Raymond Scott - Microphone Music

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Music reviews of Microphone Music

Music Review: A reckless night aboard musician-ship!
Rating: 5 Stars

Thank you, Mr. Announcer...and now just a word to say why no Raymond Scott fan anywhere should be without this, the definitive, the supreme, nay, dare I say the canonical representation on record of this sublime supergroup. That's right, folks...no re-creations or reinterpretations here, just Ray's own reference recordings of the original Quintette, made at his own expense in the late 1930s and presented here in extra-crisp period fidelity.

A good number of these tracks first appeared on "The Raymond Scott Project" (Stash Records, 1991), but that's been hard to get for years now, and what's more, there's still other great stuff that hasn't previously seen the light of day. If your tail twitches at titles like "Turkish Mish Mush," "Square Dance for Eight Egyptian Mummies," or "Yesterday's Ice Cubes (are water today)"...well, this CD two-fer is the set for you.

If, on the other hand, you're still wondering what the big hairy deal is with five prehistoric radio studio musicians and one lovable tyrant of a pianist-composer-kook...I say, listen and be amazed! These cats could play music as challenging as stapling Jell-O to a greased pig and still stay tighter than Pee Wee Herman's bow tie. Johnny Williams's infectious proto-swing drumming was key to the Quintette's super-charged machine-age ricky-ticky. Pete Pumiglio made the impossible sound easy on the clumsy old Albert System clarinet. And the stuff Dave Harris could kick out on an ordinary tenor saxophone will have your head spinning on your shoulders.

Then, of course, there's ample opportunity to hear the madness of Raymond Scott himself as he literally composes "on" his musicians (including some work-in-progress recordings of tunes that never quite gelled). Much more than zing-boom animaniac music is afoot here. Ray's "out" harmonic sense was almost unequaled in those pre-bop days, as is evident on numbers like "Suicide Cliff," "Bumpy Weather Over Newark," and a radical recasting of the old war horse "Bugle Call Rag" (about the only standard this group ever played!).

To Basta, I say, "È NON BASTA!" Take us back to Aquackanack, where the sky is green and Raymond Scott and his quazy quintette forever mystify, enthrall, and groove hard.

Description of Microphone Music

Jazz CDs

• Music > Styles
• Pop