The CartoonJazz Orchestra, led by multi-reed man and educator Jeff Sanford, covers the gamut of cartoon-inspired jazz, playing music by such innovative composers as Raymond Scott, John Kirby, and Danny Elfman. If you’ve ever watched Saturday morning television, if the name Bugs Bunny rings a bell, or Ren and Stimpy, or Homer Simpson, you know these zany, wildly colored compositions with their catchy melodies and hair-raising rhythmic shifts – they’re embedded in your subconscious, etched into your TV DNA.

Inspired in part by Don Byron’s brilliant album, Bug Music, Jeff launched the CartoonJazz project at the Stanford Jazz Festival in 2003 after hunting through public archives and private collector libraries and tracking down many of the charts that Raymond Scott composed for his bands in the 1930s and ’40s. The first performance was so successful that Jeff continued the project, with members of the band contributing new arrangements and expanding the repertoire.

Tonight’s orchestra will feature Rolf Johnson, Eric Wayne, and John Worley on trumpets, Tony Davids, John Hunt, and Rick Walsh on trombones, Fil Lorenz, Dick Mathias, Doug Rowan, Hal Richards, and Jeff on woodwinds, and a rhythm section of Don Bennett, Randy Johnson, Andy Ostwald, Mark Rosengarden, and Benny Watson.

For a night of merrie melodies and looney tunes, catch the CartoonJazz Orchestra at the Freight.

Visit the CartoonJazz Orchestra's website

Listen to a track from CartoonJazz Orchestra: