This Monday, Just Plain Jazz tackles the serious subject of Humor in jazz. I'll be wearing my jester's cap -a modified fez- for two straight (?) hours as we investigate the lighter side. Funny sounds, amusing lyrics, wry juxtapositions - if not laugh-out-loud, it'll at least coax a smile or two out of you. Good humor can be contagious and yet it's also claimed that it makes you healthier! Go figure...

Q: Why is jazz like comic books?

A: Well, they're both totally American art forms (with roots and antecedents in other cultures, of course) that have been embraced/expanded/modified globally, but I was thinking along different lines. I think it was Harvey Pekar who pointed out that comic books are words and pictures; you can tell any story with words and pictures! Jazz, at root, is about improvisation; you can express any human feeling through improvisation!

Q: I don't like comic books and I don't like jazz.

A: That's not a question, but I'll try to answer your statement. My guess (my earnest hope) is that you've only been exposed to very limited, probably very standardized and cliched examples. If someone's only experience with comic books is seeing the movie Daredevil, or once having read an issue of Jimmy Olsen: Superman's Best Friend, then I can go on and on about how wonderful Tintin is or Art Spiegelman's Maus ("But...but it won a Pulitzer!") and it's not going to change your mind. Likewise, if your only exposure to jazz is When the Saints Go Marchin' In or Time-Life saluting the Big Band Era, well, I'm not going to be able to convince you there's an awful lot more to jazz than just that with just words. Now, I don't have a comic book store, but I do have 2 hours a week on KRUU.

Q: So, no When the Saints Go Marchin' In?

A: Oh, you've got to hear Albert Ayler's version this Monday!