Day 12
song: Nightfall Suite
artist: Realistic Orchestra feat. Dublin
Composed, arranged and orchestrated by Adam Theis
Lyrics by Dublin
The original version of this song was performed by a group called Cannonball, which in many ways, led to the founding of Jazz Mafia. You can hear the original version of this tune (released in 2004) on the album “From Nightfall til Sun Up” here https://youtu.be/HVqoVWkhbJw.
Realistic Orchestra, founded in 2002, was started out as a sort of post-apocalyptic jazz orchestra, so this song was a very fitting repertoire choice as a feature for our frequent collaborator and amazing vocalist Dublin. in 2005 I set out to expanding the original 6 piece Cannonball arrangement into a full 18 piece version for Realistic Orchestra. We sped it up, made the groove even more menacing and I nearly doubled the length of the tune with the addition of “Nightfall Outro”, a mostly instrumental section that features many of the horn players in the band each blowing solos over a constantly changing harmonic landscape before returning to the originally written ending.
The original inspiration for this song came from the idea of having an incredibly simple and aggressive foundation that doesn’t change very much. On top of this, I tried to really stretch the harmonic palette of what I’d heard used over Hip-hop, Rap and Big Band music. I was really happy with the results because it’s a tune that hits hard rhythmically yet grabs the brain and twists the ear in fun and unexpected harmonic ways.
Dublin’s lyrics of a sort of a possibly not-too-far-in-the-future city in shambles is very creepy in how real it could actually turn out to be and he delivers it with such vivid imagery. I hope to some day turn it into a short film, in our spare time haha.
Personnel:
Evan Francis - alto sax
Joe Cohen - alto sax
Matt Nelson - tenor sax
Sheldon Brown - tenor sax
Paul Hanson - Bassoon
Doug Rowan -bari sax
Joel Behrman - trombone/trumpet
Adam Theis - trombone
Danny Grewen - trombone
Marc Bolin - bass trombone
Dave Scott - lead trumpet
Mike Olmos - trumpet
Erik Jekabson - trumpet
Joel Ryan - trumpet
Jon Monahan - guitar
Colin Hogan - keyboards
George Ban Weiss - upright bass
Eric Garland - drums
Recorded March 3rd, 2008 at 20th & Mission in SF by Chris Fletcher.
Produced by Adam Theis
Mixed and Mastered by Chris Fletcher.
©2016 Jazz Mafia Recordings
