29 Facts About Raymond Scott

Raymond Scott was born in Brooklyn, New York to Russian Jewish immigrants, Joseph and Sarah Warnow.

Raymond Scott's older brother, Mark Warnow, was a conductor, violinist, and musical director for the CBS radio program Your Hit Parade and encouraged his musical career.

Raymond Scott adopted the pseudonym "Raymond Scott" to spare his brother charges of nepotism when the orchestra began performing the pianist's idiosyncratic compositions.

Besides being a prominent figure in recording studios and on radio and concert stages, Raymond Scott wrote and was interviewed in DownBeat, Metronome, and Billboard.

Raymond Scott, who was a savvy sound engineer, recorded the band's rehearsals on discs and used the recordings as references to develop his compositions.

Raymond Scott reworked, re-sequenced, and deleted passages, and added themes from other discs to construct finished works.

Raymond Scott controlled the band's repertoire and style, but he rarely took piano solos, preferring to direct the band from the keyboard and leave solos and leads to his sidemen.

Raymond Scott had a penchant for adapting classical motifs in his compositions.

In 1939, Raymond Scott turned his Quintette into a big band.

In 1942, Raymond Scott relinquished his keyboard duties so he could concentrate on hiring, composing, arranging, and conducting.

Raymond Scott returned to the keyboard with some of his bands.

Raymond Scott composed and arranged music for the 1946 Broadway musical Lute Song starring Mary Martin and Yul Brynner.

In 1948, Raymond Scott formed a six-man "quintet" which served for several months as house band for the CBS radio program Herb Shriner Time.

When his brother Mark Warnow died in 1949, Raymond Scott succeeded him as orchestra leader on the CBS Radio show Your Hit Parade.

The high-profile position paid well, but Raymond Scott considered it strictly a "rent gig" and used his salary to finance his electronic music research out of the limelight.

Raymond Scott, who attended Brooklyn Technical High School, was an electronic music pioneer and adventurous sound engineer.

Raymond Scott developed some of the first devices capable of producing a series of electronic tones automatically in sequence.

Raymond Scott credited himself as the inventor of the polyphonic sequencer.

Raymond Scott began working on a machine he said could compose by artificial intelligence.

The Electronium, as Raymond Scott called it, with its array of knobs, buttons, and patch panels is considered the first self-composing synthesizer.

Some of Raymond Scott's projects were less complex but still ambitious.

Raymond Scott welcomed curious visitors to his lab, among them French electronic music pioneer Jean-Jacques Perrey in March 1960.

Raymond Scott continued to modify his inventions, adapting computers and primitive MIDI devices to his systems.

Raymond Scott's recordings were largely out of print, his electronic instruments were cobweb-collecting relics, and his royalty stream had slowed to a trickle.

In 1959, Raymond Scott organized a band of top-tier jazz session musicians and recorded an album entitled The Unexpected, credited to the Secret Seven, and released on the Top Rank label.

In 1943, Raymond Scott sold his music publishing to Warner Bros.

Raymond Scott's tunes have been licensed to The Simpsons, The Ren and Stimpy Show, Animaniacs, The Oblongs, Batfink, SpongeBob SquarePants, and Duckman.

The posthumously released Manhattan Research Inc showcases Raymond Scott's pioneering electronic works from the 1950s and 1960s on two CDs.

On February 8,1994, Raymond Scott died of pneumonia in North Hills, Los Angeles, California.