Reckless Nights And Turkish Twilights : The Music Of Raymond Scott

Though few people have ever heard the name Raymond Scott, almost everyone knows his music. In the 1940s the musical director of Warner Brothers Studios, a man named Carl Stalling, began using adaptations of Scott's wildly inventive compositions to season Looney Toons and Merrie Melodies animated shorts. Many of Scott's pieces, therefore, such as "Powerhouse" and "New Year's Eve In A Haunted House", immediately bring to mind visions of Bugs and Daffy. To relegate this man's brilliant work to mere "cartoon music" however, is gravely unjust.
Using the jazz quintet and traditional swing music as a springboard, Scott's aesthetic is complex, intense, whimsical and utterly original. Employing accelerated metres, radical juxtaposition and collage elements, heavy percussion (including xylophones, bells, whistles and chimes) and startling dynamic and phrasing techniques, Scott's group sound like nothing that came before or has come since. The real appeal of this work, though, is that while it deconstructs, warps and electrifies traditional jazz, it remains immanently accessible. RECKLESS NIGHTS is the perfect introduction to the challenging and charming work of this oft-overlooked artist.|