The Girl At The Typewriter
The album that I'm pushing this week at work is Raymond Scott's Reckless Nights & Turkish Twilights. And as per usual no one will ever even consider buying this. Or, hey... CPG, does it count if I inadvertently sold one to you because you read about me talking about it in my former blog? I reckon that's as good a pitch as any!
Of course Raymond Scott (born Harry Warnow) is the little-touted composer, bandleader, and eccentric inventor as well as musical innovator whose amalgam of swing jazz, classical, and exotica (before even the likes of Martin Denny and Les Baxter trumpeted the wave) has seeped subliminally into American culture with barely an acknowledgement to the man who put it there. His music is instantly recognizable to many, partially due to composer Carl Stalling collecting the rights to Scott's music to which he recreated for the Looney Tunes cartoon shorts, where such pieces such as "Powerhouse", "The Toy Trumpet" and "Dinner Music for a Pack of Hungry Cannibals" became so much a part of our pop culture that it is hard to associate these tunes with anything else (Ren & Stimpy would later use many of the same Raymond Scott pieces as well).
I will say, although, that my fondest memory of Raymond Scott will always be the the night I drove to Richmond to see Fishbone perform at the Floodzone, and since I managed to get into the club early before the doors opened I spent the time standing up in the balcony looking down over the huge, empty dancefloor as Fishbone lead singer and all-around whack-a-doo dude Angelo Moore put on a Raymond Scott tape in the DJ booth and danced with his then-wife to "Powerhouse" in the most far-out, extroverted way that only Angelo Moore is known to do. It was a delight to be a spectator to something so spontaneous and silly and fun. I can never hear "Powerhouse" again without he mental image of Angelo cake-walking across the open dancefloor, his lady on one arm and twirling his trademark cane with the other.
Anyway, don't forget that tonight is the Parliament-Funkadelic documentary at 10pm EST on PBS. Or rather, *I* better not forget. This time.
Of course Raymond Scott (born Harry Warnow) is the little-touted composer, bandleader, and eccentric inventor as well as musical innovator whose amalgam of swing jazz, classical, and exotica (before even the likes of Martin Denny and Les Baxter trumpeted the wave) has seeped subliminally into American culture with barely an acknowledgement to the man who put it there. His music is instantly recognizable to many, partially due to composer Carl Stalling collecting the rights to Scott's music to which he recreated for the Looney Tunes cartoon shorts, where such pieces such as "Powerhouse", "The Toy Trumpet" and "Dinner Music for a Pack of Hungry Cannibals" became so much a part of our pop culture that it is hard to associate these tunes with anything else (Ren & Stimpy would later use many of the same Raymond Scott pieces as well).
I will say, although, that my fondest memory of Raymond Scott will always be the the night I drove to Richmond to see Fishbone perform at the Floodzone, and since I managed to get into the club early before the doors opened I spent the time standing up in the balcony looking down over the huge, empty dancefloor as Fishbone lead singer and all-around whack-a-doo dude Angelo Moore put on a Raymond Scott tape in the DJ booth and danced with his then-wife to "Powerhouse" in the most far-out, extroverted way that only Angelo Moore is known to do. It was a delight to be a spectator to something so spontaneous and silly and fun. I can never hear "Powerhouse" again without he mental image of Angelo cake-walking across the open dancefloor, his lady on one arm and twirling his trademark cane with the other.
Anyway, don't forget that tonight is the Parliament-Funkadelic documentary at 10pm EST on PBS. Or rather, *I* better not forget. This time.
posted by Melissa at 7:32 AM
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