Awesome Jazz

A vibrant cover version of Marvin Gaye’s classic which will have you marching down the street, spinning an umbrella along to the Dixieland jazz sounds of New Orleans’ Hot 8 Brass Band. Go figure that the video was shot in London.

Musician Dave Wave combines his jazz piano and sax stylings with the rap rhythms and pacing of Eminem’s 2002 classic, resulting in an unlikely, but somehow awesome marriage of two seemingly incompatible musical genres.

Postmodern Jukebox is joined by vocalist Sara Niemietz, as they turn in a swing jazz cover of one of our all-time favorite Talking Heads’ tracks. Nothing will ever be better than the original, but we appreciate their unique arrangement.

(PG-13 Language) While digging under some rocks, we stumbled onto this 2009 cover of Rage Against the Machine’s classic, performed by German swing revival band Musik for the Kitchen. Their Seven Nation Army is fun too.

The multitalented Daniel Koren takes on A-Ha’s 1985 guilty pleasure classic Take on Me with his own unique arrangement packed with jazz and multilayered vocal harmonics.

Vocalist Haley Reinhart and Postmodern Jukebox knock it out of the park once more with an awesome ’40s style jazz cover of the Cardigans 1996 classic Lovefool. Seriously, why didn’t Haley win American Idol?

Grammy-winning Jazz and R&B musician Robert Glasper turns in a brilliant instrumental rendition of Radiohead’s track Reckoner. The track appears on his upcoming live album Covered, to be released June 16th.

Vocalist Robyn Adele Anderson and Postmodern Jukebox crank out a jazzy rendition of Coolio’s classic Gangsta’s Paradise, set in the heart of the prohibition era. We kept expecting Nucky Thompson to make an appearance.

Musician Andy Rehfeldt transforms Black Sabbath’s metal classic Paranoid into an upbeat jazz tune, preserving Ozzy Osbourne’s original vocals, but forever lightening the mood of the track. Also, we prefer to remember Ozzy this way.

Casey Abrams cranks out snappy vocals, bass and melodica for ths Postmodern Jukebox retro jazz version of Fountains of Wayne’s pop hit Stacy’s Mom. They should cover the entire Welcome Interstate Managers album in this style.

YouTuber Andy Rehfeldt managed to turn Van Halen’s classic Running with the Devil into a mellow jazz track more fitting of Steely Dan than David Lee Roth. If you enjoyed it as much as we did, buy Andy a beer.

NPR Music is streaming The Rite of Spring, the upcoming album of prog jazz trio The Bad Plus, most famous for their sublime rendition of Everybody Wants to Rule the World. The album covers Igor Stravinsky’s eponymous ballet score.

Leonard Solomon creates and plays unusual musical instruments – in this case, he performs the jazz classic Tiger Rag on his Callioforte, which sounds like a Calliope, but without the steam. Hear his “majestic” Bellowphone here.

The Collective Cadenza is working on a series of videos that are conceived of, rehearsed, and performed in less than one hour with songs currently hot in pop culture. We especially enjoy the festive horn section and Pharrell substitute.

An epic arrangement of Dave Brubeck’s Take Five, performed by a group of talented Pakistani studio musicians, with their own unique take on the classic jazz tune. More soul-stirring music from Sachal Studios here.

A jazzy arrangement of Radiohead’s Creep, performed by vocalist Karen Souza, ironically turning the tables on the song’s original protagonist. Hear more of her sultry covers here. Her Tainted Love is pretty great too.

Maybe the whole Pied Piper story had a bit of truth to it, as is evidenced by the crowd of bovines who gather round for a Dixieland jazz performance by The New Hot 5. Next time, start marching.

TA feels confident that the Brass Roots Kickstarter project will be a go – it’s a documentary chronicling the rich history, people and culture surrounding contemporary New Orleans brass band music.

Jazz musician Pat Metheny is currently touring with a robotically controlled orchestra called the Orchestrion Project – a wide range of instruments with whom he can freely improvise and control.

It’s fairly slow-paced, but JumpTrumpRumpBump’s trippy plot, jazzy music, and funky animations make up for it; each frame literally looks like a standalone art piece.