Jon Batiste and Josh Harmon walked into a room, picked up their instruments, and recorded something with zero rehearsal and zero discussion. The result is a jazz-inspired reinterpretation of “Song of Storms” from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, out today, and it has already connected with millions of listeners precisely because of how unplanned it is. Batiste on piano, Harmon on percussion, ninety seconds of spontaneous musical joy that captures everything great about two musicians playing together in real time. Listen here.
The collaboration grew out of Batiste’s BIG MONEY campaign, where Harmon, a drummer and content creator with over 23 million followers and a 2025 TIME100 Top Creator designation, invited Batiste onto his channel for a series of unrehearsed musical moments. Harmon puts the appeal of this particular track plainly: “There was no rehearsal and no discussion of the arrangement beforehand. You can hear on the recording how much fun Jon and I are having.” That joy is not incidental. It is the entire point.
For Batiste, the project is deeply personal. A child of the 90s raised in New Orleans in a musical family, he regularly rearranged video game themes on instruments with his cousins growing up, and even recorded “Green Hill Zone” for his album ‘Hollywood Africans.’ He describes Harmon as “a kindred spirit” who shares his love of classic video game themes, jazz, and New Orleans traditional music, and has already floated the idea of a full album of video game theme reinterpretations.
Batiste arrives at this release on an extraordinary run. BIG MONEY, released in August 2025 via Verve Records and Interscope, won the Grammy Award for Best Americana Album at the 2026 Grammy Awards, his eighth Grammy win overall. He also performed at Super Bowl LIX in 2025, and his album ‘Beethoven Blues’ spent nine consecutive weeks at Number 1 on Billboard’s Classical Albums chart. Upcoming symphonic performances include Atlanta’s Chastain Park Amphitheatre on April 25, Denver’s Boettcher Concert Hall on May 9, a three-night run at Boston’s Symphony Hall on May 12, 13, and 14, the Filene Center in Vienna, VA on August 21, and the Washington State Fair on September 18.