Jon Batiste & Josh Harmon Reimagine Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time "Song of the Storms"

Multi-Grammy, Oscar, and Emmy Award-winning artist Jon Batiste joins forces with musician and innovative content creator Josh Harmon for a jazz-inspired reinterpretation of the “Song of Storms” from the acclaimed The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time video game, out now. Originally featured in the 1998 classic action-adventure game, the beloved melody is transformed into a dynamic, improvisational jazz performance, blending Batiste’s impromptu piano playing with Harmon’s understated percussion.

“Josh is a kindred spirit. He loves classic video game themes, jazz, and New Orleans traditional music just as much as I do,” said Batiste. “He’s also one of the most creative thinkers around, a brilliant drummer, and a joyful spirit in the world. As a child of the ’90s growing up in New Orleans in a musical family, I would often play classic video game themes on instruments and musically rearrange them with my cousins Jamal and Travis. I even recorded ‘Green Hill Zone’ for my Hollywood Africans album. One day, Josh and I should really do an entire album of these themes.”

On the rising popularity of the duo’s “Songs of Storms performance, Harmon, said “This recording represents what human-made music is all about. There was no rehearsal and no discussion of the arrangement beforehand – our version of ‘Song of Storms’ is something that happened spontaneously and, in the moment, in a way that’s only possible when real people get together to play music in real time. You can hear on the recording how much fun Jon and I are having. Even though the song is only 90 seconds long, the genuine joy heard on the track is the reason millions of people have already felt such a strong connection to it. That’s the power of music.”

The collaboration stems from a social media video created during Batiste’s BIG MONEY campaign, where Harmon, known for his boundary breaking percussion videos, published a video of the duo performing the track among other unrehearsed musical moments. The instrumental track highlights a creative crossover between video game music and contemporary jazz.