Day 6
song: Brass Mafia Theme
artist: Brass Mafia
recorded 2006 at Coast Recorders
engineered by Sebastian “Seabass” Richard
mixed by Chris “Fletch” Fletcher
Personnel
Mike Olmos - trumpet
Joe Cohen - tenor sax
Danny Grewen - trombone
Colin Hogan - B3 organ
Adam Theis - sousaphone
Pat Korte - drums
From the same session as “Whoopin’ Blues” where I had to cut the recording short and be taken to the emergency room! Ah , the memories : ) This was the first original tune I wrote for Brass Mafia and what really begun my exploration into more modern ways to use the ensemble. The tune starts out sounding like a jazz-funk tune, definitely some quirky chords and stuff but nothing too out of the norm but around 2 minutes the mood changes drastically and we enter into another world not often explored by brass bands. I think I’d recently seen Skerik’s “Syncopated Taint Septet” which influenced this section a lot with their mixing of B3 Organ/Rock-heavy drums and lots of brass. This was also one of the first time that I used the “slow down” effect, something that has become one of my favorite arranging devices for “warping” the rhythmic feel and creating a cliff-hanging tension. I love that we had Colin Hogan playing B3 organ on this, it fits so well into the brass band sound.
Yes, that’s a rare sighting of Joe Cohen on the BARI sax! Checkout the super chunky doubling of the Sousaphone and Bari in the rock section. ARRRRGH! Sounds like a bulldozer knocking over a McMansion!
If you like it, please share and spread the word! Thanks - Adam
