Raymond Scott's Powerhouse performed by harmonica quintet sextet

Raymond Scott music is always good, but it's taken to another level entirely when performed by five six dapper gents with harmonicas. (Via Filled With Chocolate Pudding)

• [Anonymous]

  I count six there :P

  Awesome though :D

• [jtegnell]

  Just shows that being a pretty girl isn’t always a necessary condition for having Mark link to your music!

  But seriously, Raymond Scott’s music is teh awesome.

  A Scott cover band I can’t recommend highly enough is the Raymond Scott Orchestrette, assembled together by none other than Irwin Chisud of WFMU Incorrect Music fame. It’s a real tragedy this group will likely never release more than the one CD.

• [Phikus]

  I love how they pan over to the “orchestra” afterword, just for the “ta daa!” coda.

• [Merlin Silk]

  The sixth man in the quintet reminded me of the forth book in Douglas Adam’s Hitchhikers Trilogy ;-)

• [bugmaker]

  Nothing beats The Harmonicats!

• [PaulR]

  For the folks who weren’t aware that they were listening to Raymond Scott’s music when they were watching those old B&W cartoons by Warner Brothers, you can start here:
  Dinner Music for a Pack of Hungry Cannibals
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-C46Ugqfx98

  Some of the related videos link to more pieces by Scott.

• [prufrock68]

  Hee hee–love the clever little tag at the end. Raymond Scott’s music is great–wildly creative and fun.

• [Jasonclock]

  I’ve wasted my life.

• [wormbaby]

  @#6 It’s a 48 chord harmonica. All the big players suzuki,horner make them. But they almost always cost over a thousand dollars!

• [kpkpkp]

  I think an accordion is in order here!

• [haineux]

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7XmGiYBCBQ&fmt=18

  From the Jack Paar show, Jerry Murad’s Harmonicats shredding two of the most difficult pieces of their reperetoire:
  • • A slightly simplified version of Chopin’s Fantasie-Impromptu,

  and then just to push things completely over the top:

  • • Kabelevsky’s The Galloping Comedians

• [Anonymous]

  I wonder if this was Pynchon’s inspiration for the Chums of Chance Harmonica Band tangent in Against the Day.

• [Anonymous]

  If five of them are considered dapper, what’s wrong with the sixth one? Is the fellow with the larger harp ‘bragging’, and therefore not dapper, perhaps?

• [Anonymous]

  I haven’t seen these guys in over 40 years. THANKS!!!

• [Anonymous]

  Raymond Scott vinyl discovery!

  http://www.strangeco.com/Retail_item.php?id=1927&cat=61

• [Anonymous]

  #2: Oh, was that Jerry Murad’s Harmonicats? I’ve heard recordings, and I’ve seen stills, but I wasn’t sure.

  #5: Harmonica is part of the same family of German (or German-influenced) free reed instruments as some kinds of button accordion and the Anglo-German Concertina. Harmonica reed construction (a single reed plate) is similar to that of accordions. So, yes, the overtones are similar; one of the largest differences (outside of the obvious one of mouth versus bellows-and-valves) is that harmonicas are designed so the pitch can be bent by over-blowing them; most other members of the family don’t allow that.

• [orwellian]

  My God(ot)! I’ve had that song bouncing around in my head for almost forty years! I am going to find/buy/steal everything that genius made.

  I am a happy mutant!

• [coaxial]

  Whoa. Bass harmonicas. This is the most mind blowing (yet, not entirely surprising) discovery since I saw a pack a of *racing* (i.e. “modified for racing”) unicycles. (Yes, the unicycles were racing as well.)