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The name Raymond Scott may not be familiar to everyone outside of the music industry or live animation, but chances are more than good that anybody reading this review has been touched by his work.
Now, with the release of the documentary film Deconstructing Dad by his son Stan Warnow, more people than ever will become acquainted with his life, his music, his inventions and his incredible legacy, as they rightfully should. And while it's a beautifully-produced testament to the legacy of an extremely brilliant musician and innovator, the more harsh reality is that Scott was in truth a very, very sad man who probably considered himself an abject failure on all counts.
After graduating from Juilliard in 1931 under his given name of Harry Warnow, Scott soon began a career as a musician with the CBS Radio House Band. Following his creation of the Raymond Scott Quintette in '37, his attempts at reworking or resequencing jazz as we know it gave way to his compositions for animations, later adapted by composer Carl Stallings for hundreds of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies animated flicks. Later, he composed and arranged for the 1946 Broadway musical Lute Song, starring Mary Martin and Yul Brynner. But it was around this time that his education at Brooklyn Technical High School caught up with him and he established Manhattan Research, for the purpose of designing and manufacturing electronic music systems and devices, among them the Clavivox and the Electronium. He also, in 1964, was the composer of such pieces as "Soothing Sounds for Baby" (an easy precursor to the work of Phillip Glass). It scarcely seems possible that this much genius was crammed into a single brain. But this film captures it all in glorious detail, featuring interviews with such fixtures of modern music as Devo founder Mark Mothersbaugh, Wayne Barker, Skip Heller and Hal Willner, not to mention a section where Scott is interviewed by son Alex some years before his death in 1994. Also of note is Scott's later marriage to singing star Dorothy Collins. It all adds up to a ninety-eight-minute viewing experience that at times finds one awestruck and at others utterly angst-ridden. Which, after all, is what any documentary worth its salt is supposed to do.
At the time of this writing, Deconstructing Dad has played in over twenty-five film festivals worldwide and has amassed numerous awards, including Best Documentary Feature at the Atlantic City Cinefest and the Director's Choice Gold Medal Award for Excellence in Film at the Park City Film Music Festival. It's a safe bet that, pending eligibility, a much-deserved Oscar nomination is just around the corner. By all means, SEE THIS FILM!!
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