Ben Kenobi's Death & The TIE Fighter Attack (Bongo-Jazz Version)

The Evil Genius Orchestra Performs an insane Brass-And-Bongos version of "Ben Kenobi's Death & The TIE Fighter Attack" by John Williams. Featuring Joel Kleinberg, Edwin Yu, Alex Kim, Sean Martin-Buss and Carvin Knowles.

This track is where our trouble all started. Up until I began working on “remixing” Ben’s Death & The TIE Fighter Attack, I truly intended to do a simple remix of those 1998 Evil Genius Orchestra sessions. I stripped the whole thing back to just Joel’s Kleinberg’s saxophone parts and tried to re- imagine how it should sound. After several attempts to make it work, I brought in a sample of a bongo groove I had recorded in the early 2000s, in a tiny Hollywood apartment. It matched perfectly. But it also demanded more brass. So I recorded more brass. And more brass.

It was about that time that I realized that it wasn’t just a remix project any more. By January 2016, I was recording bongos. Lots of bongos. At first, just to replace the old loop. But once you bongo, you’ll always bongo again. I knew that I’d need more musicians. Edwin Yu was first, playing a Latinesque piccolo over the “breakdown,” then Alex Kim added a bit of judicious piano here and there. Sean Martin- Buss added extra saxes to beef up the “Ben Kenobi’s Death” section. On the night we recorded the timpani, I gleefully jumped around like a 5-year-old while banging out these parts. It was so much fun, I went home and played some conga. And more bongos.

After all that, we just had to re-record most of those performances on the rest of the album. We just didn't have a choice. One new arrangement is never enough. And I’m still not willing to admit I have a bongo problem. I can quit whenever I like.

-The Evil Genius