"You will be prosecuted to the full extent of the jam!" Insaneintherainmusic's jazz cover / remix of Unfinished Business (Under the Bridge / Big Band's theme) from "Skullgirls Encore", composed by Michiru Yamane (山根ミチル).

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Hey look, it's a non-Sinnoh cover from insaneintherain during the Year of Sinnoh! Long story short, I was feeling a bit of burnout from focusing just on the Diamond and Pearl stuff, and I felt like I wasn't doing enough service to the viewers, especially viewers who may not be quite as familiar or appreciative of the music of Sinnoh as I am. Becaues of all that, I decided to take a bit of a break from the Sinnoh stuff, and cover some other tracks that you guys suggested I give some love to!

One of these tracks is this one - Unfinished Business from Skullgirls! Now, full disclosure, I haven't actually played Skullgirls, but I did a fair bit of research on the game and watched quite a bit of footage from the game to really understand the context that this music is heard in. Any game that's crazy enough to create a character whose attacks are all based on musical instruments and is straight up named "Big Band" is definitely a game worth checking out! I really love Big Band's design, especially since it strikes my particular interest in jazz music super well, so I thought it'd be more than appropriate to go full-on bebop jazz with this theme!

The original version of this theme has a more funky backbeat style to it, which I think suits hearing it in the context of a fighting game. I envisioned it with more of a double time feel, switching between an afro-cuban pattern and swing pattern in the rhythm section, which I think works super well! One of the challenges that I faced with this arrangement was how to make sense of the original song, since there's a lot of improvisatory bits, and not really one strong melody that goes throughout the composition. I was a bit torn on how much of the source material to include in this version in a way that didn't sound like endlessly playing random solo licks, while also retaining enough spontaneity. In the end, I settled on turning the tune into an AABA form, where each A is a minor blues featuring the first statement of the melody from the original recording, and the B section is actually a bebop interpretation of that awesome bari solo at the beginning of the tune! From there, I went through the standard "jam session arrangement" of head, solos, trading, and head out, giving the alto, bari, and tenor all full chorus-long solos, which really pushed the length of this arrangement. 9 minute arrangements aren't super common for typical uploads, but I think the variety in this one keeps it from not getting too boring. I made some conscious choices to vary the accompaniment behind each solo so the solos didn't all sound the same! I went with a typical fast swing behind the alto solo, starting off with half time swing in the bari solo (then speeding up later), and going for a more spacey McCoy Tyner + Coltrane-esque tenor solo background section. Pretty happy with how this came out for having so much trouble dealing with the source material!

A few things to note about the actual recording of this video: first off, I'm playing alto! I'm currently borrowing this alto saxophone from a friend of mine who plays in a Berklee wind ensemble that I am participating in. It's a Selmer Reference 54, and it's a super nice horn! I'm using a Selmer C* mouthpiece (which, oddly enough, sounds pretty nice on this horn... not a mouthpiece I would normally use at all on tenor or bari), and Vandoren 2 reeds. I won't have this alto forever, so I figured I'd make a few covers using it. Next, I'm using a new tenor mouthpiece and new reeds! A while ago, Shape Your Own Sound (SYOS) came to Berklee to do a demonstration of their mouthpieces, and I got totally hooked on them. I'm all for cool new innovations when it comes to musical instrument technology, and I think SYOS is revolutionizing the world of mouthpieces. I had a custom one made back in December, but it honestly wasn't my favorite mouthpiece. However, when I recently tried using a slightly softer reed on it, it completely opened up and changed for the better! I love this mouthpiece now, and I'm almost completely sold on using it as my primary mouthpiece (hopefully you guys will be able to get your hands on one like it soon!)

Hope you all enjoy!

♫ "Unfinished Business" from "Skullgirls Encore" composed by Michiru Yamane (山根ミチル)

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