Anime Jazz Cue
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Live jazz and big-band writing used to score anime, from frantic bebop and hard-swinging brass to smoky ballads and blues, performed by real jazz ensembles rather than synthesizers. The sound features walking upright bass, brushed and swung drums, wailing saxophone and trumpet solos, comping piano and full horn-section shout choruses, arranged with genuine improvisation and swing feel. Deployed for stylish, adult-skewing series set in noir, space-western or period milieus, it lends anime a cool, cinematic sophistication. The mood swings from high-octane chase energy to late-night melancholy, and it is one of anime music's most virtuosic strands.
History
Jazz anime scoring reached its apotheosis with Yoko Kanno's band The Seatbelts on Cowboy Bebop (1998), whose genre-spanning big-band, bebop and blues soundtrack became a landmark that introduced countless fans worldwide to jazz. The Seatbelts' "Tank!" opener and Kanno's arrangements set a benchmark few matched, though Paradise Lunch brought 1930s swing to Baccano! (2007) and Kanno returned to jazz for Kids on the Slope. Makoto Yoshimori and other composers kept live jazz in the anime palette for stylish, retro-tinged titles, and Cowboy Bebop's soundtrack endures as a globally beloved jazz-fusion classic streamed far beyond the anime audience.
Defining artists
Essential listening
Sources
- Jonathan Clements, Anime: A History (BFI, 2013)
- Cowboy Bebop OST liner notes (Victor Entertainment)
- Anime News Network coverage of jazz in anime