H. Jon Benjamin made a jazz album. In case you’re missing why that’s awesome, Benjamin is the voice mastermind behind characters Bob from Bob’s Burgers and Sterling Archer from Archer.
And if you happen to be thinking, “gosh, didn’t know he was also a musician,” he’s not. At all. In fact, he even admitted in a mini-documentary (or more likely a mocumentary) that he’s not really even a fan of jazz music. That’s why he’d figured it’d be a hoot.
In the documentary Benjamin meets with his “mentor” Odean Pope who offers him very legitimate advice on striking out into the world of jazz.
“You want to be connected to the instrument and in order to connect with that instrument you have to give it some time,” Pope said.
When he asked Benjamin how often he practiced, Benjamin just stuttered.
At the end of the documentary Benjamin admitted the album probably wasn’t the greatest idea.
“I definitely achieved what I was going for,” Benjamin said. “In hindsight I don’t think it’s the best idea in the world.”
To anyone who appreciates the hilarity of Archer and Bob’s Burgers, it may not be the most appealing to the ear – Benjamin literally just crashes down into some piano keys with no regard to the noises they make – but the concept is hilarious.
And you can own a piece of that hilarity. The album, consisting of eight tracks, can be purchased for $10 or $16 depending on whether you order a digital copy or an LP.
The tracks consist of likely smash hits the likes of “I can’t play piano” parts one, two, three and four – the fourth of which has a parenthetical of “Trill baby Trill.” There’s also Soft Jazzercise.
The album cover shows Benjamin dressed kind of like Evel Knievel, complete with an American Flag helmet, sitting seriously behind a piano.
“I Should Have…* is the culmination of hours (almost 3) of conception with the goal to bring something, in the tradition of the great vanguard jazz artists like Miles Davis, Roach, Mingus, Monk, et al, close to pure spontaneity. Jazz is the ocean…I am just one wave forming one curl, crashing once onto some remote beach somewhere in time. And that wave makes a small imperceptible change in the slope of the sand, upon which at some point in time a baby turtle will walk across, leaving his trail for just an instant, before the tide washes it clean,” Benjamin wrote in the album’s description sounding deceivingly like his character Archer.
Benjamin refers to himself as the “Jazz Daredevil.”
It’s pretty funny, but don’t expect to be wowed by any sort of musical sensation.
