Exclusive: H. Jon Benjamin tries his hand at becoming a “jazz daredevil” on a surprise new LP
H. Jon Benjamin has done a lot of weird stuff in his career, from playing a talking can of vegetables in Wet Hot American Summer to voicing a talking head of cabbage for an episode of American Dad. His latest project, Well, I Should Have…, might be his weirdest yet. An intentionally bad jazz record that drops (surprise!) this Friday, Nov. 27 on Sub Pop, Well, I Should Have… finds Benjamin playing lead piano in a jazz ensemble—well, if banging around and being totally unable to carry a tune counts as “playing.” In the exclusive clip below, A.V. Club readers will see how Benjamin is attempting, in his words, to work “in the tradition of the great vanguard jazz artists like Miles Davis, Roach, Mingus, Monk, et al,” in an attempt to harness his powers as a self-described “jazz daredevil.” As he explains it,
“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. That’s a pretty cool analogy. More to the point, I do not play piano and I made this jazz album.”
Well, I Should Have… is available for pre-order now via Sub Pop’s website. The record was mixed by Mark Desimone, except for one track, which was mixed by Bob’s Burgers creator Loren Bouchard. The record also features guest appearances by Aziz Ansari and Kristen Schaal.