• DECONSTRUCTING DAD •

Adam’s at it again!   Adam O’Callaghan, that is, who staged a massive Raymond Scott centennial celebration a couple of years ago in Montreal.  He’s now organized a two-night event at the historic Rialto Theatre (Canadian spelling!) in downtown Montreal.

This will be a unique multimedia event at the beautiful Rialto, with the Montreal premiere of my film, and I’ll be doing a Q&A after the film both nights.

Rialto Theatre

Adam’s “Le Nouveau Raymond Scott Quintette” will perform some of Raymond Scott’s most famous chamber jazz compositions from the late-1930s.

Otis Fodder of The Bran Flakes, currently commissioned for the creation of a Raymond Scott remix album, will play Scott themed music into the night.

Really looking forward to being back in one of my favorite cities and working with Adam.  Here’s a link to the Facebook Event Page

West Point Quintette 7 Band

I had a marvelous experience at the US Military Academy at West Point this past Sunday.  Attended a performance of Raymond Scott music by the Quintette 7, all members of the West Point Band–which is composed of full-time, professionally trained musicians of the highest caliber.  Members of the band became interested in Raymond Scott a while ago and have just completed a new CD of Scott’s music.  Here’s a link to their webpage: http://www.usma.edu/band/quintette7.htm.

CD cover

The quality of the performance was absolutely first rate–which really wasn’t a surprise as these  exceptionally talented musicians all attended prestigious academic institutions,  including Juilliard, Raymond Scott’s alma mater.

The band members were gracious hosts and invited me to give a brief talk and Q&A, and I showed the 3 minute trailer for the film.  It was just a great afternoon and a striking example to me of how eclectic Raymond Scott’s music can be–a year ago if I had been asked if I thought I’d ever hear my Dad’s music at the US Military Academy, the answer would have to have been “no way!”  So thanks again to Quintette 7 for inviting me and all their hard work in bringing my father’s music to life in this unique location.

Also, they’ll be performing Raymond Scott selections again at the full band’s holiday concert on December 5th in Eisenhower Hall at West Point.  This performance is free and open to the public–so if you’re located in the New York area you might want to attend–you’ll need to bring government issued ID to get on to the campus.  Here’s a link:  http://www.usma.edu/band/Performances/performanceindex.htm.  Hope to see you there!

From L to R: Stan Warnow, film poster, Festival Programmer extrordinaire Scott Parejo

Finally have a few minutes for a report from Carmel Art and Film Festival–it was a lovely few days in that beautiful part of the world, had a really good screening and QA.  On a personal note two of my three sons were able to attend as they live in the Bay Area, and this was the first time they had seen the film with an audience and seen me as a filmmaker answering questions at a screening, so that was kind of cool.  Met some local filmmakers and saw some good films, and got to enjoy some beautiful weather and scenery.  So thanks again to festival programmer Scott Parejo,  and everyone else on the festival staff for a great time in Carmel.

And for those of you in the UK,  next up is the event in Manchester, England

Click Above for Event Website

on November 7th.  Here’s a link to the website, http://www.snipsnapmusic.com/deconstructing-dad.  I’ll be posting with more detail soon, but it’s shaping up as a very special event–conceived and executed by Manchester’s multi talented DJ, designer and principle of Snip-Snap music JON KRAUS.  The whole thing is dedicated to Raymond Scott, there will be music performances, DJ’s and more….quite amazing!  And I will be in Manchester for the event.  Really looking forward to it….

One of the things I like best about my Dad’s career and accomplishments is that it can they can be of interest to so many different what I call constituencies–and one of those constituencies is composed of jazz fans–and they are being served this weekend by the inclusion of the film at the Miami Jazz Film Festival–an annual event sponsored by jazz radio station WDNA in Miami.  The screening is Saturday October 2nd at 5 pm at the Tower Theater: 1508 SW 8 Street. As some readers of this post will know, Raymond Scott’s early music may have sounded like jazz but technically wasn’t because it didn’t include improvisation during performance.  What they might not know is that he did allow his musicians in his “Quintette” to improvise while the band was working up a piece, and once he heard something he liked he then wanted them to play it that way every time–so the music does often spring from improvised elements.  Additionally, later groups, particularly the CBS Raymond Scott Big Band from the mid 1940’s, were legit jazz bands, that CBS group, which included jazz greats like Ben Webster and Cozy Cole, did feature some improvisation–legend has it that Ben Webster made improvisation a key condition if he was going to join up, and he was such a big name that my Dad agreed, and he then had to allow other players to improv.  The film does include a sequence about that group, which also was truly groundbreaking and historical as the first integrated network radio band, something my father had to push through against real resistance from the CBS execs.  Of course all this is covered in more detail in the film, so if you’re in the Miami area hope you can make it over to the Tower theater at 5pm this Saturday!  I’d love to be there, but due to conflicting commitments it just wasn’t possible to make it happen.