You’re Funny, But Can You Swing? 

My wife and I often enjoy seeking out comedy clubs in different cities when we are on vacation.  This got me thinking about what comedy and jazz might have in common.  On the surface, one might think that they have nothing to do with each other.  In fact, their paths share many things, from skill set to conception to presentation.   

 

A Shared History

In its relatively brief 100-plus year history, jazz has evolved from a musical style that fused European classical elements with American blues, marches, and cakewalks.  It has developed through the permutations of early New Orleans-style polyphony to swing, bebop, hard bop, soul jazz, fusion, and beyond into its current polyglot manifestations combining everything from electronic elements to indigenous folk musics.

With a much longer history spanning millennia, comedy as a performing art has also evolved, from its early associations with dramatic productions to the stand-up tradition to sitcoms, sketch comedy, and improv nights.  Throughout this evolution, comedians have cast a broader and broader net in search of influences and source material, from pop culture to high art to social customs and more.

So, what does this have to do with jazz?  Comedy and jazz share a tradition of expanding their focus to include greater stylistic variety.  This comes in the form of referencing other types of performance art (theater, television, film, dance, mime, etc.).  

Jazz groups such as the Art Ensemble of Chicago and the Sun Ra Arkestra incorporated costumes, make up, props, choreography, and yes, even comedy, into their performances, changing the framework from concerts to true multi-media performance art happenings.

 

It’s All in The Presentation

Another shared element of comedy and jazz was the way in which it was presented.  From very early in its inception, jazz artists performed in theaters and concert halls alongside comedians.   The early 1910s and 1920s saw jazz acts playing vaudeville halls on the same bills as comedians. 

This tradition carried over from the 1930s to the 1950s in places such as the famous Apollo Theater in Harlem and Akron’s Palace Theater, where comedians such as Chuck & Chuckles, Pigmeat Markham, and Billy Mitchell would open shows for jazz artists such as Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holliday, Carmen McRae and the Duke Ellington Orchestra.

 

Further similarities in how jazz and comedy were presented exist.  In addition to concert halls, theaters, and festivals, both jazz artists and comedians regularly performed in nightclubs, typically where alcohol was served.   Both are art forms honed after dark, in the late hours. 

In the 1920s, New York’s Cotton Club played host to jazz acts like the orchestras of Chick Webb and Duke Ellington while providing a start to the careers of comedians Moms Mabley and Butterbeans & Susie.

https://www.biography.com/actors/moms-mabley

Fast-forward a few decades, and by the 1950s we start to see the emergence of edgier standup comics such as Woody Allen*, Bill Cosby*, and Lenny Bruce*, who began to shift the conventions of comedy from a string of one-liners to more conversational, story-based bits that openly flaunted such previously taboo subjects as politics, religion, and psychiatry.  Some comics, like Stan Freberg and Steve Allen started to use jazz colloquialisms in their acts.

https://jazzhistoryonline.com/jazz-and-standup-comedy/

One took his appreciation for jazz one step further.  Comedian Mort Sahl regularly attended concerts by Stan Kenton, Dave Brubeck, and other West Coast jazz artists.  He then hosted a pilot TV show that featured Brubeck.

 

Jazz & Comedy in the Television Era

This leads us to another realm in which the histories of jazz and comedy converged.  With the advent of television and its rising popularity in the 1950s, we start to see variety programs such as the Ed Sullivan Show and The Tonight Show (featuring comedian Steve Allen, and later Johnny Carson) which presented an assortment of acts that included both comics and jazz artists.

By the 1970s, we would see shows like Midnight Special presenting up-and-coming comedian George Carlin on the same episode as jazz fusion stalwarts Return To Forever.

 

A Fan of Influence

Another proponent of both jazz and comedy was Hugh Hefner*, founder and publisher of Playboy magazine.  For the first Playboy Jazz Festival, held in Chicago in 1959, Hefner chose Mort Sahl as the master of ceremonies. 

https://qz.com/500004/how-hugh-hefners-love-of-jazz-shaped-playboys-complicated-iconic-legacy

Hefner continued his support of both comedians and jazz artists in his other enterprises as well.  His variety/talk show, Playboy’s Penthouse premiered on  24 October 1959 and ran in syndication for two seasons.  The Season Two opener included amongst its guests comic Jack E. Leonard, jazz singer Anita O’Day, and jazz promoter George Wein.

In February 1960, Hefner opened the Playboy Club in Chicago, Illinois with comedian Dick Gregory, musical director (and Chicago jazz pianist) Sam Distefano, and a young 17-year-old singer named Aretha Franklin as featured performers.  This was the first in a chain of nightclubs and resorts that would present both jazz entertainers and comedians over the next 4 decades.   These would include artists such as Frank Sinatra, Nat “King” Cole, Tony Bennett, Joan Rivers, and Bill Cosby, among many, many others.

 

Jazz & Comedy in the 60’s and 70’s and Beyond

By the later 1960s and 1970s, we start to see emerging comics opening for established jazz groups, such as George Carlin opening for the Modern Jazz Quartet in Toronto.   Similarly, a young and up-and-coming comic named Jay Leno would open for the Miles Davis Quintet at Lennie’s On The Turnpike. 

And speaking of Miles, Davis was such a fan of a young comic named Richard Pryor that before a 1968 show at the Village Gate in New York City,  Miles decided to change the order of events.  Instead of Pryor opening for Miles, Miles opted to open for Pryor.  (Interestingly, Pryor had previously opened for jazz singer Nina Simone).  This began a longstanding, on-again/off-again friendship between Pryor and Davis.  

https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/richard-pryor-friendship-miles-davis/#:~:text=In%201968%2C%20Pryor%20was%20set,the%20likes%20of%20Nina%20Simone.

 

You’re Funny, But Can You Swing?

 Up until now, we’ve been examining comedians and jazz musicians as separate people.  However, further crossover exists in their histories as musicians flex their comedy muscles and comedians hone their jazz chops.  

Trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie was legendary for his sense of humor, regularly playing pranks on and offstage on his fellow bandmates and joking with the audience in his introductions.  Similarly, composer and pianist Fats Waller was renowned for his wit and exuberance. 

Writer Dan Morgenstern describes him here:

The peak of Waller’s achievements came after 1934 in a series of recordings on the Victor label, made with a versatile combo billed as “Fats Waller and His Rhythm.” In this context he found full expression for his remarkable comic talents, interpreting his own songs with infectious wit and a strong dose of satire.

 

Morgenstern sheds further light on the subject of jazz and comedy here:

A ripe sense of humor is indigenous in jazz. It’s a music quick to enlist whatever barbs can best deflate pomposity and artificiality. But jazz has not always been rich in humorists, though one can point to a few in any given period. Those in the postwar era include Dizzy Gillespie, Clark Terry, James Moody, Jon Hendricks, Jaki Byard, Lester Bowie, Willem Breuker, the Jazz Passengers, and Waller’s druggy disciple, Harry “The Hipster” Gibson. Humor was more extensive in the ’20s and ’30s, when Prohibition, the Depression, and the insularity of a new and predominantly black music conspired to create an undercurrent of protective irreverence. Accustomed to a place on the outside looking in, jazz took pleasure in skewering anything that made the mainstream feel safe and smug. It was a time when Fats Waller could count on a laugh by interrupting a particularly suave solo with the rumination, “Hmm, I wonder what the poor people are doing tonight.”

https://jazzprofiles.blogspot.com/2015/05/thomas-fats-waller-1904-1943.html

Further crossover exists amongst jazz artists and comedians.  Of note, actor/comedian/composer Dudley Moore was an accomplished jazz pianist, developing a fondness for the genre in his days as a student at Oxford University.

 

The Craft of Comedy & Jazz

Perhaps the most apparent point where comedy and jazz intersect is in their skill sets.  Both realms require patience, determination, and a ready familiarity with their respective histories.  These are not unique to jazz or comedy, of course, but the ways in which they help to shape a performer are. 

Success in (standup) comedy and in jazz is often measured by the same criterion: timing.  Both realms require the skills to respond in real-time, in the moment, to one’s surroundings; to be able to react with appropriate material for the situation. 

Comedy and jazz are both ephemeral art forms.  Both call for the ability to make a statement in a limited time frame, with a special emphasis on, and deep understanding of, rhythm and phrasing.

Both comedy (particularly standup comedy) and jazz ultimately require one to develop a personal style that sets one apart from one’s peers.  The development of this personal style may take many years.  It usually involves intense study of previous artists, hours of focused practice, a process of trial-and-error (open mics for comics; jam sessions for jazzers), and as many performance opportunities as possible.

 

Some Final Thoughts

Both comedy and jazz have rich legacies of performers who have become iconic figures in popular culture.   I’m thinking here of comics like the aforementioned Richard Pryor, Lenny Bruce, and George Carlin as well as musicians such as Miles Davis, Billie Holiday, and Duke Ellington.

Further similarities exist in the worlds of comedy and jazz.  Both have histories dotted with tragic figures who died way too young, such as comedians John Belushi and Gilda Radner, and countless jazz artists, from Charlie Parker to Billie Holiday to Chet Baker, and many more.

Both comedians and jazz artists share itinerant lifestyles, often traveling hundreds of miles between shows in seemingly endless strings of one-nighters.

In the modern era, their paths have perhaps diverged a bit.  In 2024, we have festivals that are devoted solely to jazz and solely to comedy.  Similarly, we have designated comedy clubs and jazz clubs.  On TV, gone are the variety shows of the Ed Sullivan-era.  Today’s talk shows may still feature comedians, but seldom, if ever, jazz artists.

However, there are still glimpses of crossover appeal.  Lincoln Center hosts a “Jokes & Jazz” series. 

There are a handful of clubs that present both jazz and comedy, chief among them is House of Comedy & Jazz in Lanham, MD.  Other clubs exist as well that present both, including Bozeman, Montana’s club Last Best Comedy.

 

The house bands on the late night talk shows (typically hosted by and featuring comedians) like “The Late Show” and “The Tonight Show,”  often include musicians who are at least familiar with jazz and/or have a background in its study and performance. 

 

Perhaps future alliances between jazz and comedy will present themselves.

 

*Note: The author recognizes the controversy surrounding some of the people referenced in this essay, including Mr. Cosby, Mr. Allen, and Mr. Hefner.  Their inclusion in this article is strictly for historical reasons, and should not be construed as the author’s approval, either implied or explicitly stated, of their lifestyle or off-stage behavior.