Sometimes you just need some smooth jazz anime covers
Around the time when Devilman Crybaby was released about two years ago I found myself poking around YouTube for the theme song for the original Devilman anime. Crybaby uses an amazing cover of it performed by Queen Bee that just fucking slaps, but there is still something incredibly charming about the old anime’s theme song. This is when I stumbled onto a jazz cover of the original song by a Swedish jazz band based in Japan called Platina Jazz. Platina Jazz’s cover of "Devilman no Uta" isn’t just a jazz cover, as the song already had a sort of big band jazz style to it, but into a more crooner or lounge singer style song which is also wildly catchy. This of course leads me to looking at the rest of what they had up on their Youtube at the time which were all also great jazz arrangements of anime songs.
But then I forgot about them until today when I got a suggestion for one of their more recent videos. Turns out in the past two years they’ve been busy why I wasn’t paying attention. Not only do they have a lot more on their YouTube, they also have their six studio and two live albums up on Spotify, as well as for purchase on digital music storefronts, and even a Patreon. I wanted to write a bit about them, because as I’ve been bouncing around their catalog I am constantly impressed with the arrangements they come up with for these songs. Often shifting the style and tone of the song, but without losing the charm of the original. They in a lot of ways stand on their own from the originals as they aren’t covers that replace the original in your mind (say like Johnny Cash’s version of "Hurt" effectively being the canon version of that song now,) but as a sort of supplemental work after having found a different element of the original song to highlight. And while I like their vocal covers, especially the latin jazz style version of "the Real Folk Blues" from Cowboy Bebop, I’m enjoying their purely instrumental version a bit more. They are just these nice chill sort of smooth jazz arrangements that feel like they’d be the perfect music to write to, just have on in the background, or listen to while relaxing at a bar with a nice drink.
Here are some of my favorites with their originals for comparison:
"Hyadain no Kakakata Kataomoi-C" from Nichijou
