Summer on the Square: Cartoon Jazz (Palo Alto)

Submitted by the Event Organizer

Summer is back, and so is our Sunday afternoon live music series!

It’s family-friendly, it’s fun, it’s free (or pay-what-you-wish)!

“Summer on the Square” occurs every other week, outdoors at the Oshman Family JCC’s Town Square. Come schmooze with old friends, make new friends, bring a picnic, enjoy delicious food from our cafe*, or purchase light refreshments, beer and wine at the pop-up bar. Your kids will enjoy playing on the Oasis Playground while you groove to the sounds of summer.

Registration is preferred but not required. This event is open to the public and everyone is welcome!

Our second “Summer on the Square” features Cartoon Jazz.

The Cartoon Jazz project, led by Jeff Sanford, was launched in 2003 at the Stanford Jazz Festival with the revival of charts from the great American composer Raymond Scott. Sanford tracked down many of the charts written for sextet and 13-piece bands in public archives and private collections. Members of his bands have since written new arrangements and new compositions of jazz used in and out of cartoons.

Raymond Scott never intended to write for cartoons. His frantic rhythms were emulating the fast and energetic sounds of the New York City lifestyle. Carl Stalling, then music director at Warner Brothers and an avid admirer of Scott’s music, used many of Scott’s themes in the cartoons of our childhood friends Bugs Bunny and Porky Pig.

Since their first performance in 2003 Jeff Sanford’s Cartoon Jazz Orchestra has become a cultural hallmark of the San Francisco Bay Area. The group is far more than just a ‘cartoon music band,’ with an ever-growing library of new pieces by composer Lenny Carlson. Sanford and his Cartoon Jazz Orchestra are nostalgic and current at the same time. They are in the middle of a new recording project which includes a piece by Carl Johnson who has been writing Disney cartoon music for years.

Presented by The Oshman Family JCC

Disclaimer: Please double check event information with the event organizer as events can be canceled, details can change after they are added to our calendar, and errors do occur.