This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Business News Media
Jazz FM launches new jazz-themed comedy show
By Chris Cooke | Published on Wednesday 13 October 2021
After Bauer-owned radio station Absolute launched its first scripted comedy series last month, another Bauer outlet has also announced a new comedy programme. Fronted by Marcus Brigstocke, ‘The Cabinet Of Jazz’ is Jazz FM’s first ever comedy show. Nice.
The spiel for the new programme is as follows: “Based on the real-life run for president in 1964 by Grammy-winning jazz titan Dizzy Gillespie, the series will see self-confessed jazz nerd and occasional Jazz FM host, comedian Marcus Brigstocke, ask a famous jazz fan or musician to suggest their cabinet of jazz musicians as they become US president for the week”.
The show has been recorded in front of a live audience at the Pizza Express Jazz Clubs in Soho and Holborn, and features guests like comedians Isy Suttie and Stewart Lee, and musicians Zara MacFarlane and Julian Joseph. The first episode this Sunday will feature journalist Jay Rayner.
Commenting on the show, Brigstocke says: “This is so much fun to make and to listen to. The guests/appointed presidents have all surprised me; not only with their choices for cabinet positions but with the well-argued and funny cases they make for each selection. The aim was always to give the listener a show that makes them laugh and then dash off to hear more music from these excellent artists and I really believe we’ve achieved that”.
Meanwhile, Jazz FM’s Content Director Nick Pitts – who devised the series – adds: “This idea has been rattling around in my head for more than ten years and it is brilliant that we have been able to turn it into reality. Marcus is the perfect host and [the show] really allows him to bring his real inner geek to the surface and talk jazz with fellow nerds to much hilarity. The audiences have been brilliant, very interactive, and it makes a great listen that adds to our arsenal of ever-growing creative ways to talk about jazz music”.
Like Absolute’s ‘Rockanory’ series, ‘The Cabinet Of Jazz’ has received support from the Audio Content Fund, a UK government backed programme that provides funding to independent production companies so they can make “distinctive, public service radio content for broadcast on commercial and community radio”. The Jazz FM programme is produced by Loftus Media.
