jim henson

Composer / Bandleader
Raymond Scott expanded his famous Quintet into a full orchestra in 1939.

- (See my previous post on The Raymond Scott Quintet, and for more info and photos, click over to The Official Raymond Scott Website.)

By then he had been named music director for the CBS radio network.
The arrangements for his new orchestra moved away from the 'proto-bop' music his Quintet had been known for, favoring the Big Band Swing sound that was now popular.

After a period in the early forties of touring with the new band, he returned to CBS and brought aboard some new high-caliber musicians, including Ben Webster, Cozy Cole, Charlie Shavers and others.
Scott had broken new ground; His recruiting had made his the first racially integrated network studio orchestra.

This album collects a few musical selections from 'The Raymond Scott Show', a 15 minute daily (?) program that ran in 1944, originating at CBS in New York and rebroadcast over Armed Forces Radio.

These cuts are easily on a par with the better-known big bands of the era - - Some rollicking hot swing, and a few sweetly syrupy slowdance numbers, with vocals by Dorothy Collins* (soon to be the second Mrs. Scott) on a few tracks.

- Click on link for an oversized image of the LP's back cover liner notes in a new window.

From the LP -
'The Uncollected Raymond Scott And His Orchestra, Vol. 2 - 1944'
(Hindsight Records, 1985)

Listen to:

Two Way Stretch
Show Me The Way To Go Home
Mairzy Doats *
The Beard
Shoo-Shoo Baby
Pop Goes The Weasel
Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby *
The Lark Leaped In
Paper Doll
Look At You Looking At Me
Tain't Me *
A Lovely Way To Spend An Evening
I'll Be Around
Moccassin Glide

(click for audio)

- - OR download all 14 tracks in one 38 Mb zipfile.









































(ADDENDUM, 10/31/07: ⬆ Added December, 1944 Metronome magazine cover image and 'about the cover' inset.)