Explore what's on: Friday 10 September 2010

The Stu Brown Sextet celebrates the eyeballpopping, hyper-animated ‘cartoon jazz’ of Raymond Scott, ‘the man who made the cartoons swing.’

Though his name is largely unknown, Scott’s remarkable music will be familiar from its use in the Looney Tunes cartoons from the 1940s onwards and, more recently, in Ren and Stimpy and The Simpsons. His manic offbeat compositions lend themselves perfectly to the antics of Bugs, Daffy, Road Runner and their 21st century equivalents.

Glasgow-based drummer Stu Brown formed his sextet in 2008 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Raymond Scott’s birth and the group has performed to sell-out crowds across the country.

Each of their shows opens with a speciallycommissioned eight minute film by Scott’s son, Stan Warnow, featuring material from his documentary Deconstructing Dad: The Music, Machines and Mystery of Raymond Scott. As the film ends, Scott’s original recording fades and The Stu Brown Sextet takes over. The second half of the concert brings the music further forward with new arrangements and compositions by the band which explore the ground-breaking electronic aspects to Scott’s music-making.