Cartoon Jazz Project

The Cartoon Jazz project was launched in 2003 at the Stanford Jazz Festival with the revival of charts from the great American composer, Raymond Scott. Jeff Sanford tracked down many charts of the famous composer, written for 13-piece bands in public archives and private collector libraries. Members of his band have since been contributing new arrangements of Scott's music as well as other jazz pieces which have been used in 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 for Warner Brothers and an avid admirer of Scott's music, used many of Scott's themes in the scores overlaying the cartoon movies of our childhood friends Bug's Bunny and Porky Pig. The first performance generated an immediate enthusiastic response.Since then Jeff Sanford's Cartoon Jazz band has become a cultural hallmark of the San Francisco bay area. The outstanding new CD is now available on CD Baby and digitally on many services including Napster, Apple i tunes and Rhapsody.

Place	City	Date
Jazz at Pearl's	San Francisco, CA	Mother's Day Sunday May 13, 2007
Old First Concerts	San Francisco, CA	Sunday June 11. 2006
Jazz at Pearl's	San Francisco, CA	April 7, 2006
Jazz at Pearl's	San Francisco, CA	January 1, 2005
ICAN gallery	San Francisco, CA	August 27, 2004
Freight & Salvage	Berkeley, CA	July 23, 2004
Jazz at Pearl's	San Francisco, CA	April 23 & 24, 2004
Freight & Salvage	Berkeley, CA	January 9, 2004
Stanford Jazz Festival	Palo Alto, CA	July 12, 2003

Hundreds of fans have subscribed to the mailing list. The band has performed in the major jazz venues of the San Francisco area, including Jazz at Pearl's in North Beach and the Freight and Salvage in Berkeley. The music has been played on KCSM, a major jazz station in the SF bay area, auspicious reviews were written in the San Francisco Chronicle and other newpapers, and Jeff Sanford has been a regular guest on the Basin Street Blues radio show with local favorite radio host and comedian Mal Sharpe.
Jeff Sanford Cartoon Jazz band rehearsal - photo by H. Baribault

The repertoire has expanded to include three hours of fun material. The most talented San Francisco musicians stick with the project because it's challenging, it's fun and it's good music. It's a work of love and this enthusiasm connects with the audience. People who hear the band live have a good time. There's good jazz blowing, not just novelty tricks. Few bands keep Scott's material alive. There is a good group in Amsterdam doing Scott's material and a sextet in NY, making the Sanford 13 piece group quite unique. Many of the cartoon music scores have unfortunately been destroyed. Consequently, many of the charts played by the group are original arrangements taken and expanded from recordings and lead sheets graciously provided by the Raymond Scott archives.