Jazz Articles about Contraband

Cliff Colon: Contraband

by John Barron
November 6, 2008

Tenor saxophonist Cliff Colon makes his recording debut as a leader with Contraband, a disc containing jazz arrangements of music from a 1980s 8-bit video game called Contra. The disc's nine tracks chronicle each level of the game, in sequential order.

Underneath the novelty of playing jazzed-up versions of electronic video game music lies clever arranging and hard-blowing solos. After the thirteen-second anthem “Intro," Colon and company set off on an adventurous journey through a mostly modal, post-bop landscape. As ...

Cliff Colon: Contraband

by Dan McClenaghan
October 26, 2008

Tacoma, Washington-based saxophonist Cliff Colon takes his inspiration where he finds it. In the case of his debut CD, Contraband, the inspiration comes from music of the 1980's side-scrolling, run and gun, eight-bit video game called Contra, which seems an unlikely source.But unlikely sources are pretty common in the jazz genre--Miles Davis' reading of “Surrey with the Fringe on Top," taken from the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, “Oklahoma," John Coltrane's classic take on “My Favorite Things," ...