Sound Byte Radio Episode 8: All That Jazz

For this week's tribute to video game music, we're going to stick to one particular genre that's been around since the beginning of the 20th century: jazz. Born out of a combination of African and European music traditions with a huge emphasis on improvisation, different countries and regions across North America have since developed their own interpretation of the genre.

Sure, it's hard to define jazz narrowly and in a simple manner, but we can all agree that listening to it can both calm the mind and make you bust a move. So let's celebrate the genre in the annals of video game music history by, well, listening to some highlights.

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Music from today's show:

Skullgirls Original Soundtrack

Song: Pedestrians Crossing
Composers: Blaine McGurty, Brenton Kossak
Buy from iTunes, CD Baby, and Amazon.

Street Fighter III: Third Strike

Song:Jungle Jazz (remix for 'Makoto Stage ~ Spunky')
Remixer: McVaffe (Twitter, Facebook)
Composers: Hideki Okugawa, Infinite
Get from OCRemix.

Gyakuten Saiban Jazz Album ~Gyakuten Meets Jazz Soul~

Song: Godot ~The Fragrance of Dark-Colored Coffee
Composer: Noriyuki Iwadare
Performers:Metamorphosis Jazz Band
Buy from e-Capcom and Play-Asia.

Sam & Max Season One Soundtrack

Song: Cogs in Motion
Composer: Jared Emerson-Johnson
Buy from Telltale Games.

Gravity Daze Original Soundtrack

Song: Pleajeune
Composer: Kohei Tanaka
Buy from CD Japan.

This is Namco!

Song: Main Theme from "Rolling Thunder"
Composer: Junko Ozawa
Arrangers: Kenichiro Isoda, Kenichi Mitsuda
Buy from Play-Asia.

Grim Fandango Original Soundtrack

Song: Mr. Frustration Man
Composer: Peter McConnell
Sample from Grim Fandango.net.

Chrono Trigger Arranged Version: The Brink of Time

Song: The Brink of Time
Composer: Yasunori Mitsuda
Arrangers: Hiroshi Hata, Kalta Ohtsuki
Buy from Amazon.

L.A. Noire Original Soundtrack

Song: Torched Song (featuring The Real Tuesday Weld)
Vocals: Claudia Brucken
Composers: Andrew Hale, Simon Hale
Buy from Rockstar Games and iTunes.