Guitarist Gary Lucas is set to present a multimedia performance featuring 1930s cartoon tunes on Saturday, March 5, 2016 at the American Film Institute’s AFI Silver Theatre in Silver Spring, Maryland. The event includes a 6-piece ensemble direct from New York City, Broadway vocalist Sarah Stiles and screenings of Max Fleischer cartoons (Betty Boop, Popeye).
Max Fleischer, the creator of such iconic cartoons as Betty Boop, Popeye, Olive Oyl, and Bluto, was one of the United States’ top cartoonists, his New York-based Studios in the early 20th Century rivaled only by Walt Disney’s on the West Coast. The music that accompanied his cartoons in the 1930s reflected New York/urban popular music of the time: a rowdy, high-speed jumble of Harlem jungle jazz (Louis Armstrong and Cab Calloway), Yiddish music hall, Tin Pan Alley and Broadway show tunes, and Klezmer.
Gary Lucas’ Fleischerei restores this music and will perform it live at the AFI with a 6 piece acoustic ensemble, composed of some of New York’s finest jazz musicians: Joe Fiedler on trombone and ensemble arrangements; Jeff Lederer on woodwinds; Rob Garcia on drums; Rob Jost on bass; and vocalist Sarah Stiles, who captures the spirited delivery of 1930s actress Mae Questel.
The March 5th performance by Gary Lucas’ Fleischerei celebrates the album Music from Max Fleischer Cartoons, to be released February 22, 2016 on Cuneiform Records.
Gary Lucas’ Fleischerei featuring Sarah Stiles – The Music Goes Round and Round:
Saturday, March 5, 2016
AFI Silver Theatre
8633 Colesville Road
Silver Spring MD
8:30 pm
Tickets: $25
www.wjff.org/films/fleischerei/
Author: World Music Central News Room
World music news from the editors at World Music Central
