Cinco de Chocobo

Talking about the Golden Age of Final Fantasy with a friend made us nostalgic for the better world of the 1990s when we obsessively played Final Fantasy VII after school. Part of the appeal of the game was its wonderful music. And long before we even knew who Dave Brubeck was, "Cinco de Chocobo" was one of our favorite songs on the videogame soundtrack. And that is an accomplishment given how many amazing songs were composed by Nobuo Uematsu for this game.

Blue Rondo à la Turk

All this talk of the Final Fantasy VII remake has brought back memories of Dave Brubeck, clearly the inspiration for some of the videogame's soundtrack. The confluence of the blues with Turkish time signatures works so well. Further proof of the elasticity of jazz and modern music.

Brubeck's Jeepers Creepers

I've been listening to this old standard incessantly for the last 24 hours, and never realized that Brubeck recorded it live! A silly song like this is really better with the lyrics, however.