Interview: Bryce Edwards Brings the FRIVOLITY HOUR Back to Birdland

Skilled multi-instrumentalist and nouveau-vaudevillian vocalist Bryce Edwards will return to Birdland Jazz Club with his critically acclaimed show, “The Bryce Edwards Frivolity Hour.” The “old-at-heart” troubadour channels his passion into reviving some of that long lost intangible quality of the Jazz Age and igniting interest in an all too often overlooked era of music that, despite being a century old, still bubbles with humor, beauty, and often a defiant youthful energy.

Edwards brings his singular verve and sensibility to songs made famous by artists such as Cliff Edwards, Rudy Vallée, Eddie Cantor, and more. Vocally, Edwards takes cues from the very first crooners from the dawn of electric recording as well as the bombastic voices of the acoustic phonograph era. He accompanies himself on a myriad of instruments, including banjo, ukulele, tenor guitar, and mandolin, many of them period-appropriate antiques. In between musical numbers, he enthusiastically delivers snappy dialogue and witty banter, providing a timeless night of entertainment and fun. Joined by extraordinary jazzmen Scott Ricketts (cornet), Ricky Alexander (clarinet, alto saxophone), Conal Fowkes (piano), and Jay Rattman (bass saxophone), Edwards brings his delightfully idiosyncratic and eccentric performance style back to The Birdland Jazz Club’s main stage.

Read our conversation about the upcoming show and Edwards’ other projects below.

What have you been keeping busy with lately?
Well, it’s been a while since The Bryce Edwards Frivolity Hour has graced the Birdland stage, but this hiatus doesn’t mean I’ve been at home twiddling my thumbs. The project that’s demanded most of my attention lately has been a Western radio drama series called The Town With No Name, which I was hired to compose some musical numbers for. I also voice a character on the show, which was great because sometimes I forget that I have an acting degree from Baldwin Wallace. The series is scheduled to be released as a podcast this fall, and will feature seven Western swing, folk Americana, and ragtime-type numbers with words and music by yours truly. I also got to lead and record with a stellar five piece “saloon band,” which was a real treat.

I also returned to Ayun Halliday’s “Necromancers of the Public Domain,” a series that revives dusty, esoteric tomes from the shelves of The New York Society Library, bringing them back to life and transposing them across new and out-there artistic media and expression in the form of irreverent and often strangely moving variety shows. This latest installment had me writing and performing a tune inspired by The Broadway Racketeers, a book about con artists in the 1920s, which was right up my alley. Fabulous fun, indeed, necromancing, but I digress. This latest radio drama series was the first time I’ve been hired to do a major composition project. Needless to say, I’m very proud of how it turned out—but that’s not all! Another cool thing I’ve been doing is performing with a new improv troupe called The Wayfaring Strangers, which does fully improvised bluegrass musicals! I’ve been their mandolin player since late February and it’s a really wild, weird project, helmed by the brilliant Greg Kotis (Urinetown’s book and lyricist) and the equally extraordinary playwright and performer, Ayun Halliday. I’ve known them both for a while and admire them greatly, so to collaborate with them is an honor. Of course, though, I haven’t been in yeehaw mode all year, I’ve continued to play as a sideman with various traditional jazz bands, including The Rivertown Vintage Jazz Band, Buck and a Quarter, and Drew Nugent’s Midnight Society. 

What are you most looking forward to about your next installation of the Bryce Edwards Frivolity Hour at Birdland?
Well, every time I get to do this show it really is an event for me. The Frivolity Hour is a real passion project, and I never expected the amount of success it’s had because once you get down to brass tacks it’s basically just me sharing songs that I love and geeking out over old music. However, what makes this really special is having the opportunity to play these tunes with a band that really gets it. We have Scott Ricketts on cornet, Conal Fowkes on piano, Ricky Alexander on clarinet and alto saxophone, and Jay Rattman on bass saxophone. These guys are some of the best traditional jazz musicians in New York and I feel honored to be playing with them. This show is particularly exciting to me though because we’ve got about 80% new material (or, rather, century-old material that’s new to the show). We’ve got a couple of standards in the mix but a lot of the show are tunes you don’t hear so often. And on top of that I’m very happy with the arrangements. They’re VERY cool and I’m excited to debut them!

What draws you to the music of the early half of the 20th century?
To me there’s this kind of intangible quality to the music specifically of the 1920s and early 30s that has always resonated with me ever since I was really young. I heard a lot of songs from the early 20th century growing up from my grandfather, who loved singers like Bing Crosby, Ruth Etting and Al Jolson and music by folks like George M. Cohan, Cole Porter, and Rogers and Hart. At some point he figured out how to use YouTube, which he used to pull up a playlist of Bix Beiderbecke’s first recordings with the Wolverines in 1924 and ’25. It was hearing the jazz bands of the era that really clicked something within me, and all these years later that’s still what I like to listen to on a daily basis. One of my main missions with the Frivolity Hour is to get people interested in the music of this time period by giving them the historical context that can get them invested (because a lot of it is really fascinating), but then when I perform the songs, I want to portray this music as more than a cultural artifact. For example, I like to really try and embody a period vocal style (one of my favorite vocalists, for instance, is Rudy Vallée). The sound of popular singing was partially informed by the limitations of early recording technology, and yet it’s still incredibly expressive and beautiful, and in my opinion a lot of these early pop vocalists are overdue for a reevaluation. I think it’s important to remember that even though this music is a century old it was made by and for young people. 1920s jazz simmers with wit and rebellion and still packs a punch. The dance band and pop vocal records of the early 30s sound to me like pure concentrated romance. And of course, the countless irreverent novelty records of the 20s prove that young folks 100 years ago had the same dumb sense of humor as me and my friends.


What have you been listening to lately?
That’s a loaded question, because I listen to a lot of music! I’ve been listening to a lot of records by Jimmie Noone and his Apex Club orchestra lately. Noone’s clarinet playing and the sensibility of that band have this really lovely lyrical, almost operatic quality that I really love. It’s a sound that’s sweet and gorgeous but does not compromise any of its jazziness for that and still gets undeniably hot. I’ve also been listening to a lot of records by New York recording bands like the Charleston Chasers and, my personal favorite, the Goofus Five, which was an offshoot of the California Ramblers, led by the bass sax god Adrian Rollini. These are jazz records that strike a great balance of infectious fun and musical sophistication, and they feature some really cool arrangements, many of which I’ve found very inspiring. And of course, I’m always listening to early Louis Armstrong, Bix Beiderbecke, pre-1935 Bing Crosby, and as a tenor banjo player, always listening to Ikey Robinson… oh, and lately I’ve been really honing in on Cliff Edwards’ records with the Red Heads for an upcoming project (wink).

In addition to this Birdland show, you're making your Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Hall debut this October on the opening night of the Cabaret Convention. What else is on the horizon for you?

First, I must say I am so grateful and honored to be invited to perform at this year’s Mabel Mercer Cabaret Convention, and I do not take the support and validation I receive for granted. So many of these seasoned performers are such great inspirations to me, like this year’s co-host, the dazzling Jeff Harnar, whose Cole Porter show I absolutely adored. So, believe me, I’m over the moon about this invite and hope to make the great Charles Strouse proud.

Regarding what else is on the horizon, that’s a good question! I’m going to keep doing shows and spreading the good word about early jazz and the Great American Songbook, and I have some exciting collaborations lined up. Also, I don’t know how widely known this is amongst the folks who come out to see me, but I’m also a fine artist--for example, the illustration work on my posters and whatnot is my own. I’ve been doing quite a bit of illustration but I'm hoping to get back into oil painting sometime soon because I haven’t painted in a while and I really love doing that. Heck, maybe down the line you’ll see me do an art show! 

Is there anything else you'd like to add?

I can put my foot behind my head while standing up. Maybe I’ll do it in the show, maybe not… the only way to find out is to come.

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Tickets to the Bryce Edwards Frivolity Hour are available on Birdland's website.

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