Button Masher (he/him)

Jake Silverman is a GRAMMY-winning arranger, jazz pianist, jazz organist, electronic musician, composer, and educator. After an early history in classical and jazz piano and organ, Jake received a Bachelor of Music (BM) in Jazz Performance from Oberlin Conservatory of Music, a Master of Music (MM) in Jazz Performance from the Manhattan School of Music, and his Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) in Jazz Studies Performance from the University of Southern California. He has had the distinct pleasure of studying and working with jazz legends such as Dan Wall, Billy Hart, Gary Bartz, Jay Ashby, Phil Markowitz, Jim McNealy, Dave Liebman, Alan Pasqua, Russell Ferrante, Bob Mintzer, Peter Erskine, and others. Jake performs a multi-media project called Button Masher that brings together video game music, jazz, and other genres. For Button Masher, Jake uses Famitracker and Ableton Live to recreate and utilize the sound design of retro video games. Button Masher has received widespread recognition on social media from general audiences, as well as from notable musicians. Jake’s Button Masher project led to his GRAMMY® award with Charlie Rosen and the 8-Bit Big Band for their arrangement of Meta Knight’s Revenge from the video game Kirby Superstar.

Button Masher is his multi-media project that brings together jazz and video game music. This project has received widespread recognition on social media from general audiences, as well as from notable jazz musicians. For this project, he uses Famitracker , Furnace, Ableton Live to recreate and utilize the sound design of retro video games. Just as jazz builds on early popular music, his Button Masher project extends retro video game music. As in jazz, each tune includes both structured parts and improvisation. Many of the tunes cover popular video game melodies. Other tunes are originals that utilize the sound design of well-known retro video games.