Sonic the Hedgehog (1991): Marble Zone - Big Band Jazz Cover by Charles Ritz

It's always Sonic Month! After half a year, finally listen to Charles Ritz's big band jazz cover / remix of Marble Zone from Sonic the Hedgehog, featuring a ton of friends!
iTunes: https://apple.co/2HbHnYo
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‪@wolfman1405‬ (Guitar, Bass, Mixing / Mastering)
‪@insaneintherainmusic‬ (Tenor Sax)
‪@muta-sax‬ (Baritone Sax)
‪@giocko‬ (Trumpets 1-2)
‪@JohnRobertMatzComposer‬ (Trumpets 3-4, audio)
‪@TylerJenkinsMusic‬ (Trumpets 3-4, video)
‪@dannymusic‬ (Trombones 1, 3-4)
‪@EricLadish‬ (Trombone 2)
‪@atelierjoshua‬ (Rhythm Guitar)
Noah Benson (Drums):   / noahbensonmusic  

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Crazy to think I've been sitting on this one for over half a year... But here it is! This would've been done sooner, but life's gotten in the way of a lot of things and I wanted to really make this sound great. That being said, some of my first musical memories involve playing the original Sonic the Hedgehog on my GBA while waiting for the barber. Tunes like Marble Zone and Labyrinth Zone would get stuck in my head as I struggled to get through those levels.

When it came time to plan for t̶h̶e̶ ̶e̶x̶t̶r̶e̶m̶e̶l̶y̶ ̶s̶u̶c̶c̶e̶s̶s̶f̶u̶l̶ Sonic Month, I knew I wanted to tackle one of Masato Nakamura's iconic compositions, and I felt like I could have a lot of fun with this one! I knew I wanted it to be a large-scale collaboration since those have traditionally turned out well for me, so I decided to challenge myself to arrange for big band, streaming a lot of the process live on YouTube.

I can't pinpoint any specific influences for this arrangement, but I took a page from Tee Lopes' book and borrowed some reharmonizations from his 2012 rendition of this track during the B-section. It was cool to put some new percussion to use, namely my cabasa and Alejandro's guiro, and try out a new video style! Though you already may have seen it with my Believe cover, I tried out this style here first, and though I likely won't do it for every cover, it was great to try out and served this cover remarkably well with the number of shots I had on screen - as many as 19 at once!

And on the subject of shots, of course, I would be remiss if I didn't endlessly thank my 10 incredible collaborators, without which this would not have been possible. From Carlos' burnin' solo near the end and Alejandro's wonderful mix and master, to Daniel covering for three trombone parts and Noah staying on me to get this video done, this project would not have come out nearly as well as I think it did without their invaluable help, and you should absolutely go check their stuff out. If you've read this far down, thank you so much for watching and I hope you enjoy!

♫ “Marble Zone" from “Sonic the Hedgehog (1991)" composed by Masato Nakamura

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