Jazz Emu

Jazz Emu

Jazz Emu is a London-based comedy and funk project. The act centres on a performer who develops an interest in saxophone from a young age, beginning with a second-hand instrument and later moving to a clarinet after being told his hands are too small for the saxophone. After several years of classical training, he returns to the saxophone and begins making his own recordings.

Early home recordings are made late at night on a BOSS BR900-CD recorder, with synth parts and saxophone passages recorded quietly because of noise restrictions. The project later expands with the use of an Akai EWI-4000S and a visual style built around suits and a stage persona. Jazz Emu presents itself as an experiment in mixing high-art references with low-art comedy, combining elaborate, lyrically dense writing with funk-oriented music.

The act’s influences include Bill Withers’ Use Me, which prompts a decisive turn toward syncopated groove-based music. Jazz Emu’s description also places the project in a deliberately absurd literary frame, comparing it to performing a Shakespearean sonnet over The Sims loading music or reading Homer’s Iliad off a toilet roll.