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Raymond Scott By Arthur Jackson
Raymond Scott isn’t merely a name from the past, and
may still be fondly remembered by pre-war listeners; but how
many, I wonder, realise just how enormous his talent span
was, apart from the novelties like Toy Trumpet and
In An Eighteenth Century Drawing Room. He wrote for
Hollywood, Broadway, and radio and had his own band that featured
(naturally) his own compositions as well as standards; in
all, dance music of the highest quality as well as an individual
brand of swing music.
He was born in Brooklyn N.Y. on 10 September 1910 into a
musical family as Harry Warnow with orchestral conductor Mark
Warnow as his elder brother. Harry originally intended to
be an electrical engineer (in later years he would become
one when he retired as a bandleader) but was basically more
interested in music. Changing his name to Raymond Scott to
avoid any suggestions of nepotism he was given a position
as a pianist under brother Mark Warnow on CBS radio.
Soon after, Scott began writing his (then) revolutionary
small group pieces for his CBS Quintet (all six of
them). Far from casual, these pieces with their novelty titles
were something new in…what? Was it jazz, dance music,
swing, popular classics….or just plain music? It was
popular for a while but invited comparison with the larger
swing bands, and once the novelty of the eccentric writing
and instrumentation wore off the lack of any rhythmic impulse
became evident.
In the late 1930’s the Scott Quintet went to Hollywood
to appear in such films as "Ali Baba Goes to Town",
"Love and Kisses", "Nothing Sacred", "Rebecca
of Sunnybrook Farm", "Happy Landing" etc. These
featured his own compositions like Toy Trumpet, Huckleberry
Duck, Twilight in Turkey, In An 18th Century Drawing
Room, Dinner Music for a Pack of Hungry Cannibals, War Dance
for Wooden Indians, Minuet in Jazz, and would you believe,
A Dedicatory Piece to the Crew and Passengers of the First
Experimental Rocket Express to the Moon. There were also
Reckless Night on Board an Ocean Liner, Toonerville Trolly
and others all published by Scott’s own Advanced
Music Company.
While in Hollywood his jaunty themes were adapted by Warner
Brothers MD Carl Stalling and Scott himself for their "Looney
Tunes" and "Merry Melodies" cartoons, but after
this he was into the big band scene with a 13-piece combination
including such jazzmen as Gordon Griffin, Hugo Winterhalter,
Bernie Leighton, Chubby Jackson, Jimmy Maxwell, Shelley Manne
and Art Ryerson, recording for Columbia, the band’s repertoire
including many new Scott compositions as well as augmented
versions of his best-known standards. It was successful and
toured extensively, but the best sidesmen were being called
up, so Scott was forced to return to the security of the CBS
studios. Here he led an all-star inter-racial band including
Ben Webster, Charlie Shavers, Les Elgart, Benny Morton, Johnny
Guarnieri, Tony Mottola, Cosy Cole… even Coleman Hawkins
sat in at times!
Scott’s two principal girl singers were (pre-war) Nan
Wynn who went to Hollywood to dub the voices for non-singing
actresses like Rita Hayworth, and a teenager, Dorothy Collins
(post-war). Mr & Mrs Scott semi-adopted Dorothy as a daughter,
then later she became the second Mrs Scott as well as his
permanent singer. Another aspect of this man’s talent
appeared in 1945/46 when he did Broadway scores for "Beggars
are Coming to Town" and the successful "Lute Song"
which ran for over a year and included a wonderful evergreen
in Mountain High, Valley Low.
After the war he formed another big band for touring and
his own radio programme. When his brother, Mark Warnow died
in 1949 Raymond Scott replaced him as a conductor of the "Lucky
Strike Hit Parade", where he and Dorothy stayed as resident
leader and singer for several years. At one stage Scott had
his own Audiovox record label then became MD for Everest Records
until his interest in electronics took over with the formation
of a new studio complex at his Long Island home where he functioned
as technical adviser for various record companies.
Eventually this became his sole occupation and in 1960, strangely
enough for one of his musical background he worked as a consultant
for Tamla Motown Records inter alia for the next seventeen
years, during which time he transferred all his activities
to California. Scott retired through ill-health and spent
the rest of his life in Van Nuys in California where he died
in 1994 after a series of strokes at almost the same time
as his divorced wife, Dorothy Collins.
© Copyright Arthur Jackson 2007.
This article first appeared in ‘Journal Into Melody’
September 2007
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