Currently alternating between stand-up comedy videos, Turner Classic Movies, guitar geek rock and the jaw-dropping January 6 hearings, we still find ourselves frequently thinking of great music from classic cartoons - beginning with maestro Carl W. Stalling.
Chuck Jones elaborates on Carl Stalling's contributions to Warner Brothers cartoons.
Do we have a single favorite musical composition to ever appear in a cartoon? Well, there may be a 25-way tie, but, without a doubt, atop the list would be Raymond Scott's "The Toy Trumpet."
Paramount among the outstanding interpreters of Raymond Scott's mellifluous compositions: Jeff Sanford's Cartoon Jazz Septet.
And, when it comes to cartoon music, we love how Jeff Sanford's band swings The Flintstones theme song!
Then there's Scott Bradley of MGM cartoon fame. We thank "Soundtrack Fred" for the following compilation.
Wish I could have attended this splendid concert of Scott Bradley's music by BBC Proms.
One could do a lot worse than to spend their summer vacation at Royal Albert Hall enjoying daily Henry Wood Promenade Concerts Presented by the BBC.
Another group we'd LOVE to see that rocks the Rocky The Flying Squirrel music: San Diego's outstanding Hillcrest Wind Ensemble.
And then there's the great Darrell Calker, prolific composer for both animated cartoons and live-action features.
When Calker's music was not just background, but featured prominently in the cartoons he scored for Walter Lantz and Screen Gems - a la Stalling and Bradley - it could be quite wonderful, 1940's style.
His scores are a driving force in the Lantz Studio's Swing Symphonies and Musical Miniatures.
Calker's scores are especially noteworthy in the Walter Lantz "Cartunes" directed by Shamus Culhane and Dick Lundy.
The following Swing Symphony features trombonist, vocalist and frequent Louis Armstrong bandmate Jack Teagarden, who always sounds great.
Speaking yet again of the Cartoon Research website, am right now reading an excellent article about the themes from Paramount cartoons, Famous (Cartoon) Music - prompting this writer to admit his unabashed fondness for the Paramount Noveltoons theme song.
Sometimes, this cartoonologist grudgingly likes the Noveltoons - well, at least through the 1945-1946 season or the departure of gonzo animator Jim Tyer for Terrytoons, whichever came first - but feel the series boasts the second cartooniest of ultra-cartoony opening themes.
One post-1946 Noveltoon with a Winston Sharples score that belongs in the toon music discussion is Hep Cat Symphony (1949). It's a cross between "cat chases mouse" and the "cartoon concert" sub-genre, best exemplified by Disney's The Band Concert and Symphony Hour, Bugs Bunny in Rhapsody Rabbit and Tom & Jerry in The Cat Concerto.
It's an understatement that the very tight production schedules at Famous Studios were less than conducive to good comedy, so Hep Cat Symphony is among those rare cases when talented storymen Carl Meyer and Jack Mercer get an opportunity to break formula and write clever and funny gags.
In closing, here is a delightfully incoherent cartoon from the series featuring the cartooniest opening theme song, bar none: the dreaded Columbia Phantasies. It makes NO SENSE, even by 1940's cartoon standards - and that's why the gang at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog likes it!
2 comments:
What a thrill to hear Scott Bradley's "Tom and Jerry" music performed by a live symphony orchestra! (Cleaned-up soundtrack recordings aren't bad, either: "Down Beat Bear" alone is worth the price of the Scott Bradley Tom and Jerry 1950s CD.) If only someone would pay Winston Sharples, whose music was often the best part of the below-par Famous Studios cartoons, a similar tribute. Unfortunately, "cartoon music," such an integral part of the overall effect, is held in no higher regard than the cartoons themselves, though it certainly is to those of us who taped it off TV in those long-ago pre-VCR days. I still have a number of those cassettes which I listen to in the car or use for my go-to-sleep music. (No, they don't make me go to sleep in the car.)
HCB, you've got me wondering whether Scott Bradley was responsible for the scores for the two (the only) Milt Gross "Count Screwloose" MGM cartoons. I'll soon be receiving the Rainbow Parade Blu-ray collection, which is chock full of very good Winston Sharples scores. Of his Famous Studios cartoons, "Rocket To Mars" has a particularly wonderful score. The Modern Madcaps have some terrific Sharples music as well.
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