By Jim Santella

The Full title of this recent release is Bug Music (Music of the Raymond Scott Quintette, John Kirby & his Orchestra, and The Duke Ellington Orchestra). Byron transcribed the music, put it before a stellar orchestra, and named his album, Bug Music, after his favorite episode of The Flintstones, where the Beatles are included in that particular segment titled "Bug Music With Them Four Insects." Television is a large part of our daily lives, and cartoons have influenced several generations; so the music of Scott, Kirby, and early Ellington has been with us through those Warner Bros. cartoons without our complete awareness of from whence the music came.

Raymond Scott's music was classically-influenced: "Siberian Sleighride" includes the imagery of horses and sleigh bells, "Powerhouse" is a fast bumblebee-like piece with Rimsky-Korsakov characteristics, "The Penguin" flows like an ice skater, and "The Quintet Plays Carmen" brings us excerpts from that familiar Bizet opera with all of its familiar overtones. Byron quotes "La Habanera," one of the most oft-quoted pieces in all of jazz. Supporting Byron through all of this are tenor saxophonist Robert DeBellis, alto saxophonist Steve Wilson, trumpeters Charles Lewis & Steve Bernstein, pianist Uri Caine, drummers Billy Hart and Joey Baron, and bassist Kenny Davis. Most of the tracks feature these instrumentalists in varied sextets; one piece is a duo, two are large ensembles. Other members of Byron's cast are banjoist Paul Meyers, guitarist David Gilmore, trumpeter James Zollar, trombonist Craig Harris, drummer Pheeroan akLaff and vocalist Dean Bowman.

Duke Ellington's earlier years are represented by big band numbers "Cotton Club Stomp" and "The Dicty Glide," Billy Strayhorn's "Snibor," and a piano-clarinet duo of "Blue Bubbles." For the most part, the tunes are brisk, entertaining, and rhythmic; "Cotton Club Stomp," with its deep baritone sax anchor, pyramid trumpets, and C-melody saxophone effect, evoke memories of some of those earliest black & white cartoons that featured simple 2-dimensional characters bouncing up and down to the rhythmic beat.

John Kirby's "chamber jazz" music, performed most often by a sextet, was spread over the radio airwaves around 1940 and gained widespread popularity. Members of his stellar ensemble included trumpeters Charlie Shavers & Frankie Newton, clarinetists Russell Procope & Buster Bailey, and Kirby's wife, singer Maxine Sullivan. Several of the pieces representing Kirby's "chamber jazz" sextets are Charlie Shaver's "Wandering Where," with its muted trumpet and walking bass, "Charley's Prelude," and "Bounce Of The Sugar Plum Fairies," with its light approach to Tchaikovsky's famous work.

Although the music isn't performed as cleanly as that of a symphony orchestra or a studio orchestra, the mood is certainly captured, and the imagery intended is quite successful. Recommended.