Wednesday, April 7, 2010

New YouTube Sample: Johnny One Note

Here is another preview cut from "Pitch to Pixel," Johnny One Note.

Johnny One Note is inspired by Thelonious Monk, the great jazz composer and pianist. I had a conversation with a coworker in the design department at Vicious Cycle about Monk, and how this particular coworker couldn't really stand him. Well, don't worry, this track doesn't really posit the most challenging aspects of Monk's music. It is influenced much more by his playful side (I personally think all of this music is terrific, though!).

The title refers to the fact that for much of the melody, a one note motif is heard. This is most obvious in the bridge, where the melody hammers on one note, while the harmony underneath changes.

One nice thing about music with a jazz influence is that it works very well for video games. In fact, many Japanese video games have a big time jazz influence, from the ragtime of Koji Kondo's Mario Bros. music to the jazz rock fusion styling of something like Streets of Rage.

Enjoy!

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