Jazz drumming to Super Smash Bros. is better than any commentary

I usually have a hard time following competitive Super Smash Bros. matches, but honestly, they make so much more sense when accompanied by some free-form jazz drumming. The video above shows what a perfect pairing this is — with drummer Andrew Barhite providing a soundtrack to a January 2015 bout between Armada_UGS and L3ff3n. (

It’s amazing how well Barhite matches his drumming with the characters’ attacks. Look at 1:04 for example, when Barhite taps out Fox McCloud’s laser hits on the cymbal, or at 1:32 when he matches Princess Peach’s killer turnip blow with a knock on the wooden block. Hits on the tom-toms accompany most kicks, and when the two fighters get close we get a rumbling drum roll on the snare.

Watching this video just makes you realize how closer Smash Bros. is to freestyle jazz in terms of its tumbling rhythms and start-and-stop pacing. It’d be amazing if computers could actually generate these sorts of sound tracks on the fly — though that sounds like a job for machine intelligence, or at least a very quick jazz drummer.

Update April 29th, 13:17ET: This article originally identified the drummer incorrectly as Caleb Goss. The drummer is Andrew Barhite; Caleb Goss transcribed the music and Adam Lindgren composed it.