 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: paulwl
Date: 2004-01-19 23:17
Is anybody familiar with the Raymond Scott Quintet of the late 1930s and its clarinetist, the marvelous technician and jazzman Pete Pumiglio?
I've been using the Scott Quintets for tenor sax and (more recently) clarinet study, and I've become convinced Pete used both an A and Bb clarinet with the group.
Does anybody happen to know any inside information here? Thanks in advance...
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Author: Ralph Katz
Date: 2004-01-20 17:09
Don Byron re-recorded Raymond Scott's tunes on his "Bug Music" CD. He might know, but I haven't a clue how to contact him. Maybe through the record label...
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Author: Ralph Katz
Date: 2004-01-20 17:20
A brief web search returned the following:
Pete Pumiglio's recording dates were 1927-1962:
http://www.lordisco.com/musicians/P12.html
Here is a photo of him with Raymond Scott in 1937:
http://raymondscott.com/RSQ2.htm
And 1938:
http://raymondscott.com/Quintett.html
http://www.awn.com/mag/issue4.04/4.04pages/chusidscott.php3
Played clarinet and Alto with Arnold Johnson and His Orchestra:
http://www.jazzoracle.com/catalogue/BDW_8035.asp
California Ramblers (1925-1928):
http://www.timelessjazz.com/shop/product_info.php?products_id=96&language=en
http://www.redhotjazz.com/caramblers.html
The Charleston Chasers Vol.2:
http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/jazzitoria/chaser.htm
Annette Hanshow: Volume 5 (1928-1929):
http://www.jazzpromo.com/sections.php?op=viewarticle&artid=2
Played with Joe Venuti:
http://www.jazzbymail.com/albums_early/ya1062.html
http://www.redhotjazz.com/jvo.html
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Author: John Morton
Date: 2004-01-20 22:56
I am still getting a lift from remembering a concert here Jan. 9 which featured a 13 piece group playing Scott's music. Jeff Sanford has been rehearsing a couple of sets for about a year, but their only other gig has been the Stanford Jazz Festival last August. I believe his instrumentation (5 brass, 4 sax doubling clarinet, 4 rhythm) is one of the authentic units used by Scott in addition to the Quintet (which had 6 members). I asked Jeff where he had got the arrangements - he said he had found some original charts, some transcription by others, and did some himself. Those doublers had to be pretty quick ripping those clarinets on and off the pegs!
This is the show: http://www.thefreight.org/2004/january/info_09.html
Some other well known players of Scott music are the Beau Hunks in the Netherlands, who issued a fine recording several years ago.
I'd ask if anyone knows where you can get the Quintet arrangements, but then I think how hard it all looks!
John
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Author: paulwl
Date: 2004-01-21 00:48
Wow, John! I had no idea. (Despite being a friend-of-a-friend of Ray's publisher, Irwin Chusid.) I guess if it didn't happen in NY (where we are), it didn't happen!
I had an idea to do a set of Scott originals for a 10-piece group a few years back (as it happens we only did one at a concert). Wonder what tunes they played at the gig you mention.
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Author: Wes
Date: 2004-01-21 01:11
As I recall, I have a few of Scott's arrangements in my garage but haven't seen them for years. My recollection is that they were not so easy to play.
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Author: John Morton
Date: 2004-01-22 02:45
paulwl wrote:
> Wonder what tunes they played at the gig you mention.
The crude CD they were selling included these titles, all played at the show:
War Dance For Wooden Indians
A Hunting I Will Go (w/ vocal)
Toy Trumpet
Jungle Jazz
In an 18th Century Drawing Room
The Penguin
Dinner Music For a Pack of Hungry Cannibals
The Girl With the Light Blue Hair
Twilight In Turkey
Boy Scout In Switzerland
Huckleberry Duck
Siberian Sleighride
Minuet In Jazz
Powerhouse
The S.F. paper had a good profile of the band:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/01/04/LVG4S406J71.DTL
Jeff Sanford's email is sanfordjazz@aol.com He is very interested in other arrangements suitable for his group, including other non-Scott cartoon music.
John
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Author: paulwl
Date: 2004-01-24 16:44
Thanks John - I'll definitely look him up!
Back to strictly clarinet land: In every Scott Quintet picture I can get hold of, Pumiglio is playing an Albert!
Given the facility asked for by the Quintets - especially in the area of cross-pinkie work - it makes his execution all the more amazing.
(It also makes it more likely, IMO, that he doubled A and Bb, although none of the pictures show a second clarinet beside him.)
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Author: paulwl
Date: 2004-01-31 22:12
Further thoughts on the Pumiglio Imbroglio lead me to reconsider my "doubling" theory...
1) Anyone who's logged a few hours on Bb Alberts knows that certain passages in sharp keys can be a little easier on them than on Bb Boehms, thanks to the index finger B/F# and thumb F#/C# fingerings. The roller pinkies also facilitate some of the necessary pinky-hopping (or would if I could find a right hand position on my Conn Albert that sealed reliably and didn't cause chronic pain >:-( ).
2) A little web searching turned up an ad for a Selmer de luxe Albert from the late '20s, loaded with alternate keyings of positively Germanic complexity, including an automatic G# hookup to the left pinky C# key. This would have made it a snap for Pete to kick out the fast clarion G#-C#-D#-E sequence in the second strain of Raymond Scott's "Moment Musical" (which otherwise requires a frantic leap from G# to C# on either system).
Not to take a thing away from the virtuosity of Mr. P, but it seems he had a little help from his axe. I still wouldn't begrudge him having doubled on A in some of those arrangements, though. They're a bear...
Post Edited (2004-01-31 22:21)
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