We promise you'll get whacked over the head with a crowbar by at least one wascally wabbit or attitudinal duck (metaphorically speaking) when Jeff Sanford's 13-piece jazz band brings the music of Raymond Scott to the Freight stage.

Inextricably etched in the subconscious of anyone who ever watched Saturday morning cartoons, Scott's zany, wildly colored compositions have appeared on numerous animated TV programs since 1943, from Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies to Ren and Stimpy and the Simpsons. Born in Brooklyn in 1908, Raymond Scott was a pianist, composer, and electronic music pioneer who rose to prominence during the 1930s Swing Era as bandleader of the quirky, six-piece Raymond Scott Quintette. Immensely popular on radio, the concert stage, and film, the Quintette was devoted to playing Scott's eccentric, genre-hopping pieces, full of catchy melodies and hair-raising rhythmic shifts.

Ironically enough, Scott never intended his music for cartoons -- he was merely advancing the frontiers of pop music in his own peculiarly visionary way. Led by highly regarded jazz musician and educator Jeff Sanford, tonight some of the Bay Area's finest players lead us through a program of exhilarating, hauntingly familiar pieces including "Powerhouse," "Huckleberry Duck," and "Dinner Music for a Pack of Hungry Cannibals."