Finally, here is the first appearance on CD of
Raymond Scott's 1960 album
The Unexpected. This was
Scott's swansong to the small-group jazz format he'd helped pioneer in the mid-'30s, but anyone expecting to encounter an updated version of
Scott's echt-1937
Quintette will be in for a disappointment. All of
Scott's productions of the LP era, save
Soothing Sounds for Baby, are a mixed bag, and
The Unexpected is a project even some of
Scott's most dedicated admirers find arcane and impenetrable. Nonetheless,
The Unexpected is an extraordinary release in many ways, even for
Raymond Scott. There are the "secret" personnel to consider, not known to the public in
Scott's lifetime, and as his handwritten sheet identifying the group was somehow lost, it was once feared that the membership of "the Secret 7" would always remain a mystery. But an interview with jazz harmonica legend
Jean "Toots" Thielemans revealed the answer -- in addition to
Scott, vocalist
Dorothy Collins, and
Thielemans himself, the rest of the group was
Harry "Sweets" Edison, trumpet;
Kenny Burrell, guitar;
Sam "The Man" Taylor, tenor sax;
Wild Bill Davis, Hammond organ;
Eddie Costa, piano and vibes;
Milt Hinton, bass; and
Elvin Jones, drums. Many of these same players worked with
Scott on an album he'd produced in 1958 for singer
Gloria Lynne; both
Hinton and
Sam "The Man" had also joined
Scott for a number of other projects as well, including the ill-conceived
Rock & Roll Symphony.