E05 Jazz and Comedy

A lot of people probably don’t think of jazz as something that’s all that funny, but there’s more than one way to get a laugh out of all things jazz that’s guaranteed to make you smile. We’ll talk with stand-up comic Jeff Cesario about how his former life as a jazz musician helps make him a better comedian, bring in our jazz historian Lewis Porter to talk about jazz’s vaudeville roots and how jazz lost its sense of humor in the 1950s, and take a look at jazz prankster Dizzy Gillespie and other jazz stories that’ll leave you smiling.

 

Episode Transcript

 

Host: Jeff Haas

Guests: Jeff Cesario, Lewis Porter

 

Music

• Bob Crosby “Big Noise from Winnetka”
• Cab Calloway “Twee-Twee-Tweet”
• Slim Gaillard “Potato Chips”
• George M. Cohan “You Won't Do Any Business if You Haven't Got a Band” 
• Josephine Baker “C’est lui”
• Ma Rainey “Oh Papa Blues”
• Bessie Smith “Sobbin’ Hearted Blues”
• Louis Armstrong “Cake Walking Babies from Home”
• Clarence Williams “Squeeze Me”
• Lester Young “On the Sunny Side of the Street”
• Dizzy Gillespie “Dizzy Atmosphere”
• Dizzy Gillespie “Salt Peanuts”
• Dizzy Gillespie “Oop Bop Sh' Bam”
• Dizzy Gillespie “Umbrella Man”
• Carla Bley “Old MacDonald Had a Farm”
• Louis Armstrong “Heebee Jeebies”
• Charles Mingus “Spur of the Moment”
• Fats Waller “Your Feet’s Too Big”
• Thelonious Monk “Bemsha Swing”
• Count Basie “Splanky”
• Cab Calloway “Everybody Eats When They Come to My House”
• Louis Armstrong “Cheesecake”

 

Original Air Date: August 6, 2012

 

Radio broadcast produced by Lou Blouin and Interlochen Public Radio

Radio broadcast audio engineering by Jack Conners and Brock Mormon

Podcast produced by Sam Boase-Miller and Erik Saras

Podcast audio remastering by Sam Boase-Miller

Transcripts and show notes by Erik Saras

 

Theme Song: Jeff Haas Trio & Friends “Giving In”

 

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The New Jazz Archive radio broadcasts originally sponsored by Chateau Chantal. The New Jazz Archive receives no revenue from podcast reissues of radio broadcasts.