Frankie & Doc: Playing It Forward

When John Ernesto approached me to write a script for a video on Frankie Scott and Robert “Doc” Mulligan, I was all in.

I had just finished bingeing Ken Burns’ documentary series on country music and could envision a miniature version of such a series.

“Call Morgan Freeman right away,” I deadpanned. “He can do the narration.”

“I think he might be busy,” Ernesto replied with a wink. “I’ll check.”

The project was attractive not only because it was something new for me to try, but also because it appealed to my love of history, music and education.

Unfortunately, my tech skills are seriously lacking, but I didn’t have to worry about that, because Mike Anderson, founder of Anderson Advertising (now the Anderson Group), had all the necessary talent and skills. Never mind that I had zero experience writing film scripts; I was ready for a new adventure.

The reason we found ourselves working on this mini doc was that Ernesto and Mike Eben, who chairs the getJazzed program, the educational component of Boscov’s Berks Jazz Fest, wanted the students coming in for the workshops and jam sessions to know more about Scott and Mulligan.

Scott, a legendary local jazz saxophonist for whom the Frank Scott Award is named, passed away in 1995, and Mulligan, a trombonist/pianist/arranger who was also a radiologist, is commemorated in the annual “Doc Mulligan Day.”

Until his death in 2021, Mulligan was involved in helping young jazz musicians learn the ropes as well as creating memorable arrangements for many bands. He was the first recipient of the Frank Scott Award, and he is being further commemorated with “Doc’s Place” in the DoubleTree amphitheater during the two-day getJazzed@berks Scholastic Festival during fest.

We wanted Frankie Scott and Doc Mulligan to be more than names to the new generation. Fortunately, we had nine people, including seven jazz musicians, who had vivid memories of working with Frankie and/or Doc, and they were willing to come to Mike Anderson’s recording studio to share those stories.

Anderson and I spent two long but delightful days interviewing vocalist Toni Lynne, bassist Bennie Sims, pianist Marty Mellinger, saxophonist/composer Chris Heslop, pianist Ray Mest, saxophonist/vocalist Erich Cawalla, Ernesto, Eben and former Berks Arts president Rev. Harry Serio. Their memories and anecdotes, which make up the heart of the film, are now available for jazz aficionados to enjoy for many years to come.

What became evident to me through those interviews was how we have a thriving community of jazz musicians here in Berks County who are part of the legacy of Frankie and Doc, and who in turn are constantly passing on that legacy to the younger artists coming on board the jazz train. That train has kept chugging away from the earliest days of ragtime and Dixieland through all the years of experimentation and evolution to the present, with older musicians sharing their knowledge by allowing younger ones to sit in. And that is exactly what happens during getJazzed events.

My job was to create a narrative for the movie, expertly spoken by Anderson. Luckily, I had interviewed Frankie Scott myself back in the 1980s, and had retained a transcript of the interview in one of my many notebooks. I retrieved it and used the quotes as part of the script, spoken by local musician Schuyler Deale, who didn’t know Frankie, but managed to capture his words in the right spirit.

I delved into some local history and surfed the internet to find information to supplement Frankie’s story. I found plenty of information about Doc since he passed away only recently. I created a narrative around the heart of the film, which was the interviews.

While I made suggestions about using Frankie’s CD, Never Too Old To Dream, and recordings of Doc’s arrangements for the score, and photographs (a la Ken Burns) to add visual interest, Anderson and his team, Zenisis Productions, did the yeoman’s job of collecting those elements and seamlessly inserting them into the narrative. Eben and Dave Stahl provided recordings of Doc’s arrangements.

What a pleasure it was to see the finished product, “Frankie & Doc: Playing It Forward,” which far surpassed what I had imagined.