photo by: Courtesy of Mark Sheldon

The Queen's Cartoonists, who will be coming to the Lied Center on Sept. 21, 2024, incorporate a variety of classic and modern cartoons in their jazz concerts.

While the cartoons bring the imagined to the screen, the Queen’s Cartoonists bring the soundtrack to the stage.

The six-member jazz band, which will perform at the Lied Center later this month, plays in synchronization with classic and contemporary animated films, throwing in penny whistles and other sound effects to accompany what’s happening on screen.

“We’re sort of looking for that intersection between the music and the video,” said Queen’s Cartoonists composer and pianist Joel Pierson, who formed the band.

The Queen’s Cartoonists, whose members all reside in Queens, New York, got its start in 2015. The group plays pieces from jazz-age composers such as Raymond Scott, Carl Stalling and Duke Ellington, classical giants such as Mozart, Rossini and Strauss, as well as the band’s own compositions, according to the Lied Center program. The group has opened for the New York Philharmonic and is the only artist in the 40-plus-year history of the Blue Note Jazz Club in New York City to sell out multiple all-age shows.

In addition to the cinematic and the musical components of the concert, there are elements of theater as well. Noisemakers and props are used to bring the animation to life, such as an alarm clock that is wound and goes off in sync with a clock featured in a Betty Boop cartoon. Pierson, who described the format as a “variety show concert,” also shares comedic anecdotes about the cartoons and the composers.

Pierson said the idea for the group was inspired by his interest in the golden age of jazz and animation, and particularly the overlap between the two art forms. He said that like those who made Bugs Bunny cartoons that parodied the work of classical composers such as Richard Wagner, the band seeks to celebrate the music and have fun with it at the same time.

“The composers that were working on the films were both honoring that music and also kind of being very cheeky about it, and we’re trying to continue that tradition,” he said. “So even when we’re doing contemporary films, we’re looking for things that have music that’s both serious but can also be playful.”

The two-hour show includes about 15 to 17 films and accompanying pieces that typically run five to eight minutes. The films themselves span more than 100 years of animation, with contemporary animations including international films from Argentina and South Korea. Pierson said he picks the contemporary films for a variety of reasons, perhaps for their beauty or their humor, but always with the emotional flow of the concert in mind. Despite the draw of the classic animation, he said the contemporary films seem to have particular resonance with audiences.

“People will often come because they say, ‘Oh yeah, I love Daffy Duck,’ or whatever but then when they leave, they really say their favorite moments were the more contemporary films,” Pierson said.

Though he hopes the show recognizes the contemporary work while reflecting on and acknowledging the history of American jazz and animation, the show might just as well be summed up by another goal — to entertain. Pierson hopes the unique format of the concert will draw a broad crowd, including young people. He said while it’s not a children’s show, children are welcome and the band loves to see families in the audience. In the end, he said it’s about getting people out for a concert.

“A lot of people are stuck in habits of staying home and watching Netflix all the time and not always engaging in the theater like we’d like,” Pierson said. “This is a real chance to sit your butt in a seat and get a whole bunch of crazy stuff thrown at you over two hours — and it’s stimulating and hopefully funny and not too serious, but every once in a while a little serious.”

The Queen’s Cartoonists will perform at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 21, at the Lied Center, 1600 Stewart Drive. Adult tickets are $25 and student/youth tickets are $10. More information is available on the Lied Center’s website, lied.ku.edu.