• DECONSTRUCTING DAD •

As promised, here I am writing shortly after my last post, with great news! Yesterday, I was notified that the film has been awarded a substantial grant from The Foundation for Jewish Culture’s Lynn and Jules Kroll Fund for Jewish Documentary Film.   Receiving this call and learning the news was a thrilling moment for me,  and I’m deeply grateful to the foundation.  This grant is awarded to filmmakers with projects that the grantors feel will expand the understanding of Jewish experiences, and of course that’s an important aspect of the Raymond Scott story.   The documentary film program at the foundation was originally started with a lead grant from Steven Spielberg’s Righteous Persons Foundation.   I am tremendously excited to have received this grant; it’s a great motivation to keep on keepin’ on.  For more info on foundation go to  http://www.jewishculture.org, that’s their home page, and then there’s a link specifically to the documentary film section with a list of this years awards.   And by the way, if you’ve been thinking about donating, don’t think the film now doesn’t need your money! This grant is a big help, but there’s still lots of expenses ahead, so now is a good time to jump on board….

As always, I’m playing catch up–never enough time in my day/week/month to do all I should be, so it’s been quite awhile since I’ve posted.  Editing is proceeding and I now have quite a lot put together, but still aways to go, and some addtional shooting to do as well.  One exciting recent development was the trailer being chosen as a Staff Favorite at Vimeo.com, and lots more people have seen it and linked to it as a result.  I’ve also gotten some really nice contributions since that event–thanks to all who have helped out, it means so much to me. 

And Raymond Scott performance events continue internationally.  If you’re in Europe check out Stu Brown’s Raymond Scott Project–these guys just perfromed at the Edinburgh Jazz festival and are doing great versions of Quintette Tunes at other gigs in Great Britain this sumer.  Their show also features some excerpts from my film: http://www.myspace.com/raymondscottproject.

And Saturday afternoon July 5, Adam O’Callaghan, who staged the fabulous Raymond Scott tribute in Montreal last March, is performing with his “quintet” at the Montreal Jazz Fest .  Here’s a link to the overall festival: http://www.montrealjazzfest.com/Fijm2008/splash.aspx, and to the page for their performance: http://www.montrealjazzfest.com/Fijm2008/programmation/fiche_en.aspxshowId=503.   

Then Don Byron, who has championed Raymond Scott music for many years ago and recorded several Quintette tunes on his Bug Music album, has been performing Raymond Scott music again live lately.  Here’s a link to his site: http://www.donbyron.com/index.html. 

I’ve made a resolution to post more frequently in the future, so stay tuned!

Monreal Raymond Scott Centennial Celebration

I was in Montreal last week to attend a Raymond Scott Centennial concert/celebration at Concordia University in Montreal. The driving force behind this stellar event was Adam O’Callaghan, a student at the university.  He devoted himself nonstop for the last several months to making this concert happen, and it was an amazing event. There were five different performance groups, Quintette, Big Band and Secret Seven (a Raymond Scott recording only group from the late 50s) ensembles, and two groups of electronic musicians, plus dancers and multimedia audio visual support. Adam, who is a multi-instrumentalist, played sax in all three traditional instrument groups.  It was an inspiring and unforgettable evening for all who were there—and some footage that I shot there will probably end up in the film or elsewhere. A huge thanks to Adam for making this happen.

Along with the Raymond Scott brain trust of Irwin Chusid, Jeff Winner and Gert-Jan Blom, I spent last week in Kansas City, MO at the Marr Archives at the University of Missouri Kansas City Miller Nichols Library.  This is the location of thousands of hours of Raymond Scott recordings—he recorded virtually everything  so there are rehearsal recordings, air checks, interviews, phone conversations and of course commercial releases.  Also, in the Special Collections at the Library are thousands of Raymond Scott documents, schematics for the musical inventions and personal and professional still photos.  The whole experience was fascinating!  I shot a lot of material there and am now beginning to integrate it into the rough cut of the film. 

Somewhat ironically, this idea for this film was born only after Raymond Scott died.  Before his death I never realized the depth of my feelings for my father–we hadn’t ever been all that close,  and I didn’t really spend a lot of time with him even before my parents’ divorce which happened when I was about 9 years old

But after his death in 1994,  I became determined to tell his story  in a documentary film.  He had died in obscurity and that bothered me.  I knew his accomplishments were just too important to have public awareness of them practically disappear, and throughout my life I had always felt I never really knew my father well.  In part, this film is an attempt to finally get to know the father who was always somewhere else. 

I’ve been working on it on and off since the summer of 2000, as my work schedule and other obligations allowed.  This film is very much a labor of love, and to date has been entirely self financed, with some recent help from family members.

I started shooting in DVCAM and more recently have been working in HDV.  I’ve done a fair amount of shooting already, but still have a lot more to do.  I’ll be posting on this page as I continue to move forward with plans to  finish the film by September 2008, the centennial month of my father’s birthday.  Check back for updates…