality" in jazz lies not only in the pattern of notes that is produced, but also in the instrumental tone or "voice" in which it is uttered

Poking thru the Scott Archives

Found in the Special Collections division of the Miller-Nichols Library, University of MO @ KC, where sixty years of Scott memorabilia has been preserved since 1995. Downstairs in the library's Marr Sound Archives you can find Scott's recorded legacy (2800 discs and 500 tapes).

Written at top: "From the Twentieth Century Fox Picture 'Bread, Butter and Rhythm'"—then crossed out. Ca. 1937. If the film was produced, the web doesn't know about it.

HT: Jeff Winner

Pearl Zimney Warnow

Pearl Zimney married Harry Warnow (Raymond Scott) in 1935. She was an essential part of Scott's life in the mid-1930s when he first achieved fame and recognition as a musical enfante terrible. She was present during the brief lifespan of his legendary "powerhouse" Quintette (1937-39), and she accompanied Raymond and his Quints to Hollywood in 1938. She was there during his foray into big band leadership (1939), and when he formed his first commercial electronic lab (Manhattan Research, Inc.) in 1946, the same year he composed the score for the hit Broadway musical Lute Song.

Besides being smart, beautiful, and resourceful, Pearl was an audio engineer (mentored by Scott) who in the 1930s occasionally "manned" the console at Scott's Universal Recorders studios in Manhattan.

"It was very interesting," she later recalled. "I remember once the famous jazz trumpeter Bunny Berigan came up with this singer—I forget her name. The two of them were high as a kite. I didn’t know anything about drugs then. But they were loopy."

Pearl and Harry had two children, Carolyn and Stanley. Stan is currently at work on a documentary about his dad.

"You could never make eye contact with Raymond, at least in his early years," Pearl reflected in a May 2000 interview. "His ability to connect with people, to have a real open relationship, it just wasn’t there—with musicians, with me. Raymond was an original, and I guess you could say a genius, but that encompasses a lot of things. He was different and difficult, and withdrawn. He had some very strange feelings and ideas. Though I loved him, I really did."

Pearl was born on this date in 1910. (She passed away on April 28, 2001.) The above quotes are from an extended interview with Pearl that appears in the Raymond Scott Quintette CD Microphone Music.

Pearl and Harry divorced in 1950. Two years later, she married Larry Winters. Pearl spent the rest of her long, productive, and buoyant life in Mamaroneck, NY.