Inside The Score - Banjo-Kazooie - Collect Jinjo

Jinjo! Da Dun Din

The fair folk of the Banjo-Kazooie series, the pixie-like creatures known as Jinjos (alongside their mean counterparts, the Minjos) cohabit this wonderland with the bear, the bird and the witch. Just like the Yoshi from Mario, they come in a variety of colors, with cute appearances and voices, but still powerful and helpful. Somehow, their magical properties became the target of the witch Gruntilda, who captured them and thus have become another of the tokens from this collectathon.

The name “Jinjo” originated from a nickname Grant Kirkhope gave to artist Ed Bryan during the development of Banjo-Kazooie due to his ginger hair. They were originally envisioned as birds, but Ed Bryan, as he stated, “wasn’t much good at drawing birds. They were possibly gargoyles originally, imbued with the breath of life.

Like other small, mystical critters, the jinjos show the characteristics of other pixies, like the long, pointy ears, diminutive humanoid body, exotic skin tones and ability to fly and sparkle. They also seem to be able to breathe underwater and live in harsh environments (they can be killed, though, specially when a giant tank crushes them). They just, for some reason, need to be found by the bear and the bird before allowed to be free.

Musical Analysis

Structure: Section 1 / Section 2

Tempo: 120 (Section 1); 130 (Section 2)

Melodic and Harmonic Profiles: C Chromatic; C Ionian/Major

Their musical cue is a simple success fanfare that aims to capture the animation of the Jinjos flying around Banjo when they are collected. The rapid ascThe variation for when the player collects all the colorful creatures adds the more celebratory and fanfare-like brass section and an even longer ascension which introduces a timbre made with the combination of the celesta and a flute that ends up doing a trill; meanwhile, the bassoon is replaced with the tuba. All the jinjos then give a celebratory shout together—probably voiced by Grant himself and pitched up— and all is good in the world. In-game, the collect all jinjos cue always overlaps with the ‘Jiggy Appears’ cue, creating a prismatic musical moment.ending notes of the celesta mimic the glissando that is easier to to do in glockenspiels by just driving the mallets over all the keys. It is a semi sound effect, semi musical effect that is meant to show the magic of the jinjos through the timbre and also the sense of expectancy characteristic of collecting cues and prizes in general. (In fact, in-game, the celesta actually becomes a sound effect by continuing the sparkling sound long after the music ends).

Contrasting with the ascending chromatic scales of both the celesta and clarinet, the bassoon goes the opposite direction playing a diatonic figure. The piece ends with a IV – V – I cadence, defining the jinjos as pure creatures since the characteristic offbeat chords of the score are nowhere to be found (neither in the composition for their village). The percussion strikes combines the drums (Hi-hat, crash, kick and snare) with the orchestral tradition for impact.

The variation for when the player collects all the colorful creatures adds the more celebratory and fanfare-like brass section and an even longer ascension which introduces a timbre made with the combination of the celesta and a flute that ends up doing a trill; meanwhile, the bassoon is replaced with the tuba. All the jinjos then give a celebratory shout together—probably voiced by Grant himself and pitched up— and all is good in the world. In-game, the collect all jinjos cue always overlaps with the ‘Jiggy Appears’ cue, creating a prismatic musical moment.

However, these jinjo folks are not the only critters that inhabit Mumbo’s Mountain. On the other side of the friendly spectrum, the Mumbo’s Mountain also has a pest problem that can only be overcome by being sneaky. Their music is one of the few instances where a variation of the overworld is not used.