Record Roulette: Well I Should Have…*
This week’s record roulette is 2015’s Well, I Should Have…* (*Learned to Play Piano) by comedian and self-proclaimed “Jazz Daredevil,” H. Jon Benjamin. You might be familiar with Benjamin’s work on Bob’s Burgers, but this album is an entirely new endeavor for him.
This album could be considered experimental jazz, but I would call it comedy gold. The first track, “Deal With the Devil,” reveals the project’s premise- Benjamin wanted to record a jazz album, but he can’t play piano, nor does he like jazz very much.
Benjamin was joined by incredibly talented jazz musicians Scott Kreitzer, David Finck, and Jonathan Peretz; while he simultaneously fumbled around the piano in an attempt to match the band’s tempo. In an interview with NPR, he said, “I'm not sure they realized what they were doing until we got there. And then they were mad. But not mad enough to stop altogether. So they went through with it, and they were great.”
The project was released by Sub Pop, along with a companion video following the creation of Well, I Should Have…*.
The kicker is that it’s not bad. In a technical sense, no, it’s not good, but if you weren’t paying attention, you would think it was a regular jazz record. I wouldn’t bat an eye if they played this in a Panera Bread or a hotel lobby.
There are four tracks titled “I Can't Play Piano,” coupled with an interlude of “Soft Jazzercise” and a raunchy funk track, “Amy’s Song (The Bum Steer),” to close it out. This is an album for when you need a good laugh and is best enjoyed with a friend (or three).
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music, or SoundCloud