From: dave@stl.panasonic.COM (Dave LaDelfa)
Subject: Re: CARTOON MUSIC! HELP AND A CHALLENGE
Organization: /usr/lib/news/organization
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1993 23:23:27 GMT

In article <1993Jan7.010406.2023@Princeton.EDU> shari@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Shari L. Landes), shari@clarity.princeton.edu writes:
>A few weeks ago while turning the dial on my car radio, listening to
>bits of this and bits of that, I encountered a radio show where the
>guest was giving his opinion of the 10 best CD's of the year.  He
>proceeded to play a snippit of two cuts off one of his favorite 1992
>disks.  These cuts were originally made in the 1920's and 1930's and
>through the wonders of technology they were remastered for release in
>1992.  The music was upbeat, fast, jazzy.  Lot of clarinets.  Happy
>music.  CARTOON music.  I'm sure I recognized these tunes as
>background-type music for the 'toons, Warner Bros circa 1930-1940.
>I do know that one person was the originator and recorder of these tunes.
>However, I don't know who it was, don't know the name of the album, don't
>know the radio station where I heard this, don't know anything except that
>this disk was released in 1992 and it is fabulous.  I have visions of
>walking into my neighborhood record store and asking for, "you know,
>the cartoon CD."  I don't think that would work.  If anyone knows anything
>about this album or any pointers for me to try and locate it, it would be
>most appreciated and you'd win the CARTOON MUSIC challenge of 1993.
>
>Thanks--
>-- 

What you probably heard was something called "Reckless Nights and
Turkish Twilights," a disc of reissued recordings made in the late 
'30s by the Raymond Scott Quintette. Look in the jazz section of your
CD store under "Scott, Raymond." It's on Columbia, and there's a sticker
on the front that says "as heard on the Ren and Stimpy show," so you
might look in the soundtrack section too.

I bought this disc because I already had "The Raymond Scott Project" 
(Volume One) disc. This one (on the Stash label) consists of rehearsal
and radio-broadcast versions of most of the songs that the RSQ 
commercially recorded for the Brunswick label (i.e. the ones on the 
Columbia CD) as well as a few they never made commercial recordings of.
The Stash CD is about ten minutes longer than the Columbia one, and the
sound quality is, as far as I can tell, comparable -- that is, as good
as can be expected from 50-year old records. The Stash disc may be harder
to find; I prefer it to the Columbia issue, but that's just me. 

I originally hunted down and bought the Raymond Scott Project disc because
I saw him mentioned in the liner notes to the "Carl Stalling Project" CD.
This is bonefide WB cartoon music, whereas the Raymond Scott discs are the
quirky little jazz recordings that WB composer Stalling heard on the
radio and quoted into cultural immortality. If you ask for "the cartoon
CD" you'll probably end up holding this one. It's a fine disc, 
but it is, for my money, inexorably tied to the feeling that I'm watching
cartoons on a TV with no picture.

The Scott discs are less connotative; once I got past the novelty of
hearing the famous tunes from all those cartoons I began to appreciate
how incredibly inventive the writing and playing is and began to enjoy the
pieces on their own merits, rather than because it made me think of Bugs 
Bunny (or Ren & Stimpy). I've been playing these discs at work, at home,
and in the car increasingly often over the past few months, driving my 
co-workers and boyfriend nuts with the annoying little tunes that are
next-to-impossible to whistle convincingly yet manage to get wedged in 
your noggin and they won't go away.


-- 
Dave LaDelfa                            Speech Technology Laboratory
dave%stl-sb@uunet.uu.net                Santa Barbara, CA
dave@stl.panasonic.com			A Nice Place to Live