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| The 8-Bit Big Band 'Orchestrator Emulator' is out July 18, 2025 via Teamchuck Records GRAMMY-award-winning composer, bandleader and multi-instrumentalist Charlie Rosen is proud to announce the fifth full-length album by The 8-Bit Big Band, Orchestrator Emulator, out July 18, 2025 via TeamChuck. A fitting title for an unconventional release, Orchestrator Emulator features exploratory arrangements of video game music performed by the contemporary big band and a studio orchestra—made up of over 90 of NYC's finest musicians. Rosen is known for his work on Broadway, film, and TV, with over a couple dozen credits as composer, orchestrator, musical director, and instrumentalist. But with the 8-Bit Big Band, founded in 2017, the composer has made a name for himself for bucking jazz convention with his video-game-music inspiration, with two GRAMMY nominations and one win. As written in All About Jazz after a performance at Berklee in 2020, "Rosen and his 8-Bit Big Band demonstrated an astoundingly rich and complex selection of arrangements for orchestra, taken from simpler video game themes, that exploded the boundaries of jazz innovation." The 8-Bit Big Band has evolved from an innovative concept to a full-fledged internet phenomenon since its inception over 8 years ago. With nearly 400, 000 followers across their YouTube channel and Instagram, the ensemble has captured the attention of both gaming and music communities alike. Their meticulously produced music videos consistently generate hundreds of thousands of views with many surpassing the 1 million mark. This virality has translated to real-world success, with the band selling out major concert venues throughout the Northeast. The group's distinctive approach has garnered recognition from prominent media outlets including NPR, the New York Times, and Forbes, with Jazziz declaring that the 8-Bit Big Band "is redefining the concept of a modern big band." Their growing influence culminated in a 2022 GRAMMY Award for Rosen and Jake Silverman in the Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella category for "Meta Knight's Revenge" from their acclaimed third album, Backwards Compatible. Gamers know that video-game and orchestral music are not as strange of bedfellows as one might think. While games today have come a long way from their 8-bit era, even in their earliest formats, titles from popular franchises such as Pokémon, Super Mario Bros, and The Legend of Zelda have soundtracks ripe for embellishment. As The New York Times noted, "Over four albums that have earned two Grammy nominations, Rosen's crack ensemble has contributed hard swing, fusion funk, quicksilver arrangements and a slick symphonic sheen to what Rosen has called the 'great video game songbook, ' a canon he is helping create on the fly." Newer games, such as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Mario Kart 8, sample both acoustic and electronic instruments, and various game soundtracks have been arranged for orchestra in the past. But Rosen's works for the 8-Bit Big Band have and continue to reveal how the expansiveness of the jazz palette affords those soundtracks that much more depth. After a quick intro that "functions like a cinematic prelude, " Orchestrator Emulator kicks off with "Wii Sports Theme, " which Rosen describes as "one of the most iconic and beloved themes from the Nintendo Wii era." The version, which features soloists Brian Sheu on guitar and Andrew Gould on alto sax, pays tribute to Earth, Wind & Fire's "In the Stone, " channeling Jerry Hey's legendary horn writing. Drawing on the inimitable funk and disco-infused brass brilliance of the influential group, Rosen effortlessly illustrates how the playful theme can be seamlessly threaded into those genres. Specifically calling out to the generations who grew up playing video games, Rosen likens the video-game-music repertoire to the The Great American Songbook, saying, "[The genre has] ushered in a new era of appreciation from music lovers … Within this contemporary 'song book, ' there exists a wide array of communally recognizable themes, lyrics, and melodies that can be reimagined and expanded upon in new and inventive ways." Orchestrator Emulator is a shining example of Rosen's ability to reimagine and invent. Lifelong and amateur gamers alike are sure to recognize the themes orchestrated throughout the album, but will also notice how the composer playfully blurs the lines between the original melodies and his own expansions upon them. Take, for example, "Kass's Theme"—a song from the soundtrack of 2017's The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, "performed" in the game by an anthropomorphic parrot-like character on his accordion. Rosen orchestrates an entirely new, Afro-Cuban terrain for the melody with incredible movement. Other selections on the album include themes from Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Metroid, Persona 5, Undertale, and various iterations of Super Mario Bros. "Waluigi Pinball, " from the Mario Kart DS soundtrack, features virtuosic organist Matthew Whitaker on Hammond B3. The arrangement pays homage to Herbie Hancock's "Chameleon, " transforming the racing theme into a groove-heavy jam. "No More What Ifs, " a bossa nova ballad from the already genre-blending soundtrack of Persona 5, features vocalist Martina DaSilva. Here, Rosen elevates the intoxicating original by adding new dimensions to the harmony with the wider range of instrumentalists at his disposal. DaSilva is the perfect complement. From the 2015 indie game Undertale, known in part by its cult following and subsequent influx of memes, "Megalovania" infuses some villainous energy into Orchestrator Emulator, opening with overdriven guitar power chords before the low brass enters with the theme. As Rosen puts it, the arrangement, which features a ripping metal solo by Marcos Robinson, combines epic film score bombast with the drive of Rage Against the Machine. "With three bass trombones, a cimbasso, bass sax, tuba, French horns, and a full complement of trumpets and trombones, the low brass sound is truly seismic, " he says. On the second to last track—before a reprise of "Kass's Theme"—Rosen revisits Super Mario Bros., this time with a medley of some of the most memorable themes from the Super Mario universe. "Super Mario Praise Break, " co-produced by Matthew Whitaker and GRAMMY/TONY-award-winning arranger Bryan Carter, is a joyous, church-like celebration of the "sacred space video games have created for so many as a place of escape, of comfort, and of community." Like its predecessors, Orchestrator Emulator was arranged and produced by Rosen himself, mixed by GRAMMY-winning engineer John Kilgore and mastered by the industry veteran Alan Silverman. The 8-Bit Big Band's mission has always been to "elevate the music of video games to its rightful place in the world of serious musical artistry." Rosen so eloquently states, "These songs, once confined to background loops and limited sound chips, deserve to be reimagined, revered, and performed with the same respect given to any great work of American music. This album is our continued effort to build what we've come to call 'The Great Video Game Songbook.'" ### Tracklisting: Intro to Album 5 Wii Sports Theme - from "Wii Sports" Brinstar - from "Metroid" Super Mario Bros. 3 Overworld Theme - from "Super Mario Bros 3" Kass's Theme - from "The Legend of Zelda - Breath of the Wild" Waluigi Pinball (ft. Matthew Whitaker) - from "Mario Kart" No More What Ifs (ft. Martina DaSilva) - from "Persona 5" Super Mario World Overworld Theme - from "Super Mario World" Space Junk Road - from "Super Mario Galaxy" Tokyo Daylight (ft. Andy Arthur Smith) - from "Persona 5" Casino Night Zone - from "Sonic The Hedgehog 2" Megalovania - from "Undertale" Super Mario Praise Break - themes from various Mario titles Kass's Theme (Choro Version) - from "The Legend of Zelda - Breath of the Wild" write your comments about the article :: © 2025 Jazz News :: home page |