The Raymond Scott Project, Volume 1: Powerhouse

Did you ever wonder what early jazz hipsters that probably cut their teeth on everything from Bartok to Beiderbecke would come up with in the world between the Great Depression and Nagasaki? Spike Jones must have been there along with Louis Jordan and Charlie Parker listening to this cartoon soundtrack collection.. Music in between the lines for sure.. Wow

Do you like CD transfers from scratchy 78's and 45's? Do you like incomplete live performances?Then this CD is for you. I dare you to listen to more than 10 tracks. Ray Scott's music is great but you can't hear the nuances of it over the poor audio quality.

Another review for this "Raymond Scott Project" CD claims that the sound is unacceptable, only suitable for people who like to listen to "scratchy 78's and 45's". Well, the bad news for that person is that the Raymond Scott Quintette recorded its body of work from 1936 to 1939, before high fidelity magnetic tape existed in commercial recording studios. If you want to experience Scott's original recordings, you are going to have to put up with the audio quality common to 30s/40s recordings.The good news for this CD is that these recordings actually sound great as compared to how they were mastered later for the 2-CD "Microphone Music" album. Here, there is no attempt to remove 100% of the "hiss" or "scratchiness" that goes with the territory. When you do this (trying to make old recordings sound "modern"), you end up with a muffled-sounding piece of crud...the sizzle of the cymbals, the wail of the clarinet, all that high-frequency information gets tossed in the garbage. "Microphone Music" isn't the worst offender on this count, and it includes much music that isn't here, but unfortunately, if you care about sound, you'll need both, because Microphone Music is a bit disappointing in the sound department.As for the complaint that these are "incomplete live performances", take that with a grain of salt as well. This CD has a mix of radio transcription recordings done with no audience and recordings done with an audience. None of them sound like remote-location "airchecks" (which are often lower-fidelity recordings for numerous technical reasons). These recordings were mostly made for broadcast and some include announcer intros. They don't randomly end in the middle of a performance--I'm not sure what the other reviewer's "incomplete" comment was about.This CD is basically a treasure trove for Scott fans who already know and love the commercial studio recordings on "Reckless Nights and Turkish Twilights". If you don't already have that CD, it's the place to start (either the 1992 or the 1999 editions are fine). This CD has at least 20 performances that are duplicated on "Microphone Music", but I think there are a couple of things here that you can't get anywhere else currently.

songs you cant find anywhere else

If you grew up watching Warner Brothers cartoons (Loony Tunes, Merrie Melodies, etc), you will have heard the music of Raymond Scott. This CD is notable in that it contains a lot of Scott's music that is very hard to find on disc. Admittedly, the quality of the recordings is often sub-par (hence four stars instead of five), but it's not like you can easily find the tracks on disc elsewhere.The biggest draw of this CD is the title track, "Powerhouse." It's a piece in three sections conveying a hectic, fast-paced mechanical / industrial feeling, with the first and third sections being nearly identical, but the middle part . . . oh, the middle part! You will instantly recognise the middle part of "Powerhouse" as the iconic staccato, jazzy, brass-centric tune that plays over footage of a Rube Goldberg / Heath Robinson-style cartoon machine in action.Other fun bits of trivia: Scott's band included famed trumpet player Bunny Berigan, and drummer Johnny Williams, whose son John went on to write music for some little sci-fi project called "Star Wars," and a few other things like that.So, while this CD is by no means perfect, I feel it is unique and important for both jazz and cartoon fans alike, and therefore highly recommended.