Monday, April 12, 2010

Pitch to Pixel Song Profile: Jumpin' Around

Koji Kondo is, of course, one of the greatest video game composers of all time, and for my money, a great composer period. Along with Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasy among other things), he really defined the sound of Japanese video game music (while The Fatman, of Wing Commander fame, Tommy Tallarico and others defined the Western approach).

What is always so terrific about Koji Kondo's music is his emphasis of early jazz in his work. Of course we see that in Super Mario Brothers, heavily influenced by early jazz and ragtime. So that was the spirit that Jumpin' Around was composed  in. It is meant to be a tune that could neatly fit into a mid-1980s NES platformer.

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