Raymond Scott's Secret 7 "The Unexpected"

The music of Raymond Scott is always full of surprises and thanks to Basta, who released the 1960 Secret 7 tapes found in the Marr Sound Archive, the place where Raymond's private archive is to be found, we can hear it on CD.

Everbody who is familiar with Scott's music knows he was a remarkable writer of (film) music. His music is always full of humor and thanks to Gert Jan Blom and Basta records his music is available again on numerous albums.

I don't know how to categorize the music I write. I guess all I can say in terms of definition is that I write Raymond Scott.

This Secret 7 music was found on a binaural tape in Scott's private archive and was restored in Amsterdam. Scott says about this music that he wrote it because it's fun to write music, there are no holds barred and anything liable's to happen. As he continues he says that he can be himself in this music, leaving the period of the Quintette behind.

There were for me some surprises in this music. First of all it surprised me that some tunes made me think of the music of André Popp, the French composer who made his sound experiences around the same period. The practice using different speeds in recording gives the vocal part in Scott's The Cow Jumped Over The Moon and The Dish Ran Away With The Spoon a kind of bizarre effect as if a choir of aliens are performing. It is as if Popp composes again (although they were in fact contemporaries).

The other suprise is the presence of Toots Thielemans. He recorded, as he told, several times with Scott in the early 1960s and could identify the other eight ( ! ) musicians. The cover doesn't indicate what musicans were present (Jazz listeners should recognize the identity of most of the performers ) and the website that might give the answer doesn't open. ( so mind, the link don't work !! )

Has someone identified the other musicians?