JIM HENSON:Watch rare experimental film collaborations with Raymond Scott

Muppet master JIM HENSON

More than a decade ago, before I began to work with Gert-Jan Blom on the book and 2-CD set, "MANHATTAN RESEARCH INC.," few details had emerged about Jim Henson's collaborations with Raymond Scott. We now know that in the mid-1960s, Scott began creating a series of experimental films with Henson, who was an emerging artist. He would later have success with Sesame Street, The Muppet Show, and Hollywood movies, but the Henson/Scott projects were not intended for children. Instead the films are often serious, even creepy, and although they are nearly a half-century old, they have a surprisingly modern feel.

Despite the 28-year difference in age, Raymond clicked with the Muppet master, and here you can watch five examples of their creative output:

Their first project was an ambitious puppetry/film combination titled, "LIMBO: THE ORGANIZED MIND." Henson was intrigued by thought processes and idea sources, and wanted to visualize these concepts. "Limbo" is a character he created using eyes and mouth, made from foam rubber, that seemed to float in front of images that evoke the mind's inner-workings. Henson narrates Limbo's thoughts while Raymond Scott's electronic music and sound effects articulate how and where his thoughts are filed. "THE ORGANIZED MIND" was performed on television at least twice; in July of 1966 on The Mike Douglas Show, and again on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson in 1974. • Watch "LIMBO: THE ORGANIZED MIND" >> here

The "Organized Mind" concept was later reworked into a TV commercial for Bufferin® brand pain-reliever, titled "Memories," which was also scored by Scott. • Watch "MEMORIES" >> here

In 1966-'67, Jim created two short films for a contest at Montreal's Expo 67. One of these was "Ripples." Shot on 16mm film, it explored the process of creative inspiration, and was accompanied by an electronic score created by Raymond Scott. Shot in January of 1967, it featured an architect, played by future Sesame Street colleague Jon Stone, tossing pebbles into water making ripples. • Watch "RIPPLES" >> here

Also created for Expo 67,"Wheels That Go" is a short film made by Jim Henson in 1967 that explored motion and movement and was again accompanied by an electronic score created by Raymond Scott. It features Henson's son Brian playing with things with wheels. • Watch "WHEELS THAT GO" >> here

In 1967, Henson was contracted by IBM to make a film extolling the virtues of their new technology, the MT/ST, a primitive word processor. The film would explore how the MT/ST would help control the massive amount of documents generated by a typical business office. "Paperwork Explosion," produced in October 1967, is a quick-cut montage of images and words illustrating the intensity and pace of modern business. Once again, Henson collaborated with Raymond Scott on the electronic sound track. • Watch "THE PAPERWORK EXPLOSION" >> here

See also:

• Film soundtracks, and more details about the Jim Henson/Raymond Scott projects are featured in the "MANHATTAN RESEARCH INC." 144-page hardcover, full-color book and 2-CD set  >> info here

• Jim Henson's "RED BOOK" >> here

NOTE: The now iconic color photos, such as the one used in the header of this blog, were taken by Jim Henson during a visit to Raymond Scott's New York studios.

Toy Story: Taki76 Strikes Back

Last year, I reported that funk/soul/electro artist Taki76 had created a stop-motion video featuring the Raymond Scott figurine, with a home-made doll of himself. Now, Taki has made this new 1-minute animated film to celebrate the recent DVD release of the documentary, DECONSTRUCTING DAD. See Taki's original vid: here

Manchester Jazz Festival

Glasgow-based drummer Stu Brown formed his sextet in 2008 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Raymond Scott’s birth, and the group has performed to sell-out crowds across the UK. Each of their shows opens with a specially-commissioned eight minute film by Scott’s son, Stan Warnow, featuring material from his new documentary DECONSTRUCTING DAD: The Music, Machines, & Mystery of Raymond Scott. As the film ends, Scott’s original recording fades and The Stu Brown Sextet takes over. The second half of the concert brings the music further forward with new arrangements and compositions by the band which explore the ground-breaking electronic aspects to Scott’s music-making. Details & tickets for this Manchester Jazz Festival performance: here

Date:   Thursday, July 29, 2010

Time:   7:30pm - 10:00pm

Location:   Royal Northern College of Music

Street:   124 Oxford Rd

City:   Manchester, United Kingdom

"Half the triumph is the way the Brown's sextet brings Scott's carefully written notes off the page with such zest and spontaneity -- the other half is that it’s just so damned enjoyable." —Rob Adams, JAZZWISE

Racalmuto: new RS performance

Racalmuto, our favorite Raymond Scott Quintette tribute band from Spain (OK, the only Spanish RS tribute band) performed at the Universidad Pública de Navarra, April 19-20. The sextet offers a spirited take on Scott's "The Quintette Plays Carmen," and here they provide an original composition, "Le Flamboyant M. Igor," as a makeshift soundtrack for scenes from the climax of Buster Keaton's 1928 silent Steamboat Bill, Jr.

Miguel Malla, the band's tenor saxophonist, informs us that on Friday Racalmuto begins recording their second CD. Their self-titled first contained a half-dozen RS compositions performed with the élan of the original RSQ. Album two will feature Scott's "Snake Woman," "Bird Life in the Bronx," "Sleepwalker," "Suicide Cliff," "A Little Bit of Rigoletto," "Oil Gusher," "The Quintette Plays Carmen," "The Girl with the Light Blue Hair," and "Tobacco Auctioneer." They'll also record "Brass Buttons and Epaulettes," which Scott didn't compose, though it was performed by the RSQ in the 1938 Shirley Temple film Just Around the Corner.

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:

Totally Tubeular

Live concert footage, classic and contemporary cartoons, vintage movie clips, clever commercial interruptions, and low-brow home-brewed videos are just some of the cheap free thrills to be found among the 150 favorites collected at our official YouTube channel:

http://youtube.com/RaymondScottArchives

The Marx Bros. meet Raymond Scott

It hadn't even been composed when the Marx Brothers movie A Day at the Races was released in 1937, but thanks to digital editing (and a mischievous disregard for cinematic integrity), the Raymond Scott Quintette composition "Steeplechase" now underscores the final sequence of the film, thanks to the Spanish jazz sextet Racalmuto. Miguel Malla of the band also writes:

"We just finished another successful week at El Café Central and on November 19 we'll play at the opening of Experimental Movie Week in Madrid. We'll have a chance to play with projections on a big cinema screen in an old cinema house from the 1930s, maybe the largest screen in Madrid."

RacalmutoFilms

The Madrid-based Racalmuto sextet has been performing and recording finely crafted renditions of Raymond Scott tunes for the past few years. Their new project, RacalmutoFilms, presents an hour and a quarter of music and cinema, with animation, short subjects, and fragments of legendary silents such as Buster Keaton's Steamboat Bill Jr. and Yakov Protazanov's Aelita (the first Russian science fiction film). Over these images Racalmuto performs works by the Raymond Scott Quintette, the John Kirby Sextet, and originals.

A five-minute trailer (in Spanish with English subtitles) has been posted at Vimeo. It includes excerpts of Racalmuto's takes on Scott's "Snake Woman" and "The Penguin."

Sex Life of Robots

Raymond Scott's 1937 "Powerhouse" recruited for another soundtrack:

Puff daddy

Last year, Steve Cloutier directed a short film, The Chimney, about a nicotine addict. It is NOT an anti-smoking jeremiad—it's a humorous take on a popular vice that millions of people find pleasurable. The film also involves bicycles—which have caused countless unnecessary deaths over the last century.

For his frantic soundtrack, Steve used the Raymond Scott Quintette's classic 1937 recording of "Powerhouse."

Steve dropped us a note: "I've just re-posted the movie because I was never satisfied with the quality of the original post. I was able to improve it a bit."

Civilization vs. Barbarism

Crazy Ay-rabs, beheaded infidels, insensitive Middle Eastern stereotypes, offensive Muslim cartoons, IEDs, abductions, gratuitous violence, Western imperialism, drugs, burqas, bestiality, and a makeshift Raymond Scott soundtrack.

Now THAT'S entertainment.

Nothing so much as the future ...

Scott 'toonsmithery and electronica keep popping up as insta-cachet soundtracks for YouTube uploads. None authorized, some fascinating, a few head-scratchers. We link, you decide:

A series of psychedelic DNA chains—or something—set to Scott's "Cindy Electronium" (from Manhattan Research, Inc.) by, on, or from kuantika tv.

Goyoelpollo (Goyo the Chicken) has produced a nifty audio-visual montage for MRI. Or perhaps someone else did the vid and Goyo posted it. Nuestro español es mediocre—if you can provide a reasonable translation, please share.

"Powerhouse," Scott's legendary Bugs Bunny-propellent, set to original animation by Antonio Linhares for a university project.

"Motion Painting Number Two" by Adam Bruneau set to Scott's electronic "Portofino."

Johnnysmooth ("comedian"—believe it!) uses Scott's "Lightworks" to underscore scenes from the movie Treasure Island. WTF?

HT: Gert-Jan Blom