This Weekend: Cool Silent Movie Events On Both Coasts!

In NOT sunny California this Saturday, Angelica's and Montuno Productions present the swinging sounds of Jeff Sanford’s Cartoon Jazz Septet, accompanying a program of silent movies selected by your correspondent, Paul F. Etcheverry (co-founder of the KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival), as well as entertainment by the internationally celebrated sleight of hand artist and illusionist Patrick Martin.



The intrepid septet shall tackle the wonderfully original and challenging music of Raymond Scott, Jelly Roll Morton and the John Kirby Sextet's Charlie Shavers (1917-1971), as well as new compositions by Lenny Carlson, the composer-in-residence for both the Cartoon Jazz Septet and the Orchestra.



Mr. Carlson has composed more than 30 original pieces for the Cartoon Jazz Septet and Orchestra in a variety of styles, combining classical and jazz elements with klezmer, folk and other international sounds.



The Date: Saturday January 17, 2017
Showtime: 8:30 p.m.
The Place: Angelica's, 863 Main Street, Redwood City, CA
To see Jeff Sanford's Cartoon Jazz Septet, cool vintage films, plus a magic and comedy performance by Patrick Martin, click here to purchase Advance Tickets



For more info, see:
Angelica's website
Cartoon Jazz Orchestra official website
Cartoon Jazz Orchestra Facebook page




In New York, starting on Friday the 13th, historians Steve Massa, Dave Kehr and Ben Model shall be kicking off their latest series about silent film comedy, Cruel and Usual Comedy: Astonishing Shorts from the Slapstick Era.



The New Yorker write the 15 program silent comedy retrospective up in an entry from their Goings On About Town section, Silent Films Comedic Soul. The program notes for all shows in the MoMA series are available via the Cruel & Unusual Comedy podcast. Maybe will see a preview of things to come in Steve's next book about silent film comediennes.

In addition, Tommy Jose Stathes of Cartoons On Film is initiating a new film series that will hold forth at House Of Wax Bar in City Point Building, 445 Albee Square West in Brooklyn. East Coast animation mavens: stay tooned!

Back in the Bay Area, the following week will include the opening of the NOIR CITY Film Festival at San Francisco's Castro Theatre - this blogger's favorite film fest that he's not personally involved in producing - and some terrific programs at the newly expanded Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum.