submitted on Sun, 10/26/2008 - 06:05 in Jazz Group by Mike_Longo 
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," Sonny Rollins blowing "I'm An Old Cowhand," or, to bring things up to the present, Brad Mehldau's twenty-plus minute rendition of Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun." The list goes on--jazz artists grab their ideas from all over the place...
Source: allaboutjazz
Author: Dan McClenaghan
