Raymond Scott
Encyclopedia
Raymond Scott was an American composer, band leader, pianist, engineer, recording studio maverick, and electronic instrument inventor.
Although Scott never scored cartoon soundtracks, his music is familiar to millions because of its adaptation by Carl Stalling
in over 120 classic Bugs Bunny
, Porky Pig
, Daffy Duck
and other Warner Bros.
Looney Tunes
and Merrie Melodies
animated shorts. Scott's melodies have also been heard in twelve Ren & Stimpy episodes (that used the original Scott recordings), while making cameos in The Simpsons
, Duckman
, Animaniacs
, The Oblongs
, and Batfink
. (The only music Scott actually composed to accompany animation were three 20-second electronic commercial jingles for County Fair Bread in 1962.)
, a conductor, violinist, and musical director for the CBS radio program Your Hit Parade
, encouraged his musical career.
A 1931 graduate of the Juilliard School of Music, where he studied piano, theory and composition, Scott, under his birth name, began his professional career as a pianist for the CBS Radio
house band. His older (by eight years) brother Mark conducted the orchestra. Harry reportedly adopted the pseudonym
"Raymond Scott" to spare his brother charges of nepotism
when the orchestra began performing the pianist's idiosyncratic compositions.
In late 1936, Scott recruited a band from among his CBS colleagues, calling it the "Raymond Scott Quintette." It was a six-piece group, but the puckish Scott thought Quintette (his spelling) sounded "crisper"; he also told a reporter that he feared "calling it a 'sextet' might get your mind off music." The original sidemen were Pete Pumiglio (clarinet); Bunny Berigan
(trumpet, soon replaced by Dave Wade); Louis Shoobe (upright bass); Dave Harris (tenor sax); and Johnny Williams
(drums). They made their first recordings in New York on February 20, 1937, for the Master Records label, owned by music publisher/impresario Irving Mills
(who was also Duke Ellington
's manager).
The Quintette represented Scott's attempt to revitalize Swing
music through tight, busy arrangements and reduced reliance on improvisation
. He called this musical style "descriptive jazz," and gave his works unusual titles like "New Year's Eve in a Haunted House," "Dinner Music for a Pack of Hungry Cannibals" (recorded by the Kronos Quartet
in 1993), and "Bumpy Weather Over Newark." While popular with the public, jazz
critics disdained it as novelty music. Besides being a prominent figure in recording studios and on radio and concert stages, Scott wrote and was widely interviewed about his sometimes controversial music theories for the leading music publications of the day, including Down Beat
, Metronome, and Billboard
.
Scott believed strongly in composing and playing by ear (quote: "You give a better performance if you skip the eyes"). He composed not on paper, but "on his band" — by humming phrases to his sidemen, or by demonstrating riffs and rhythms on the keyboard and instructing players to interpret his cues. It was all done by ear, with no written scores (a process known as "head arrangements"). Scott, who was also a savvy sound engineer, recorded the band's rehearsals on discs and used the recordings as references to develop his compositions. He reworked, resequenced, or deleted passages, or added themes from other discs to construct finished works. During the developmental process, his players were allowed to improvise, but once complete, the piece became relatively fixed, with little further improvisation permitted — a practice that alienated some jazz purists and critics. Although Scott rigidly controlled the band's repertoire and style, he rarely took piano solos, preferring to direct the band from the keyboard and leaving solos and leads to his sidemen. He also had a penchant for adapting classical motifs in his compositions; this earned him the wrath of some serious music authorities who dismissed such practices as "trivializing the classics." The public, who bought his records by the millions, seemed indifferent to any controversy.
The Quintette existed from 1937 to 1939, and racked up numerous big-selling discs, including "Twilight in Turkey," "Minuet in Jazz," "War Dance for Wooden Indians," "Reckless Night on Board an Ocean Liner," "Powerhouse
," and "The Penguin." One of Scott's best-known compositions is "The Toy Trumpet," a cheerful pop confection that is instantly recognizable to many people who cannot name the title or composer. In the 1938 film Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm
, Shirley Temple
sings a version of the song with lyrics. Trumpeter Al Hirt
's 1955 rendition with Arthur Fiedler
and The Boston Pops
has become a standard. Another oft-recorded Scott classic, "In An Eighteenth-Century Drawing Room," is a pop adaptation of the opening theme from Mozart's Piano Sonata in C, K. 545.
Opening bars of melody line of "The Toy Trumpet"
In 1939 Scott, seeking greater challenges during the swing era
, folded his Quintette into a big band
, including bass player Chubby Jackson
. They were both a recording and touring success. When Scott was appointed music director of CBS radio in 1942, he made history by breaking the color barrier, organizing the first racially integrated radio band. Over the next two years, he hired some of the hottest black jazz heavyweights of the day, such as saxophonist Ben Webster
, trumpeter Charlie Shavers
, bassist Billy Taylor
, trumpeter Emmett Berry
, trombonist Benny Morton
, and drummer Cozy Cole
. In 1942, Scott—who once told an interviewer he wouldn't hire himself to play piano in his own bands—relinquished his keyboard duties with his bands, so he could focus more closely on hiring, composing, arranging and conducting. (He later returned to the keyboard with some of his bands.)
) for the 1946 Broadway musical Lute Song
, starring Mary Martin
and Yul Brynner
.
In the late 1940s, contemporaneous with guitarist-engineer Les Paul
's studio work with Mary Ford
, Scott began recording pop songs using the layered multi-tracked
vocals of his second wife, singer Dorothy Collins
. A number of these were commercially released, but the technique failed to earn Scott the chart success of Les and Mary.
In 1948, Scott formed a new six-man "quintet," which served for several months as house band for the CBS radio program, Herb Shriner
Time. The ensemble also made studio recordings, some of which were released on Scott's own short-lived Master Records label. (This was not the Irving Mills-owned label of the same name; Scott allegedly named his label in tribute to the by-then-defunct Mills enterprise.)
When his brother Mark Warnow died in 1949, Scott succeeded him as orchestra leader on the popular CBS Radio
show Your Hit Parade
sponsored by Lucky Strike
cigarettes. The following year, the show moved to NBC Television, and Scott continued to lead the orchestra until 1957. (Collins was a featured singer on Your Hit Parade.) Although the high-profile position paid well, Scott considered it strictly a "rent gig," and used his lavish salary to finance his electronic music research and development, largely out of the public limelight.
In 1950 Scott composed his first—and only known—"serious" (classical) work, entitled Suite for Violin and Piano. The five-movement suite was performed at Carnegie Hall
on February 7, 1950, by violinist Arnold Eidus
and pianist Carlo Bussotti, who subsequently recorded the work. (Unreleased at the time, the archival recording is scheduled for Fall 2011 CD release by Basta Audio-Visuals.)
In 1958, while serving as an A&R director for Everest Records
, Scott produced singer Gloria Lynne
's album Miss Gloria Lynne. The sidemen included many of the same session players (e.g., Milt Hinton
, Sam "The Man" Taylor, George Duvivier
, Harry "Sweets" Edison, Eddie Costa
, Kenny Burrell
, Wild Bill Davis
) who participated in Scott's 1959 Secret 7 recording project.
pioneer and adventurous sound engineer. During the 1930s and 1940s, many of his band's recording sessions found the bandleader in the control room, monitoring and adjusting the acoustics, often by revolutionary means. As Gert-Jan Blom & Jeff Winner wrote, "Scott sought to master all aspects of sound capture and manipulation. His special interest in the technical aspects of recording, combined with the state-of-the-art facilities at his disposal, provided him with enormous hands-on experience as an engineer."
In 1946, Scott established Manhattan Research, a division of Raymond Scott Enterprises, Incorporated, which he announced would "design and manufacture electronic music devices and systems." As well as designing audio devices for his own personal use, Manhattan Research Inc. provided customers with sales & service for a variety of devices "for the creation of electronic music and musique concrete" including components such as ring modulators, wave, tone and envelope shapers, modulators and filters. Of unique interest were instruments like the "Keyboard theremin," "Chromatic electronic drum generators," and "Circle generators." Scott often described Manhattan Research Inc. as "More than a think factory - a dream center where the excitement of tomorrow is made available today." Bob Moog, developer of the Moog Synthesizer
, met Scott in the 1950s, designed circuits for him in the 1960s, and acknowledged him as an important influence.
Relying on several instruments of his own invention, such as the Clavivox
and Electronium, Scott recorded futuristic electronic compositions for use in television and radio commercials as well as records of entirely electronic music. A series of three albums designed to lull infants to sleep, Scott's groundbreaking work Soothing Sounds for Baby
was released in 1964 in collaboration with the Gesell Institute of Child Development
. The music, which today sounds uncannily similar to the ambient work of Tangerine Dream
or Brian Eno
from the mid 1970s, did not find much favor with the record-buying public of the day. Still, Manhattan Research, Inc. had considerable success in providing striking, ear-catching sonic textures for broadcast commercials.
Scott developed some of the first devices capable of producing a series of electronic tones automatically in sequence. He later credited himself as being the inventor of the polyphonic sequencer
. (It should be noted that his electromechanical devices, some with motors moving photocells past lights, bore little resemblance to the all-electronic sequencers of the late sixties.) He began working on a machine he said composed using artificial intelligence. The Electronium, as Scott called it, with its vast array of knobs, buttons and patch panels is considered the first self-composing synthesizer.
Some of Raymond Scott's projects were less complex, but still ambitious. During the 1950s and 1960s, he developed and patented a large number of consumer products that brought electronically produced sounds into the homes and lives of Americans. Among these were electronic telephone ringers, alarms, chimes, and sirens, vending machines and ashtray
s with accompanying electronic music scores, an electronic musical baby rattle and an adult toy that produced varying sounds dependent on how two people touched one another. It was Scott's belief that these devices would "electronically update the many sounds around us - the functional sounds."
Scott and Dorothy Collins divorced in 1964, and in 1967, he married Mitzi Curtis. During the second half of the 1960s, as his work progressed, Scott became increasingly isolated and secretive about his inventions and concepts; he gave few interviews, made no public presentations, and released no records. In 1966-67, Scott (under the screen credit "Ramond Scott") composed and recorded electronic music soundtracks for some early experimental films by Muppets impresario Jim Henson
.
During his jazz/big band period, Scott had often endured tense relationships with musicians he employed (quote: "No one worked with Scott; everyone worked under Scott"). However, when his career became immersed in electronic gadgetry, he made friends with and seemed to prefer the company of technicians, including Bob Moog, Herb Deutsch, Thomas Rhea, and Alan Entenmann. From time to time Scott welcomed curious visitors to his lab, among them the renowned French electronic music pioneer Jean-Jacques Perrey
, in March 1960. The eccentric electronic instrument builder and children's music composer Bruce Haack
visited Scott in the early 1970s (though there is no indication Haack and Scott collaborated in any way).
In 1969, Motown Records
impresario Berry Gordy
, tipped off about a mad musical scientist engaged in mysterious works, visited Scott at his Long Island labs to witness the Electronium in action. Impressed by the infinite possibilities, Gordy hired Scott in 1971 to serve as director of Motown's electronic music and research department in Los Angeles, a position Scott held until 1977. No Motown recordings using Scott's electronic inventions have yet been publicly identified.
Guy Costa, Head of Operations and Chief Engineer at Motown from 1969 to 1987, said about Scott's hiring:
Scott later said he "spent 11 years and close to a million dollars developing the Electronium." Scott was, thereafter, largely unemployed, though hardly inactive. He continued to modify his inventions, eventually adapting computers and primitive MIDI devices to his systems. He suffered a series of heart attacks, ran low on cash, and eventually became a mere "Where Are They Now?" subject.
Largely forgotten by the public by the 1980s, Scott suffered a major stroke in 1987 that left him unable to work or engage in conversation. His recordings were largely out of print, his electronic instruments were cobweb-collecting relics, and his once-abundant royalty stream had slowed to a trickle.
, Milt Hinton
, Kenny Burrell
, Eddie Costa
, Sam "The Man" Taylor
, Harry "Sweets" Edison, Wild Bill Davis
and Toots Thielemans
.
, who allowed Carl Stalling
, music director for Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, to adapt anything in the Warner music catalog.
Stalling immediately began peppering his cartoon scores with Scott quotes, such as in The Great Piggy Bank Robbery
. Besides being used in Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, Scott's tunes have been licensed to propel the hijinks of The Simpsons
, Ren and Stimpy, Animaniacs
, The Oblongs
, Batfink
, and Duckman
cartoons. "Powerhouse" was quoted ten times in the Warner Brothers feature Looney Tunes: Back in Action
(2003).
with Hal Willner
as executive producer), the first major-label CD compilation of his groundbreaking 1937–39 six-man quintet. A year earlier, Chusid and Will Friedwald
produced a CD of live Scott quintet broadcasts titled The Man Who Made Cartoons Swing for the Stash label. Around this time, the director of Ren & Stimpy, John Kricfalusi
, began hot-wiring his cartoon episodes with original Scott quintette recordings. In the late-1990s, The Beau Hunks
(a Dutch ensemble originally formed to perform music created by Leroy Shield
for the Laurel and Hardy
movies) released two albums of Scott's music. Various members of the Beau Hunks (reconfigured as a "Saxtet", then a "Soctette") later performed and recorded various Scott works, sometimes in collaboration with the Metropole Orchestra.
"Powerhouse
" has been used as a promotional bumper for the Cartoon Network
, as well has having been interpreted by the rock band
Rush
in their 1978 song "La Villa Strangiato" on their Hemispheres
album. The same tune was reinterpreted as the song "Bus to Beelzebub" by the New York band Soul Coughing
, who have used Scott samples in other compositions, such as Scott's "The Penguin" in their song "Disseminated." They Might Be Giants
have also incorporated "Powerhouse
" into their music, briefly including it in their song "Rhythm Section Want Ad" from their self-titled 1986 debut album
. In 1993, Warner Bros. music director Richard Stone
scored an entire installment of Steven Spielberg Presents Animaniacs around "Powerhouse" (the episode, entitled "Toy Shop Terror," notably had no dialogue except in the closing seconds, thus allowing Stone's Stalling-meets-Spike Jones
arrangement to dominate the soundtrack). In late 2006, "Powerhouse" began airing regularly as the soundtrack for a Visa check card TV commercial. It has also often been used as a bumper on "Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
," NPR's weekly quiz show. It also appeared in The Simpsons
, played over the ludicrous and allegedly true method by which bowling alleys assemble new pins.
Clarinetist Don Byron
has recorded and performed Scott's music, as have the Kronos Quartet
, Steroid Maximus (J. G. Thirlwell
), Jon Rauhouse, The Tiptons (with Amy Denio
), Jeremy Cohen's Quartet San Francisco, Skip Heller, Phillip Johnston, and others. The New York–based septet The Raymond Scott Orchestrette has recorded an album and does occasional performances of radically modernistic interpretations of Scott compositions. Classical pianist Jenny Lin covered Scott's "The Sleepwalker" on her 2008 album InsomniMania.
The posthumously released 2-CD set, Manhattan Research Inc.
(Basta, 2000, co-produced by Gert-Jan Blom and Jeff Winner) showcases Scott's pioneering electronic works from the 1950s and 1960s on two CDs (the package includes a 144-page hardcover book). Microphone Music (Basta, 2002, produced by Irwin Chusid
with Blom and Winner as project advisors), explores the original Scott Quintette's work. The 2008 CD release Ectoplasm (Basta) chronicles a second (1948–49) incarnation of the six-man "quintet" format, with Scott's future wife Dorothy Collins
singing on several tracks.
Devo
founding member Mark Mothersbaugh
, through his company Mutato Muzika, purchased Scott's only (non-functioning) Electronium in 1996, with the intention of restoring it to working order, but with no progress in that direction as of 2010.
(1937, various adapted standards); Ali Baba Goes to Town
(1938, "Twilight in Turkey" and "Arabania"); Happy Landing (1938, "War Dance for Wooden Indians"); Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm
(1938, "The Toy Trumpet"; with special lyrics by Jack Lawrence
); Just Around the Corner
(1938, "Brass Buttons and Epaulettes" [performed by Scott's Quintette, but not composed by Scott]); Sally, Irene and Mary
(1938, "Minuet in Jazz"); Bells of Rosarita
(1945, "Singing Down the Road"); Not Wanted (1949, theme and orchestrations); The West Point Story
(1950, "The Toy Trumpet"); Storm Warning (1951, "Dinner Music for a Pack of Hungry Cannibals"); The Trouble with Harry
(1955, "Flagging the Train to Tuscaloosa"; words by Mack David
); Never Love a Stranger
(1958, score); The Pusher (1960, score); Clean and Sober
(1988, "Singing Down the Road"); Honey, I Shrunk the Kids
(1989, "Powerhouse" [uncredited, affirmed in out-of-court settlement]); Search and Destroy
(1995, "Moment Whimsical"); Funny Bones
(1995, "The Penguin"); Lulu on the Bridge
(1998, "Devil Drums"); Looney Tunes: Back in Action
(2003, "Powerhouse"); Starsky and Hutch (2005, "Dinner Music for Pack of Hungry Cannibals"); RocknRolla
(2008, "Powerhouse")
Although Scott never scored cartoon soundtracks, his music is familiar to millions because of its adaptation by Carl Stalling
Carl Stalling
Carl W. Stalling was an American composer and arranger for music in animated films. He is most closely associated with the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts produced by Warner Bros., where he averaged one complete score each week, for 22 years.-Biography:Stalling was born to Ernest and...
in over 120 classic Bugs Bunny
Bugs Bunny
Bugs Bunny is a animated character created in 1938 at Leon Schlesinger Productions, later Warner Bros. Cartoons. Bugs is an anthropomorphic gray rabbit and is famous for his flippant, insouciant personality and his portrayal as a trickster. He has primarily appeared in animated cartoons, most...
, Porky Pig
Porky Pig
Porky Pig is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. He was the first character created by the studio to draw audiences based on his star power, and the animators created many critically acclaimed shorts using the fat little pig...
, Daffy Duck
Daffy Duck
Daffy Duck is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons, often running the gamut between being the best friend and sometimes arch-rival of Bugs Bunny...
and other Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
Looney Tunes
Looney Tunes
Looney Tunes is a Warner Bros. animated cartoon series. It preceded the Merrie Melodies series and was Warner Bros.'s first animated theatrical series. Since its first official release, 1930's Sinkin' in the Bathtub, the series has become a worldwide media franchise, spawning several television...
and Merrie Melodies
Merrie Melodies
Merrie Melodies is the name of a series of animated cartoons distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures between 1931 and 1969.Originally produced by Harman-Ising Pictures, Merrie Melodies were produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions from 1933 to 1944. Schlesinger sold his studio to Warner Bros. in 1944,...
animated shorts. Scott's melodies have also been heard in twelve Ren & Stimpy episodes (that used the original Scott recordings), while making cameos in The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
, Duckman
Duckman
Duckman: Private Dick/Family Man is an American animated sitcom that aired from 1994–1997, created by Everett Peck and developed by Peck. The sitcom is based on characters created by Peck in his Dark Horse comic...
, Animaniacs
Animaniacs
Steven Spielberg Presents Animaniacs, usually referred to as simply Animaniacs, is an American animated series, distributed by Warner Bros. Television and produced by Amblin Entertainment and Warner Bros. Animation. The cartoon was the second animated series produced by the collaboration of Steven...
, The Oblongs
The Oblongs
The Oblongs is an American animated television program aimed at teenagers and adults. It is loosely based on a series of characters introduced in creator Angus Oblong's picture book entitled Creepy Susie and 13 Other Tragic Tales for Troubled Children...
, and Batfink
Batfink
Batfink is an animated television series, consisting of five-minute shorts, that first aired in September 1967. The 100-episode series was quickly created by Hal Seeger, starting in 1966, to parody the popular Batman and The Green Hornet television series which had premiered the same...
. (The only music Scott actually composed to accompany animation were three 20-second electronic commercial jingles for County Fair Bread in 1962.)
Early life & career
He was born in Brooklyn, New York to Russian Jewish immigrants, Joseph and Sarah Warnow. His older brother, Mark WarnowMark Warnow
Mark Warnow was a noted violinist and orchestra conductor, who performed widely on radio in the 1930s and 1940s. He was the older brother of composer/bandleader Raymond Scott Mark Warnow (April 10, 1900 - October 17, 1949) was a noted violinist and orchestra conductor, who performed widely on...
, a conductor, violinist, and musical director for the CBS radio program Your Hit Parade
Your Hit Parade
Your Hit Parade, is an American radio and television music program that was broadcast from 1935 to 1955 on radio, and seen from 1950 to 1959 on television. It was sponsored by American Tobacco's Lucky Strike cigarettes. During this 24-year run, the show had 19 orchestra leaders and 52 singers or...
, encouraged his musical career.
A 1931 graduate of the Juilliard School of Music, where he studied piano, theory and composition, Scott, under his birth name, began his professional career as a pianist for the CBS Radio
CBS Radio
CBS Radio, Inc., formerly known as Infinity Broadcasting Corporation, is one of the largest owners and operators of radio stations in the United States, third behind main rival Clear Channel Communications and Cumulus Media. CBS Radio owns around 130 radio stations across the country...
house band. His older (by eight years) brother Mark conducted the orchestra. Harry reportedly adopted the pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
"Raymond Scott" to spare his brother charges of nepotism
Nepotism
Nepotism is favoritism granted to relatives regardless of merit. The word nepotism is from the Latin word nepos, nepotis , from which modern Romanian nepot and Italian nipote, "nephew" or "grandchild" are also descended....
when the orchestra began performing the pianist's idiosyncratic compositions.
In late 1936, Scott recruited a band from among his CBS colleagues, calling it the "Raymond Scott Quintette." It was a six-piece group, but the puckish Scott thought Quintette (his spelling) sounded "crisper"; he also told a reporter that he feared "calling it a 'sextet' might get your mind off music." The original sidemen were Pete Pumiglio (clarinet); Bunny Berigan
Bunny Berigan
Rowland Bernard "Bunny" Berigan was an American jazz trumpeter who rose to fame during the swing era, but whose virtuosity and influence were shortened by a losing battle with alcoholism that ended in his early death at age 33. He composed the jazz instrumentals "Chicken and Waffles" and "Blues"...
(trumpet, soon replaced by Dave Wade); Louis Shoobe (upright bass); Dave Harris (tenor sax); and Johnny Williams
Johnny Williams (drummer)
Johnny Williams was an American jazz drummer and percussionist from the early 1930s to the late 1950s...
(drums). They made their first recordings in New York on February 20, 1937, for the Master Records label, owned by music publisher/impresario Irving Mills
Irving Mills
Irving Mills was a jazz music publisher, also known by the name of "Joe Primrose."Mills was born to Jewish parents in the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City. He founded Mills Music with his brother Jack in 1919...
(who was also Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
's manager).
The Quintette represented Scott's attempt to revitalize Swing
Swing (genre)
Swing music, also known as swing jazz or simply swing, is a form of jazz music that developed in the early 1930s and became a distinctive style by 1935 in the United States...
music through tight, busy arrangements and reduced reliance on improvisation
Improvisation
Improvisation is the practice of acting, singing, talking and reacting, of making and creating, in the moment and in response to the stimulus of one's immediate environment and inner feelings. This can result in the invention of new thought patterns, new practices, new structures or symbols, and/or...
. He called this musical style "descriptive jazz," and gave his works unusual titles like "New Year's Eve in a Haunted House," "Dinner Music for a Pack of Hungry Cannibals" (recorded by the Kronos Quartet
Kronos Quartet
Kronos Quartet is a string quartet founded by violinist David Harrington in 1973 in Seattle, Washington. Since 1978, the quartet has been based in San Francisco, California. The longest-running combination of performers had Harrington and John Sherba on violin, Hank Dutt on viola, and Joan...
in 1993), and "Bumpy Weather Over Newark." While popular with the public, jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
critics disdained it as novelty music. Besides being a prominent figure in recording studios and on radio and concert stages, Scott wrote and was widely interviewed about his sometimes controversial music theories for the leading music publications of the day, including Down Beat
Down Beat
Down Beat is an American magazine devoted to "jazz, blues and beyond" to indicate its expansion beyond the jazz realm which it covered exclusively in previous years. The publication was established in 1934 in Chicago, Illinois...
, Metronome, and Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
.
Scott believed strongly in composing and playing by ear (quote: "You give a better performance if you skip the eyes"). He composed not on paper, but "on his band" — by humming phrases to his sidemen, or by demonstrating riffs and rhythms on the keyboard and instructing players to interpret his cues. It was all done by ear, with no written scores (a process known as "head arrangements"). Scott, who was also a savvy sound engineer, recorded the band's rehearsals on discs and used the recordings as references to develop his compositions. He reworked, resequenced, or deleted passages, or added themes from other discs to construct finished works. During the developmental process, his players were allowed to improvise, but once complete, the piece became relatively fixed, with little further improvisation permitted — a practice that alienated some jazz purists and critics. Although Scott rigidly controlled the band's repertoire and style, he rarely took piano solos, preferring to direct the band from the keyboard and leaving solos and leads to his sidemen. He also had a penchant for adapting classical motifs in his compositions; this earned him the wrath of some serious music authorities who dismissed such practices as "trivializing the classics." The public, who bought his records by the millions, seemed indifferent to any controversy.
The Quintette existed from 1937 to 1939, and racked up numerous big-selling discs, including "Twilight in Turkey," "Minuet in Jazz," "War Dance for Wooden Indians," "Reckless Night on Board an Ocean Liner," "Powerhouse
Powerhouse (song)
Powerhouse is a instrumental musical composition by Raymond Scott, probably best known today as the iconic "assembly line" music in animated cartoons released by Warner Brothers.-History:...
," and "The Penguin." One of Scott's best-known compositions is "The Toy Trumpet," a cheerful pop confection that is instantly recognizable to many people who cannot name the title or composer. In the 1938 film Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1938 film)
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm is a 1938 American musical film directed by Allan Dwan and starring Shirley Temple, Randolph Scott, and Bill Robinson. The screenplay by Don Ettlinger and Karl Tunberg is loosely based on Kate Douglas Wiggin's novel Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm...
, Shirley Temple
Shirley Temple
Shirley Temple Black , born Shirley Jane Temple, is an American film and television actress, singer, dancer, autobiographer, and former U.S. Ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia...
sings a version of the song with lyrics. Trumpeter Al Hirt
Al Hirt
Al Hirt was an American trumpeter and bandleader. He is best remembered for his million selling recordings of "Java", and the accompanying album, Honey in the Horn . His nicknames included 'Jumbo' and 'The Round Mound of Sound'...
's 1955 rendition with Arthur Fiedler
Arthur Fiedler
Arthur Fiedler was a long-time conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra, a symphony orchestra that specializes in popular and light classical music. With a combination of musicianship and showmanship, he made the Boston Pops one of the best-known orchestras in the country...
and The Boston Pops
Boston Pops Orchestra
The Boston Pops Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts, that specializes in playing light classical and popular music....
has become a standard. Another oft-recorded Scott classic, "In An Eighteenth-Century Drawing Room," is a pop adaptation of the opening theme from Mozart's Piano Sonata in C, K. 545.
Opening bars of melody line of "The Toy Trumpet"
In 1939 Scott, seeking greater challenges during the swing era
Swing Era
The Swing era was the period of time when big band swing music was the most popular music in the United States. Though the music had been around since the late 1920s and early 1930s, being played by black bands led by such artists as Duke Ellington, Jimmie Lunceford, Benny Moten, Ella Fitzgerald,...
, folded his Quintette into a big band
Big band
A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with jazz and the Swing Era typically consisting of rhythm, brass, and woodwind instruments totaling approximately twelve to twenty-five musicians...
, including bass player Chubby Jackson
Chubby Jackson
Greig Stewart 'Chubby' Jackson was an American jazz double-bassist and band leader.Born in New York City, Jackson began at the age of seventeen as a clarinetist, but quickly changed to bass....
. They were both a recording and touring success. When Scott was appointed music director of CBS radio in 1942, he made history by breaking the color barrier, organizing the first racially integrated radio band. Over the next two years, he hired some of the hottest black jazz heavyweights of the day, such as saxophonist Ben Webster
Ben Webster
Benjamin Francis Webster , a.k.a. "The Brute" or "Frog," was an influential American jazz tenor saxophonist. Webster, born in Kansas City, Missouri, was considered one of the three most important "swing tenors" along with Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young...
, trumpeter Charlie Shavers
Charlie Shavers
Charles James Shavers , known as Charlie Shavers, was an American swing era jazz trumpet player who played at one time or another with Dizzy Gillespie, Roy Eldridge, Johnny Dodds, Jimmy Noone, Sidney Bechet, Midge Williams and Billie Holiday...
, bassist Billy Taylor
Billy Taylor (jazz bassist)
William Taylor Sr. was an American jazz bassist. He was born Washington, D.C. and died in Fairfax, Virginia.Taylor began playing tuba but later picked up bass alongside it...
, trumpeter Emmett Berry
Emmett Berry
Emmett Berry was a jazz trumpeter.Berry was born in Macon, Georgia. He began with study of classical trumpet in Georgia, but by 18 had switched to jazz and moved to New York City. He became a member of Fletcher Henderson's band and later replaced Roy Eldridge as soloist...
, trombonist Benny Morton
Benny Morton
Benny Morton , born in New York City, was a jazz trombonist most associated with the swing genre. He was praised by fellow trombonist Bill Watrous among others. One of his first jobs was working with Clarence Holiday, and he appeared with Clarence's daughter Billie Holiday towards the end of her...
, and drummer Cozy Cole
Cozy Cole
Cozy Cole was an American jazz drummer who scored a #1 Cashbox magazine hit with the record "Topsy Part 2". "Topsy" peaked at number three on Billboard Hot 100, and at number one on the R&B chart. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. The track peaked at #29 in the UK...
. In 1942, Scott—who once told an interviewer he wouldn't hire himself to play piano in his own bands—relinquished his keyboard duties with his bands, so he could focus more closely on hiring, composing, arranging and conducting. (He later returned to the keyboard with some of his bands.)
Middle career
After serving as CBS radio music director for a number of variety programs from 1942 to 1944, Scott left the network to pursue other projects. He composed and arranged music (with lyrics by Bernie HanighenBernie Hanighen
Bernard D. Hanighen was an American songwriter best known for co-writing "'Round Midnight" and "When a Woman Loves a Man"...
) for the 1946 Broadway musical Lute Song
Lute Song (musical)
Lute Song is a 1946 American musical with a book by Sidney Howard and Will Irwin, music by Raymond Scott, and lyrics by Bernard Hanighen. It is based on the 14th century Chinese play Pi-Pa-Ki by Kao-Tong-Kia and Mao-Tseo...
, starring Mary Martin
Mary Martin
Mary Virginia Martin was an American actress and singer. She originated many roles over her career including Nellie Forbush in South Pacific and Maria in The Sound of Music. She was named a Kennedy Center Honoree in 1989...
and Yul Brynner
Yul Brynner
Yul Brynner was a Russian-born actor of stage and film. He was best known for his portrayal of Mongkut, king of Siam, in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The King and I, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Actor for the film version; he also played the role more than 4,500 times on...
.
In the late 1940s, contemporaneous with guitarist-engineer Les Paul
Les Paul
Lester William Polsfuss —known as Les Paul—was an American jazz and country guitarist, songwriter and inventor. He was a pioneer in the development of the solid-body electric guitar which made the sound of rock and roll possible. He is credited with many recording innovations...
's studio work with Mary Ford
Mary Ford
Mary Ford , born Iris Colleen Summers, was an American vocalist and guitarist, comprising half of the husband-and-wife musical team Les Paul and Mary Ford. Between 1950 and 1954, the couple had 16 top-ten hits...
, Scott began recording pop songs using the layered multi-tracked
History of multitrack recording
Though GE researcher Charles Hoxie invented the pallophotophone in 1922, modern multitrack recording began in 1943 with the invention of stereo sound, which divided the recording head into two tracks.-Overview:Multitrack recording is a process in which the tape is divided into multiple tracks...
vocals of his second wife, singer Dorothy Collins
Dorothy Collins
Dorothy Collins was a Canadian/American singer, actress, and recording artist. She was born Marjorie Chandler in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, and adopted her stage name in her mid-teens.-Radio and TV:...
. A number of these were commercially released, but the technique failed to earn Scott the chart success of Les and Mary.
In 1948, Scott formed a new six-man "quintet," which served for several months as house band for the CBS radio program, Herb Shriner
Herb Shriner
Herbert Arthur "Herb" Shriner was an American humorist, radio personality and television host. Shriner was known for his homespun monologues, usually about his home state of Indiana...
Time. The ensemble also made studio recordings, some of which were released on Scott's own short-lived Master Records label. (This was not the Irving Mills-owned label of the same name; Scott allegedly named his label in tribute to the by-then-defunct Mills enterprise.)
When his brother Mark Warnow died in 1949, Scott succeeded him as orchestra leader on the popular CBS Radio
CBS Radio
CBS Radio, Inc., formerly known as Infinity Broadcasting Corporation, is one of the largest owners and operators of radio stations in the United States, third behind main rival Clear Channel Communications and Cumulus Media. CBS Radio owns around 130 radio stations across the country...
show Your Hit Parade
Your Hit Parade
Your Hit Parade, is an American radio and television music program that was broadcast from 1935 to 1955 on radio, and seen from 1950 to 1959 on television. It was sponsored by American Tobacco's Lucky Strike cigarettes. During this 24-year run, the show had 19 orchestra leaders and 52 singers or...
sponsored by Lucky Strike
Lucky Strike
Lucky Strike is a brand of cigarette owned by the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company and British American Tobacco groups. Often referred to as "Luckies", Lucky Strike was the top selling cigarette in the United States during the 1930s.- History :...
cigarettes. The following year, the show moved to NBC Television, and Scott continued to lead the orchestra until 1957. (Collins was a featured singer on Your Hit Parade.) Although the high-profile position paid well, Scott considered it strictly a "rent gig," and used his lavish salary to finance his electronic music research and development, largely out of the public limelight.
In 1950 Scott composed his first—and only known—"serious" (classical) work, entitled Suite for Violin and Piano. The five-movement suite was performed at Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
on February 7, 1950, by violinist Arnold Eidus
Arnold Eidus
Arnold Eidus is a world renowned concert violinist and recording artist.Eidus's parents were Russian immigrants; his father was a violinist and his mother played piano. A child prodigy, Eidus made his debut at Carnegie Hall at the age of 11...
and pianist Carlo Bussotti, who subsequently recorded the work. (Unreleased at the time, the archival recording is scheduled for Fall 2011 CD release by Basta Audio-Visuals.)
In 1958, while serving as an A&R director for Everest Records
Everest Records
Everest Records was a stereophonic record label based in Bayside, Long Island started by Harry D. Belock and Bert Whyte in May 1958. It was devoted mainly to classical music.-History:...
, Scott produced singer Gloria Lynne
Gloria Lynne
Gloria Lynne is an American jazz vocalist with a recording career spanning from 1958 to 2007. Born Gloria Alleyne, Gloria Lynne grew up in Harlem; her mother was a gospel singer.-Career:...
's album Miss Gloria Lynne. The sidemen included many of the same session players (e.g., Milt Hinton
Milt Hinton
Milton John "Milt" Hinton , "the dean of jazz bass players," was an American jazz double bassist and photographer. He was nicknamed "The Judge".-Biography:...
, Sam "The Man" Taylor, George Duvivier
George Duvivier
George Duvivier was an American jazz double-bass player.Duvivier was born in New York City and took up the cello and also the violin while in high school before settling on the bass. He also learned composition and scoring before going out on the road with Lucky Millinder and then with the Cab...
, Harry "Sweets" Edison, Eddie Costa
Eddie Costa
Eddie Costa, , was an American jazz pianist and vibraphonist born in Atlas, Pennsylvania near Mount Carmel, PA in Northumberland County....
, Kenny Burrell
Kenny Burrell
Kenneth Earl "Kenny" Burrell is an American jazz guitarist. His playing is grounded in bebop and blues; he has performed and recorded with a wide range of jazz musicians.-Biography:...
, Wild Bill Davis
Wild Bill Davis
Wild Bill Davis was the stage name of American jazz pianist, organist, and arranger William Strethen Davis.Davis was born in Glasgow, Missouri...
) who participated in Scott's 1959 Secret 7 recording project.
Electronics and research
Scott, who attended Brooklyn Technical High School, was an early electronic musicElectronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
pioneer and adventurous sound engineer. During the 1930s and 1940s, many of his band's recording sessions found the bandleader in the control room, monitoring and adjusting the acoustics, often by revolutionary means. As Gert-Jan Blom & Jeff Winner wrote, "Scott sought to master all aspects of sound capture and manipulation. His special interest in the technical aspects of recording, combined with the state-of-the-art facilities at his disposal, provided him with enormous hands-on experience as an engineer."
In 1946, Scott established Manhattan Research, a division of Raymond Scott Enterprises, Incorporated, which he announced would "design and manufacture electronic music devices and systems." As well as designing audio devices for his own personal use, Manhattan Research Inc. provided customers with sales & service for a variety of devices "for the creation of electronic music and musique concrete" including components such as ring modulators, wave, tone and envelope shapers, modulators and filters. Of unique interest were instruments like the "Keyboard theremin," "Chromatic electronic drum generators," and "Circle generators." Scott often described Manhattan Research Inc. as "More than a think factory - a dream center where the excitement of tomorrow is made available today." Bob Moog, developer of the Moog Synthesizer
Synthesizer
A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
, met Scott in the 1950s, designed circuits for him in the 1960s, and acknowledged him as an important influence.
Relying on several instruments of his own invention, such as the Clavivox
Clavivox
The Clavivox was a keyboard sound synthesizer and sequencer invented by American composer Raymond Scott in 1952, and patented in 1956. Scott had earlier built a theremin as a toy for his daughter Carrie. In his first Clavivox prototype, he used a theremin module built by a young Bob Moog...
and Electronium, Scott recorded futuristic electronic compositions for use in television and radio commercials as well as records of entirely electronic music. A series of three albums designed to lull infants to sleep, Scott's groundbreaking work Soothing Sounds for Baby
Soothing Sounds for Baby
Soothing Sounds for Baby is a three-volume set of ambient electronic music by American composer, musician, and inventor Raymond Scott...
was released in 1964 in collaboration with the Gesell Institute of Child Development
Gesell Institute
The Gesell Institute of Human Development is a non-profit organization located in New Haven, Connecticut. The organization is named after Arnold Gesell and is dedicated to researching and understanding child growth and development.-History:...
. The music, which today sounds uncannily similar to the ambient work of Tangerine Dream
Tangerine Dream
Tangerine Dream is a German electronic music group founded in 1967 by Edgar Froese. The band has undergone many personnel changes over the years, with Froese being the only continuous member...
or Brian Eno
Brian Eno
Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...
from the mid 1970s, did not find much favor with the record-buying public of the day. Still, Manhattan Research, Inc. had considerable success in providing striking, ear-catching sonic textures for broadcast commercials.
Scott developed some of the first devices capable of producing a series of electronic tones automatically in sequence. He later credited himself as being the inventor of the polyphonic sequencer
Music sequencer
The music sequencer is a device or computer software to record, edit, play back the music, by handling note and performance information in several forms, typically :...
. (It should be noted that his electromechanical devices, some with motors moving photocells past lights, bore little resemblance to the all-electronic sequencers of the late sixties.) He began working on a machine he said composed using artificial intelligence. The Electronium, as Scott called it, with its vast array of knobs, buttons and patch panels is considered the first self-composing synthesizer.
Some of Raymond Scott's projects were less complex, but still ambitious. During the 1950s and 1960s, he developed and patented a large number of consumer products that brought electronically produced sounds into the homes and lives of Americans. Among these were electronic telephone ringers, alarms, chimes, and sirens, vending machines and ashtray
Ashtray
An ashtray is a receptacle for ash and butts from cigarettes and cigars. Ashtrays are typically made of fireproof material such as glass, heat-resistant plastic, pottery, metal, or rock....
s with accompanying electronic music scores, an electronic musical baby rattle and an adult toy that produced varying sounds dependent on how two people touched one another. It was Scott's belief that these devices would "electronically update the many sounds around us - the functional sounds."
Scott and Dorothy Collins divorced in 1964, and in 1967, he married Mitzi Curtis. During the second half of the 1960s, as his work progressed, Scott became increasingly isolated and secretive about his inventions and concepts; he gave few interviews, made no public presentations, and released no records. In 1966-67, Scott (under the screen credit "Ramond Scott") composed and recorded electronic music soundtracks for some early experimental films by Muppets impresario Jim Henson
Jim Henson
James Maury "Jim" Henson was an American puppeteer best known as the creator of The Muppets. As a puppeteer, Henson performed in various television programs, such as Sesame Street and The Muppet Show, films such as The Muppet Movie and The Great Muppet Caper, and created advanced puppets for...
.
During his jazz/big band period, Scott had often endured tense relationships with musicians he employed (quote: "No one worked with Scott; everyone worked under Scott"). However, when his career became immersed in electronic gadgetry, he made friends with and seemed to prefer the company of technicians, including Bob Moog, Herb Deutsch, Thomas Rhea, and Alan Entenmann. From time to time Scott welcomed curious visitors to his lab, among them the renowned French electronic music pioneer Jean-Jacques Perrey
Jean-Jacques Perrey
Jean-Jacques Perrey is a French electronic music producer and was an early pioneer in the genre. He is best known within the sphere of popular music as a member of the influential electronic music duo Perrey and Kingsley, and for his unusually light-hearted style of music.-Biography:Perrey was...
, in March 1960. The eccentric electronic instrument builder and children's music composer Bruce Haack
Bruce Haack
Bruce Clinton Haack was a musician, composer, and pioneer of electronic music. He was born in Alberta, Canada.-From Alberta to New York :...
visited Scott in the early 1970s (though there is no indication Haack and Scott collaborated in any way).
In 1969, Motown Records
Motown Records
Motown is a record label originally founded by Berry Gordy, Jr. and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation in Detroit, Michigan, United States, on April 14, 1960. The name, a portmanteau of motor and town, is also a nickname for Detroit...
impresario Berry Gordy
Berry Gordy
Berry Gordy, Jr. is an American record producer, and the founder of the Motown record label, as well as its many subsidiaries.-Early years:...
, tipped off about a mad musical scientist engaged in mysterious works, visited Scott at his Long Island labs to witness the Electronium in action. Impressed by the infinite possibilities, Gordy hired Scott in 1971 to serve as director of Motown's electronic music and research department in Los Angeles, a position Scott held until 1977. No Motown recordings using Scott's electronic inventions have yet been publicly identified.
Guy Costa, Head of Operations and Chief Engineer at Motown from 1969 to 1987, said about Scott's hiring:
- "He started originally working [on the Electronium] out of Berry’s house. They set up a room over the garages, and he worked there putting stuff together so Berry could get involved and see the progress. At one point Scott worked out of a studio. The unit never really got finalized—Ray had a real problem letting go. It was always being developed. That was a problem for Berry. He wanted instant gratification. Eventually his interest started to wane after a period of probably two or three years. Finally Ray took the thing down to his house and kept working on it. Berry kind of lost interest. He was off doing Diana RossDiana RossDiana Ernestine Earle Ross is an American singer, record producer, and actress. Ross was lead singer of the Motown group The Supremes during the 1960s. After leaving the group in 1970, Ross began a solo career that included successful ventures into film and Broadway...
movies."
Scott later said he "spent 11 years and close to a million dollars developing the Electronium." Scott was, thereafter, largely unemployed, though hardly inactive. He continued to modify his inventions, eventually adapting computers and primitive MIDI devices to his systems. He suffered a series of heart attacks, ran low on cash, and eventually became a mere "Where Are They Now?" subject.
Largely forgotten by the public by the 1980s, Scott suffered a major stroke in 1987 that left him unable to work or engage in conversation. His recordings were largely out of print, his electronic instruments were cobweb-collecting relics, and his once-abundant royalty stream had slowed to a trickle.
Secret Seven
In 1959, Scott organized a band of top-tier jazz session musicians and recorded an album entitled The Unexpected, credited to The Secret Seven, and released on the Top Rank label. The secrecy extended to withholding the identity of the musicians in the album's liner notes. The players were later identified as Elvin JonesElvin Jones
Elvin Ray Jones was a jazz drummer of the post-bop era. He showed interest in drums at a young age, watching the circus bands march by his family's home in Pontiac, Michigan....
, Milt Hinton
Milt Hinton
Milton John "Milt" Hinton , "the dean of jazz bass players," was an American jazz double bassist and photographer. He was nicknamed "The Judge".-Biography:...
, Kenny Burrell
Kenny Burrell
Kenneth Earl "Kenny" Burrell is an American jazz guitarist. His playing is grounded in bebop and blues; he has performed and recorded with a wide range of jazz musicians.-Biography:...
, Eddie Costa
Eddie Costa
Eddie Costa, , was an American jazz pianist and vibraphonist born in Atlas, Pennsylvania near Mount Carmel, PA in Northumberland County....
, Sam "The Man" Taylor
Sam Taylor (jazz)
Sam Taylor best known as the tenor saxophonist Sam "The Man" Taylor, was an American jazz and blues player, whose honking style set the standard for tenor sax solos in both rock and roll and rhythm and blues....
, Harry "Sweets" Edison, Wild Bill Davis
Wild Bill Davis
Wild Bill Davis was the stage name of American jazz pianist, organist, and arranger William Strethen Davis.Davis was born in Glasgow, Missouri...
and Toots Thielemans
Toots Thielemans
Jean-Baptiste Frédéric Isidor, Baron Thielemans , known as Toots Thielemans, is a Belgian jazz musician well known for his guitar and harmonica playing as well as his whistling. Thielemans is credited as one of the greatest harmonica players of the 20th century...
.
The cartoon connection
In 1943 Scott sold his music publishing to Warner Bros.Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
, who allowed Carl Stalling
Carl Stalling
Carl W. Stalling was an American composer and arranger for music in animated films. He is most closely associated with the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts produced by Warner Bros., where he averaged one complete score each week, for 22 years.-Biography:Stalling was born to Ernest and...
, music director for Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, to adapt anything in the Warner music catalog.
Stalling immediately began peppering his cartoon scores with Scott quotes, such as in The Great Piggy Bank Robbery
The Great Piggy Bank Robbery
The Great Piggy Bank Robbery is a Warner Brothers Looney Tunes theatrical cartoon short, produced in early 1945, and released in 1946. It was directed by Robert Clampett, and features Daffy Duck in Clampett's penultimate Warner cartoon and final Daffy Duck cartoon, produced shortly before he left...
. Besides being used in Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, Scott's tunes have been licensed to propel the hijinks of The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
, Ren and Stimpy, Animaniacs
Animaniacs
Steven Spielberg Presents Animaniacs, usually referred to as simply Animaniacs, is an American animated series, distributed by Warner Bros. Television and produced by Amblin Entertainment and Warner Bros. Animation. The cartoon was the second animated series produced by the collaboration of Steven...
, The Oblongs
The Oblongs
The Oblongs is an American animated television program aimed at teenagers and adults. It is loosely based on a series of characters introduced in creator Angus Oblong's picture book entitled Creepy Susie and 13 Other Tragic Tales for Troubled Children...
, Batfink
Batfink
Batfink is an animated television series, consisting of five-minute shorts, that first aired in September 1967. The 100-episode series was quickly created by Hal Seeger, starting in 1966, to parody the popular Batman and The Green Hornet television series which had premiered the same...
, and Duckman
Duckman
Duckman: Private Dick/Family Man is an American animated sitcom that aired from 1994–1997, created by Everett Peck and developed by Peck. The sitcom is based on characters created by Peck in his Dark Horse comic...
cartoons. "Powerhouse" was quoted ten times in the Warner Brothers feature Looney Tunes: Back in Action
Looney Tunes: Back in Action
Looney Tunes: Back in Action is a 2003 American live action/animated adventure comedy film directed by Joe Dante and starring Brendan Fraser, Jenna Elfman, Timothy Dalton, and Steve Martin. The film is essentially a feature-length Looney Tunes cartoon, with all the wackiness and surrealism typical...
(2003).
Obscurity and rediscovery
His legacy underwent a revival in the early 1990s with the release of Reckless Nights and Turkish Twilights (Columbia, 1992, produced by Irwin ChusidIrwin Chusid
Irwin Chusid is a journalist, music historian, radio personality and self-described "landmark preservationist." His stated mission has been to "find things on the scrapheap of history that I know don't belong there and salvage them." Those "things" have included such previously overlooked but...
with Hal Willner
Hal Willner
Hal Willner is an American music producer working in recording, films, TV and live events. He is best known for assembling tribute albums and events featuring a wide variety of artists and musical styles...
as executive producer), the first major-label CD compilation of his groundbreaking 1937–39 six-man quintet. A year earlier, Chusid and Will Friedwald
Will Friedwald
Will Friedwald is an American author and music critic. He has written for such newspapers as The New York Times, The Village Voice, Newsday, The New York Observer, and The New York Sun, and for such magazines as Entertainment Weekly, Oxford American, New York, Mojo, BBC Music Magazine, Stereo...
produced a CD of live Scott quintet broadcasts titled The Man Who Made Cartoons Swing for the Stash label. Around this time, the director of Ren & Stimpy, John Kricfalusi
John Kricfalusi
Michael John Kricfalusi , better known as John K., is a Canadian animator. He is creator of The Ren & Stimpy Show, its adults-only spin-off Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon", The Ripping Friends animated series, and Weekend Pussy Hunt, which was billed as "the world's first interactive web-based...
, began hot-wiring his cartoon episodes with original Scott quintette recordings. In the late-1990s, The Beau Hunks
The Beau Hunks
The Beau Hunks are a Dutch revivalist music ensemble who have performed and recorded the vintage works of composers Leroy Shield, Raymond Scott, Edward McDowell, Ferde Grofé, and others. They have been referred to as a "documentary orchestra," because they perform note-perfect renditions of music...
(a Dutch ensemble originally formed to perform music created by Leroy Shield
Leroy Shield
Leroy Shield was an American film score and radio composer.-Career:A native of Waseca, Minnesota, Shield was an employee of RCA Victor's National Broadcasting Company, for which he composed and conducted on-air musical pieces...
for the Laurel and Hardy
Laurel and Hardy
Laurel and Hardy were one of the most popular and critically acclaimed comedy double acts of the early Classical Hollywood era of American cinema...
movies) released two albums of Scott's music. Various members of the Beau Hunks (reconfigured as a "Saxtet", then a "Soctette") later performed and recorded various Scott works, sometimes in collaboration with the Metropole Orchestra.
"Powerhouse
Powerhouse (song)
Powerhouse is a instrumental musical composition by Raymond Scott, probably best known today as the iconic "assembly line" music in animated cartoons released by Warner Brothers.-History:...
" has been used as a promotional bumper for the Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network (United States)
Cartoon Network is an American cable television network owned by Turner Broadcasting which primarily airs animated programming. The channel was launched on October 1, 1992 after Turner purchased the animation studio Hanna-Barbera Productions in 1991...
, as well has having been interpreted by the rock band
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
Rush
Rush (band)
Rush is a Canadian rock band formed in August 1968, in the Willowdale neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario. The band is composed of bassist, keyboardist, and lead vocalist Geddy Lee, guitarist Alex Lifeson, and drummer and lyricist Neil Peart...
in their 1978 song "La Villa Strangiato" on their Hemispheres
Hemispheres (Rush album)
Hemispheres is the sixth studio album by Canadian rock band Rush, released in 1978. The album was recorded at Rockfield Studios in Wales and mixed at Trident Studios in London....
album. The same tune was reinterpreted as the song "Bus to Beelzebub" by the New York band Soul Coughing
Soul Coughing
Soul Coughing was a popular New York-based alternative rock band. The band found modest mainstream success during the mid-to-late 1990s. Soul Coughing developed a devout fanbase and have garnered largely positive response from critics. Steve Huey describes the band as "one of the most unusual cult...
, who have used Scott samples in other compositions, such as Scott's "The Penguin" in their song "Disseminated." They Might Be Giants
They Might Be Giants
They Might Be Giants is an American alternative rock band formed in 1982 by John Flansburgh and John Linnell. During TMBG's early years Flansburgh and Linnell were frequently accompanied by a drum machine. In the early 1990s, TMBG became a full band. Currently, the members of TMBG are...
have also incorporated "Powerhouse
Powerhouse (song)
Powerhouse is a instrumental musical composition by Raymond Scott, probably best known today as the iconic "assembly line" music in animated cartoons released by Warner Brothers.-History:...
" into their music, briefly including it in their song "Rhythm Section Want Ad" from their self-titled 1986 debut album
They Might Be Giants (album)
They Might Be Giants is the eponymous debut album from Brooklyn-based band They Might Be Giants, also known as The Pink Album. It was released by Bar/None in 1986....
. In 1993, Warner Bros. music director Richard Stone
Richard Stone (composer)
Richard Stone was an American composer. He played an important part in the revival of Warner Bros. animation in the 1990s, composing music and songs for Tiny Toon Adventures, Taz-Mania, SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron, Animaniacs, Pinky and the Brain, Freakazoid!, The Sylvester and Tweety...
scored an entire installment of Steven Spielberg Presents Animaniacs around "Powerhouse" (the episode, entitled "Toy Shop Terror," notably had no dialogue except in the closing seconds, thus allowing Stone's Stalling-meets-Spike Jones
Spike Jones
Mel Blanc, the voice of Bugs Bunny and other Warner Brothers cartoon characters, performed a drunken, hiccuping verse for 1942's "Clink! Clink! Another Drink"...
arrangement to dominate the soundtrack). In late 2006, "Powerhouse" began airing regularly as the soundtrack for a Visa check card TV commercial. It has also often been used as a bumper on "Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! is an hour-long weekly radio news panel game show produced by Chicago Public Radio and National Public Radio. It is distributed by NPR in the United States, internationally on NPR Worldwide and on the Internet via podcast, and typically broadcast on weekends by member...
," NPR's weekly quiz show. It also appeared in The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
, played over the ludicrous and allegedly true method by which bowling alleys assemble new pins.
Clarinetist Don Byron
Don Byron
Don Byron is an American composer and multi-instrumentalist. He primarily plays clarinet, but has also used bass clarinet and saxophones....
has recorded and performed Scott's music, as have the Kronos Quartet
Kronos Quartet
Kronos Quartet is a string quartet founded by violinist David Harrington in 1973 in Seattle, Washington. Since 1978, the quartet has been based in San Francisco, California. The longest-running combination of performers had Harrington and John Sherba on violin, Hank Dutt on viola, and Joan...
, Steroid Maximus (J. G. Thirlwell
J. G. Thirlwell
James George Thirlwell , aka Clint Ruin, aka Frank Want, aka Foetus, is an Australian vocalist, composer and record producer...
), Jon Rauhouse, The Tiptons (with Amy Denio
Amy Denio
Amy Denio is a Seattle -based multi-instrumental composer of soundtracks for modern dance, film and theater, as well as a songwriter and music improviser. Often called an unclassifiable avant-garde jazz musician, she is also deeply inspired by world music. She is probably best known as a...
), Jeremy Cohen's Quartet San Francisco, Skip Heller, Phillip Johnston, and others. The New York–based septet The Raymond Scott Orchestrette has recorded an album and does occasional performances of radically modernistic interpretations of Scott compositions. Classical pianist Jenny Lin covered Scott's "The Sleepwalker" on her 2008 album InsomniMania.
The posthumously released 2-CD set, Manhattan Research Inc.
Manhattan Research Inc. (Raymond Scott album)
Manhattan Research Inc. is a two-CD compilation of electronic music created by the musician, composer and inventor, Raymond Scott and his company, "Manhattan Research Inc." Posthumously released in 2000 by Basta Music of Holland, the album contains selected samples of Scott's work from the 1950s...
(Basta, 2000, co-produced by Gert-Jan Blom and Jeff Winner) showcases Scott's pioneering electronic works from the 1950s and 1960s on two CDs (the package includes a 144-page hardcover book). Microphone Music (Basta, 2002, produced by Irwin Chusid
Irwin Chusid
Irwin Chusid is a journalist, music historian, radio personality and self-described "landmark preservationist." His stated mission has been to "find things on the scrapheap of history that I know don't belong there and salvage them." Those "things" have included such previously overlooked but...
with Blom and Winner as project advisors), explores the original Scott Quintette's work. The 2008 CD release Ectoplasm (Basta) chronicles a second (1948–49) incarnation of the six-man "quintet" format, with Scott's future wife Dorothy Collins
Dorothy Collins
Dorothy Collins was a Canadian/American singer, actress, and recording artist. She was born Marjorie Chandler in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, and adopted her stage name in her mid-teens.-Radio and TV:...
singing on several tracks.
Devo
Devo
Devo is an American band formed in 1973 consisting of members from Kent and Akron, Ohio. The classic line-up of the band includes two sets of brothers, the Mothersbaughs and the Casales . The band had a #14 Billboard chart hit in 1980 with the single "Whip It", and has maintained a cult...
founding member Mark Mothersbaugh
Mark Mothersbaugh
Mark Allen Mothersbaugh is an American musician, composer, singer and painter. He is the co-founder of the new wave band Devo and has been its lead singer since 1972. His other musical projects include work for television series, films, and video games....
, through his company Mutato Muzika, purchased Scott's only (non-functioning) Electronium in 1996, with the intention of restoring it to working order, but with no progress in that direction as of 2010.
Quotations
- "Perhaps within the next hundred years, science will perfect a process of thought transference from composer to listener. The composer will sit alone on the concert stage and merely 'think' his idealized conception of his music. Instead of recordings of actual music sound, recordings will carry the brainwaves of the composer directly to the mind of the listener." —Raymond Scott, 1949
- "The composer must bear in mind that the radio listener does not hear music directly. He hears it only after the sound has passed through a microphone, amplifiers, transmission lines, radio transmitter, receiving set, and, finally, the loud speaker apparatus itself." —Raymond Scott, 1938
- "Being introduced to the music of Raymond Scott was like being given the name of a composer I feel I have heard my whole life, who until now was nameless. Clearly he is a major American composer."—David Harrington, Kronos QuartetKronos QuartetKronos Quartet is a string quartet founded by violinist David Harrington in 1973 in Seattle, Washington. Since 1978, the quartet has been based in San Francisco, California. The longest-running combination of performers had Harrington and John Sherba on violin, Hank Dutt on viola, and Joan...
- "It's those front-line types that go into uncharted areas, and pave the way for others. Life is short. Always go to the source, sources like Raymond Scott."—Henry RollinsHenry RollinsHenry Rollins is an American singer-songwriter, spoken word artist, writer, comedian, publisher, actor, and radio DJ....
- "I had a big thing for Raymond Scott loops -- 'Bus to Beelzebub' is also Raymond Scott -- hell, if Soul Coughing ended tomorrow I'd probably eke out a living producing hiphop records, using nothing but breakbeats, Raymond Scott, and Carl Stalling's Warner Bros. orchestra playing Raymond Scott compositions."—Mike DoughtyMike DoughtyMike Doughty is an American indie and alternative rock singer-songwriter. He led the band Soul Coughing in the 1990s, and in the 2000s, became a solo artist...
of Soul CoughingSoul CoughingSoul Coughing was a popular New York-based alternative rock band. The band found modest mainstream success during the mid-to-late 1990s. Soul Coughing developed a devout fanbase and have garnered largely positive response from critics. Steve Huey describes the band as "one of the most unusual cult... - "Quirky, memorable [Scott] themes like 'Powerhouse' in Warner Bros. cartoons arguably helped shape the postwar musical aesthetic as much as anything Elvis or the Beatles did."—John CorbettJohn Corbett (writer)John Corbett is a writer, musician, radio host, teacher, record producer, concert promoter, and gallery owner based in Chicago. He is best known among musicians and music fans as a champion of free jazz and free improvisation. In recent years he has become known in the visual art world as well...
, Chicago Reader - “Raymond Scott was definitely in the forefront of developing electronic music technology, and in the forefront of using it commercially as a musician.”—Bob Moog
Discography
- Raymond Scott and His Orchestra Play (LP, MGM Records, 1953)
- This Time With Strings (LP, Coral Records, 1957; CD, Basta Audio-Visuals, 2008)
- Rock 'n Roll Symphony (LP, Everest Records, 1958)
- The Secret 7: The Unexpected (LP, Top Rank Records, 1960; CD, Basta Audio-Visuals, 2003)
- Soothing Sounds for BabySoothing Sounds for BabySoothing Sounds for Baby is a three-volume set of ambient electronic music by American composer, musician, and inventor Raymond Scott...
Vols. 1-3 (LP, Epic Records, 1963; CD, Basta Audio-Visuals, 1997) - The Raymond Scott Project: Vol. 1: Powerhouse (CD, Stash Records, 1991)
- The Music of Raymond Scott: Reckless Nights and Turkish Twilights (CD, Columbia, 1992; Columbia/Legacy, 1999)
- Manhattan Research Inc. (CD, Basta Audio-Visuals, 2000)
- Microphone Music (CD, Basta Audio-Visuals, 2002)
- Ectoplasm (CD, Basta Audio-Visuals, 2008)
Films
In addition to Warner Brothers cartoons (which were originally intended for theatrical screening), the following films include recordings and/or works composed or co-composed by Scott: Nothing SacredNothing Sacred (film)
Nothing Sacred is a 1937 Technicolor screwball comedy film made by Selznick International Pictures and distributed by United Artists. It was directed by William A. Wellman and produced by David O. Selznick, from a screenplay credited to Ben Hecht, based on a story by James H. Street...
(1937, various adapted standards); Ali Baba Goes to Town
Ali Baba Goes to Town
Ali Baba Goes to Town is a 1937 movie starring Eddie Cantor, Tony Martin, and Roland Young. Cantor plays a hobo named Aloysius "Al" Babson, who walks into the camp of a movie company that is making the Arabian Nights. He falls asleep and dreams he is in Baghdad as an advisor to the Sultan...
(1938, "Twilight in Turkey" and "Arabania"); Happy Landing (1938, "War Dance for Wooden Indians"); Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1938 film)
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm is a 1938 American musical film directed by Allan Dwan and starring Shirley Temple, Randolph Scott, and Bill Robinson. The screenplay by Don Ettlinger and Karl Tunberg is loosely based on Kate Douglas Wiggin's novel Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm...
(1938, "The Toy Trumpet"; with special lyrics by Jack Lawrence
Jack Lawrence
Jack Lawrence was an American songwriter. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1975.- Biography :...
); Just Around the Corner
Just Around the Corner
Just Around the Corner is a 1938 American musical film directed by Irving Cummings. The screenplay by Ethel Hill, Darrell Ware, and J. P. McEvoy was based on the novel Lucky Penny by Paul Girard Smith. The film focuses on the tribulations of little Penny Hale and her architect father after he is...
(1938, "Brass Buttons and Epaulettes" [performed by Scott's Quintette, but not composed by Scott]); Sally, Irene and Mary
Sally, Irene and Mary
Sally, Irene, and Mary is a 1925 film starring Constance Bennett, Sally O'Neil, and Joan Crawford. The film takes a behind-the-scenes look at the romantic lives of three chorus girls and the way their preferences in men affect their lives....
(1938, "Minuet in Jazz"); Bells of Rosarita
Bells of Rosarita
Bells of Rosarita is a 1945 American film starring Roy Rogers and directed by Frank McDonald.-Plot:The film is a musical western. Sue Farnum gets cheated out of her inheritance by the thieving business partner of her deceased father...
(1945, "Singing Down the Road"); Not Wanted (1949, theme and orchestrations); The West Point Story
The West Point Story (film)
The West Point Story is a 1950 musical comedy film directed by Roy Del Ruth and starring James Cagney, Virginia Mayo and Doris Day.-Plot:...
(1950, "The Toy Trumpet"); Storm Warning (1951, "Dinner Music for a Pack of Hungry Cannibals"); The Trouble with Harry
The Trouble with Harry
The Trouble With Harry is a 1955 American black comedy film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, based on the novel of the same name by Jack Trevor Story. It was released in the United States on October 3, 1955 then rereleased once the distribution rights were acquired by Universal Pictures in 1984...
(1955, "Flagging the Train to Tuscaloosa"; words by Mack David
Mack David
Mack David was an American lyricist and songwriter, best known for his work in film and television, with a career spanning from the early 1940s through the early 1970s. Mack was credited with writing lyrics and/or music for over one thousand songs...
); Never Love a Stranger
Never Love a Stranger
Never Love A Stranger is a 1958 crime and gangster film shot in black and white starring John Drew Barrymore, Lita Milan, and Robert Bray, and featuring a young Steve McQueen....
(1958, score); The Pusher (1960, score); Clean and Sober
Clean and Sober
Clean and Sober is a 1988 American drama film directed by Glenn Gordon Caron starring Michael Keaton as a real estate agent and his trouble with substance abuse. This film was a dramatic departure from comedies for Keaton. The cast also includes Kathy Baker, M...
(1988, "Singing Down the Road"); Honey, I Shrunk the Kids
Honey, I Shrunk the Kids
Honey, I Shrunk the Kids is a 1989 comedy film. The directorial debut of Joe Johnston and released through Walt Disney Pictures and Silver Screen Partners III, the film tells the story of an inventor who accidentally shrinks his and his neighbor's kids to 1/4 of an inch with his electromagnetic...
(1989, "Powerhouse" [uncredited, affirmed in out-of-court settlement]); Search and Destroy
Search and Destroy (film)
Search and Destroy is a 1995 drama film based on a stage play by Howard Korder and directed by David Salle. The film stars Griffin Dunne, repeating his role from the stage production, Rosanna Arquette, Illeana Douglas, Ethan Hawke, Dennis Hopper, John Turturro and Christopher Walken, and features...
(1995, "Moment Whimsical"); Funny Bones
Funny Bones
Funny Bones is a 1995 comedy-drama film from Disney's Hollywood Pictures. It was written, directed and produced by Peter Chelsom, co-produced by Simon Fields, and co-written by Peter Flannery. The music score was by John Altman and the cinematography by Eduardo Serra...
(1995, "The Penguin"); Lulu on the Bridge
Lulu on the Bridge
Lulu on the Bridge is a 1998 romantic mystery drama film directed by author Paul Auster. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival.-Plot:...
(1998, "Devil Drums"); Looney Tunes: Back in Action
Looney Tunes: Back in Action
Looney Tunes: Back in Action is a 2003 American live action/animated adventure comedy film directed by Joe Dante and starring Brendan Fraser, Jenna Elfman, Timothy Dalton, and Steve Martin. The film is essentially a feature-length Looney Tunes cartoon, with all the wackiness and surrealism typical...
(2003, "Powerhouse"); Starsky and Hutch (2005, "Dinner Music for Pack of Hungry Cannibals"); RocknRolla
RocknRolla
RocknRolla is a 2008 British crime film written and directed by Guy Ritchie, and starring Gerard Butler, Tom Wilkinson, Mark Strong, Toby Kebbell, Tom Hardy, Idris Elba, Karel Roden, and Thandie Newton...
(2008, "Powerhouse")
Theater
- Lute SongLute Song (musical)Lute Song is a 1946 American musical with a book by Sidney Howard and Will Irwin, music by Raymond Scott, and lyrics by Bernard Hanighen. It is based on the 14th century Chinese play Pi-Pa-Ki by Kao-Tong-Kia and Mao-Tseo...
(1946) - musical - composerComposerA composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
and orchestrator; the production included what was arguably Scott's most-recorded "pop" song, "Mountain High, Valley Low" (lyrics by Bernie HanighenBernie HanighenBernard D. Hanighen was an American songwriter best known for co-writing "'Round Midnight" and "When a Woman Loves a Man"...
) - Peep Show (1950, produced by Mike ToddMike ToddMichael Todd was an American theatre and film producer, best known for his 1956 production of Around the World in Eighty Days, which won an Academy Award for Best Picture...
) - composed "Desire" to accompany the "Cat Girl" dance routine - Powerhouse (2009, produced by Sinking Ship Productions), first staged during the New York International Fringe FestivalNew York International Fringe FestivalThe New York International Fringe Festival, or FringeNYC, is a Fringe theater festival and one of the largest multi-arts events in North America. It takes place over the course of two weeks every August, spread across several neighborhoods in downtown Manhattan, notably the Lower East Side, the...
, is a comedic biography of Scott choreographed with his music and recordings
Covers and samples
- DoomMF DoomDaniel Dumile is a hip hop artist who has taken on several stage names in his career, most notably MF DOOM, where the "MF" stands for metal face, and for tracks he has produced, metal fingers...
, on his 2009 album Born Like ThisBorn Like ThisBorn Like This is an album by American hip hop artist MF DOOM, released under the shortened pseudonym DOOM on Lex Records on March 24, 2009. It debuted at #52 on the Billboard Chart, having sold 10,895 copies as of March 29. In addition to tracks produced by Doom, the album includes production by...
, samples Scott's electronic recordings "Bendix 1: The Tomorrow People" and "Lightworks" on the track entitled "Lightworks" (which also samples a J DillaJ DillaJames Dewitt Yancey , better known by the stage names J Dilla and Jay Dee, was an American record producer who emerged from the mid-1990s underground hip hop scene in Detroit, Michigan...
beat) - GorillazGorillazGorillaz is an English musical project created in 1998 by Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett. This project consists of Gorillaz music itself and an extensive fictional universe depicting a "virtual band" of cartoon characters...
: Self-titled album GorillazGorillaz (album)Gorillaz is the debut album by the British virtual band Gorillaz, released in March 2001. It includes the singles "Clint Eastwood", "19-2000", "Rock the House" and "Tomorrow Comes Today"...
(2001), featured a track titled "Man Research (Clapper)" that uses a sample from "In the Hall of the Mountain Queen" on Scott's Manhattan Research, Inc. The sample was uncredited on the album and the infringement conceded in an out-of-court settlement. - J DillaJ DillaJames Dewitt Yancey , better known by the stage names J Dilla and Jay Dee, was an American record producer who emerged from the mid-1990s underground hip hop scene in Detroit, Michigan...
: Album DonutsDonuts (album)Donuts is an instrumental hip hop album by producer J Dilla. Donuts was released on February 7, 2006, his 32nd birthday, and only three days before his death...
(2006), featured "Lightworks," a remix of the track of the same name on Scott's Manhattan Research, Inc.. It also briefly sampled "Bendix: The Tomorrow People." - El-P: Solo album "Fantastic DamageFantastic DamageFantastic Damage is the first proper full-length solo album by New York rapper and producer El-P, released on his own Definitive Jux label on May 14, 2002. The tracks "Fantastic Damage", "Deep Space 9mm", and "The Nang, the Front, the Bush and the Shit" were featured in the El-P-scored graffiti...
" (Def Jux 2002), features a track named "T.O.J" that contains samples from "Cyclic Bit," "Ripples (Montage)" and "County Fair (Instrumental)" from Raymond Scott's Manhattan Research, Inc.. - Soul CoughingSoul CoughingSoul Coughing was a popular New York-based alternative rock band. The band found modest mainstream success during the mid-to-late 1990s. Soul Coughing developed a devout fanbase and have garnered largely positive response from critics. Steve Huey describes the band as "one of the most unusual cult...
: Album Irresistible BlissIrresistible BlissIrresistible Bliss was Soul Coughing's second album, released in 1996 . The band initially planned for Tchad Blake, producer of their first album, Ruby Vroom, to produce the album, but the death of a family member in a car accident caused Blake to take a hiatus...
(1996), had a track titled "Disseminated" that used samples from "The Penguin" by the Raymond Scott Quintette (reissued version on the CD Microphone Music); the group's album Ruby VroomRuby VroomRuby Vroom was Soul Coughing's 1994 debut album. The album's sound is a mixture of sample-based tunes , guitar based tunes like...
(1994) features a track titled "Bus to Beelzebub" that adapts a motif from Scott's composition "Powerhouse"; on the same album the track "Uh, Zoom Zip" uses an uncredited sample from Scott's "The Toy Trumpet," although the tempo of the sample has been manipulated as to be near-unrecognizable - The KleptonesThe KleptonesThe Kleptones, aka Eric Kleptone, is a DJ from Brighton in the United Kingdom who produces internet-only mashup albums. Typically, he mixes rock/R&B instrumentals with rap and hip-hop vocals in a style that is "fun...and often surprising." His name is a parody of the famous guitarist, Eric...
: Used a sample of "IBM MT/ST: The Paperwork Explosion" in their song "Work" off their album A Night At The Hip-Hopera. - FreezepopFreezepop (band)Freezepop is an American electronic band from Boston, Massachusetts. They formed in 1999 with Liz Enthusiasm, Sean T. Drinkwater, and The Duke of Pannekoeken, an alias for composer Kasson Crooker. As of December 2009, the current lineup includes Enthusiasm, Drinkwater, Robert John "Bananas" Foster...
: Recorded cover of "Melonball Bounce," electronic commercial jingle composed by Scott around 1960 for the soft drink SpriteSprite (soft drink)Sprite is a transparent, lemon-lime flavored , caffeine free soft drink, produced by the Coca-Cola Company. It was introduced in the United States in 1961. This was Coke's response to the popularity of 7 Up, which had begun as "Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Soda" in 1929...
. - The BoysThe Boys (band)The Boys is an American R&B quartet composed of the four Abdulsamad brothers, Khiry , Hakeem , Tajh , and Bilal . The group started out singing in Carson, California. The group had three #1 singles on the R&B charts but never had a mainstream pop #1.-Early years:The Boys were encouraged by their...
: Early 1990s Motown R&B band based "The Saga Continues" on melody of Scott's "Powerhouse" - Venus HumVenus HumVenus Hum is an electronic pop music group from Nashville, Tennessee, consisting of vocalist Annette Strean and multi-instrumentalists Kip Kubin and Tony Miracle. Miracle has a rare heart condition which results in perpetually hearing his own heartbeat in his ears...
: Recorded cover of "Lightworks," Scott electronic commercial jingle - Optiganally YoursOptiganally YoursOptiganally Yours is a band formed around the Optigan, a toy organ produced by Mattel in the 1970s that plays the sounds of instruments that have been recorded onto celluloid disks...
: Performed cover of "Powerhouse" live during an over-the-phone radio interview with Irwin Chusid of WFMU http://www.optigan.com/mp3s.html - MadlibMadlibOtis Jackson Jr. in Oxnard, California, known professionally as Madlib, is a Los Angeles-based DJ, multi-instrumentalist, rapper, and music producer...
: Hip-hop star has used numerous samples of Scott's work, including the voice in "Baltimore Gas & Electric Co." for the track Electric Company, off his album Beat Konducta Vol 1-2: Movie Scenes. - Lee Press-on and the NailsLee Press-on and the NailsLee Presson and the Nails is a swing band that formed in the San Francisco Bay Area in October 1994 during the late '90s swing revival. It disbanded in 2004 and reformed in 2006...
: Covered Scott's "Powerhouse" on their album "Jump-Swing From Hell"; the band have also recorded the Scott compositions "At An Arabian House Party" and "Devil Drums" - moe.Moe.moe. is an American jam band, formed at the University at Buffalo in 1989. The band members are: Rob Derhak , Al Schnier , Chuck Garvey , Vinnie Amico , and Jim Loughlin ....
: Has frequently teased "Powerhouse" in various improvised jams during live performances, most notably Farmer Ben and Spine of a Dog. - The CoctailsCoctailsThe Coctails were a Chicago music quartet, which formed while its members were attending the Kansas City Art Institute. The band was active from about 1988 to 1995 The Coctails were a Chicago music quartet, which formed while its members were attending the Kansas City Art Institute. The band was...
: Recorded a medley of "The Penguin/Powerhouse" for a 7" single released by Bob MouldBob MouldRobert Arthur "Bob" Mould is an American musician, principally known for his work as guitarist, vocalist and songwriter for alternative rock bands Hüsker Dü in the 1980s and Sugar in the 1990s.-Early life:...
's Singles Only Label (SOL) in 1992. The disc was executive-produced by Irwin ChusidIrwin ChusidIrwin Chusid is a journalist, music historian, radio personality and self-described "landmark preservationist." His stated mission has been to "find things on the scrapheap of history that I know don't belong there and salvage them." Those "things" have included such previously overlooked but...
, who also plays percussion on the track. - TV on the RadioTV on the RadioTV on the Radio is an American art rock band formed in 2001 in Brooklyn, New York, whose music spans numerous diverse genres, from post-punk to electro and free jazz to soul music....
sampled a slowed version Scott's piece "Night and Day" for their track "Say You Do." - Teengirl FantasyTeengirl FantasyTeengirl Fantasy is a pop group who released the album 7AM in 2010 on True Panther Sounds in the United States and Merok Records in the United Kingdom. Teengirl Fantasy was formed by Logan Takahashi and Nick Weiss while they were studying at Oberlin College. The duo now study at Gerrit Rietveld...
sampled "Portofino 2" for their track "Portofino."
External links
- The Raymond Scott Collection (audio) at the Marr Sound ArchivesMarr Sound ArchivesThe Marr Sound Archives are an audio recording archive.The collection includes extensive holdings of jazz, blues, country and popular music; historic voices and authors reading their own works; vintage radio programs; classical and opera...
, University of MissouriUniversity of MissouriThe University of Missouri System is a state university system providing centralized administration for four universities, a health care system, an extension program, five research and technology parks, and a publishing press. More than 64,000 students are currently enrolled at its four campuses...
, Kansas CityKansas City, MissouriKansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
, MissouriMissouriMissouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It... - The Raymond Scott Collection (documents) at the LaBudde Special Collections Department, University of Missouri, Kansas City
- ASCAP index of compositions by Raymond Scott
- Chusid, Irwin. "Raymond Scott: The First 100 Years", BoingBoing.net, September 10, 2008
- Grimes, William. "Raymond Scott, 85, a Composer For Cartoons and the Stage, Dies", The New York TimesThe New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, February 9, 1994 (Retrieved February 22, 2010) - Miller, Paul D.DJ SpookyPaul D. Miller , known by his stage name DJ Spooky, That Subliminal Kid, is a Washington DC-born electronic and experimental hip hop musician whose work is often called by critics or his fans as "illbient" or "trip hop". He is a turntablist, a producer, a philosopher, and an author...
, editor. Sound Unbound: Sampling Digital Music and Culture (MIT PressMIT PressThe MIT Press is a university press affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts .-History:...
, May 2008), ISBN 9780262633635, ISBN-13: 978-0262633635. Chapter 18: "The World of Sound: A Division of Raymond Scott Enterprises," by Jeff E. Winner