The performance of Woody Allen’s New Orleans Jazz Band on the opening night of the Rochester International Jazz Festival highlights the lengths that the event’s organizers have gone to create an intriguing and varied lineup. It also may seem like a bit of a publicity grab in a festival that boasts such revered jazz figures as McCoy Tyner, Wayne Shorter and Toots Thielmans.

It’s been said that every successful musician secretly wants to be an actor and vice versa. While there have been a number of entertainers who have leapt headlong into the world of cinema with some modicum of good fortune, the cases of actors making any sort of lasting impression in the music world are far less frequent. It would be easy to make a short list of crummy groups that were spawned by the egos of well-known thespians, but we’ll rise above those easy pickings and take the high road here. (Well, okay, just a couple: Keanu Reeves’ not-so-action-packed turn as bass player for the alterna-also-rans Dogstar, Russell Crowe’s questionable method mumbling with 30 Odd Foot of Grunts and, what the heck, any music created by Kevin Bacon.)

Woody Allen’s musical career is far harder to categorize and, to some, far harder to call into question. While his abilities as a filmmaker, actor, author and comedian have raised Allen to icon status, the artist has quietly been sidelining as a jazz clarinetist since his adolescence. Most likely, Allen would take umbrage to the use of the word “sidelining”—Allen’s love of Dixieland and New Orleans jazz has always been evident in his films’ soundtracks, and the director chose to play with his jazz band at their regular weekly residency in New York rather than pick up an Oscar for Annie Hall in the late 1970s. It wouldn’t be the last time that Allen would defer to his passion for music over the glitz and glamour associated with the film industry.

Along with allowing the prying eyes of the public to take a closer look into Allen’s guarded relationship with wife Soon-Yi Previn, the 1998 documentary Wild Man Blues provided another valuable insight: As a clarinetist, Woody Allen is no virtuoso. Still, Allen’s career as a musician has never been about accolades. First and foremost, Allen has played in jazz bands because of his love of the form. Through his films and live performances, he also has managed to help bring attention to many seemingly forgotten musicians that may have otherwise been lost to new generations. Whether or not Woody Allen’s playing is on par with Woody Herman’s really isn’t a fair comparison. But whether it manages to swing, cause toes to tap and audiences to smile is a valid consideration. The answer to that query is positively in the affirmative.

On June 9, Woody Allen and His New Orleans Jazz Band will perform an exclusive benefit concert with proceeds being donated to the New Orleans Musicians Hurricane Relief Fund.

Rochester International Jazz Festival

Woody Allen and His New Orleans Jazz Band

June 9, 8pm, Eastman Theatre

www.rochesterjazz.com