Comedian Jon Benjamin Unveils Jazz Album for Sub Pop

BY Josiah HughesPublished Nov 23, 2015

From Dr. Katz to Archer to Bob's Burgers, comedian H. Jon Benjamin has lent his impressively smooth vocals to a wide variety of cult classic cartoons. With pipes as soothing as his, it's a little surprising he hasn't released a comedy album yet — or at least until now.

Well, sort of, anyway.... The new Jon Benjamin album sees him taking on the persona of "Jazz Daredevil" on a release called I Should Have...(the asterisk points to the phrase "learned how to play the piano").

It's an entire album that sees Benjamin performing piano alongside a bunch of top-notch jazz players, but there are two catches — he doesn't know how to play the piano, and he doesn't even like jazz.

"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," Jon Benjamin said in a press release. "That's a pretty cool analogy. More to the point, I do not play piano and I made this jazz album."

I Should Have... arrives on November 27 via Sub Pop, who reiterate that it's a very real album that'll arrive as a digital download and LP.

Below, you'll find a video about the album's creation (courtesy of the A.V. Club), along with some songs from the LP. The first is a sketch that also features Kristen Schaal and Aziz Ansari, and the second two are actual jazz tracks. It's amazing how well Benjamin's shitty piano playing works with the music. 

I Should Have...

1. Deal With the Devil
2. I Can't Play Piano, Pt. 1
3. I Can't Play Piano, Pt. 2
4. It Had to Be You
5. Soft Jazzercise
6. I Can't Play Piano, Pt. 3
7. I Can't Play Piano, Pt. 4 (Trill Baby Trill)
8. Amy's Song (The Bum Steer)



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