Late Show bandleader Jon Batiste‘s newest album, Hollywood Africans, has a pleasant surprise hidden amongst it’s classical and jazz pieces; a pleasant paino-lead arrangement of Sonic the Hedgehog 1’s Green Hill Zone theme music!
Batiste is a life-long video game fan, who developed his piano skills at a young age by transcribing music from Sonic the Hedgehog titles in amongst other video game franchise such as Final Fantasy. He even admitted his love for the games via a Twitter:
Hollywood Africans is now generally available in physical and digital formats.
Source: Esquire
WOW, I knew there was a reason I liked him. Now I really wish I caught him at this year’s Monterey Jazz Festival.
Jon’s been dropping bits of Sonic in here and there for months.