[[2026 Music]]  ## 2026-04-10 There are actually five **Square Enix Jazz** albums as of this writing: - **Square Enix Jazz** - **Square Enix Jazz Vol. 2** - **Square Enix Jazz: Final Fantasy VII** - **Square Enix Jazz: Chrono Trigger** - **Square Enix Jazz: SaGa** But I don’t feel the need to write about all of them because they’re all fantastic. I am usually quite wary of jazz arrangements of any kind. Jazz is not an artform that you can easily drop into as a musician, requiring an understanding of its flow that’s simply different from other genres. Look no further than Shoji Meguro’s sordid attempts in **Persona 4**’s **Never More-Reincarnation** album, as well as *checks notes* the entire **Persona 5** soundtrack. There’s a reason I sarcastically joke about how bro “invented jazz” whenever I hear one of those tracks. They’re fine, but they’re terrible examples of jazz loved by people who only listen to video game music. Ryu Kawamura knows what he’s doing though[^1], along with Eijiro Nakagawa. The former has been part of the Jazz scene for at least the past 15 years, and the latter is a legendary soloist. Both arranged most every track in the albums I mentioned above, and they’re, simply put, fantastic jazz albums. Even taken outside of the realm of video game music, they’re just good-ass tracks. You could pick any of them and enjoy yourself. I’m particularly fond of the rendition of Blinded By Light, from **Final Fantasy XIII**. The solos, the piano, the energy, it’s all immaculate.  These albums have a solid understanding of what makes jazz appealing, which is pretty impressive to me. I’ve read in Kawamura’s liner notes that he wants to make 10 of these albums. I’m eagerly awaiting the rest of them. [^1]: and I promise I only found out he’s the bassist for the **Gravity Rush 2** soundtrack as of this writing, as I do research for this review, lol