Andy Baio has announced a project to create an 8-bit CD version of Miles Davis’ jazz classic Kind Of Blue:
What would the pioneers of jazz sound like on a Nintendo Entertainment System? Coltrane on a C-64? Mingus on Amiga? For years, I’ve wondered what “chiptune jazz” would sound like, but there are only a tiny handful of jazz covers ever made.
To satisfy my curiosity — and commemorate the 50th anniversary of Miles Davis’s “Kind of Blue” — I’ve asked five brilliant chiptune musicians to collaborate and reinvent the entire album in the 8-bit sound.
The lineup, in alphabetical order:
Ast0r (Chris J. Hampton)
Disasterpeace (Rich Vreeland)
Sergeeo (Sergio de Prado)
Shnabubula (Samuel Ascher-Weiss)
Virt (Jake Kaufman)I hope to have the entire album download ready for Kind of Blue’s 50th birthday on August 17. (Printing and shipping CDs will take longer.)
The 8-bit take on this jazz classic, Kind Of Bloop, could be epic or awful, but we’ll have to wait until August to know.
Will Kind Of Bloop join its predecessor as one of the ultimate collegiate make-out albums of all-time, or will it be a monstrous carbuncle on the face of an old friend?
Leave a comment with your thoughts!
Horrible idea with a catchy title.
Surprised that there's enough interest in the project to get it off the ground.
Are you kidding, brilliant! Smoke up!