How I Turned Rainbow Road into a Jazz Fusion Jam

[@Super_OST]

can't believe you threw the dolphin shoals lick in there, it adds so much for those who know, while also sounding sick af, great work man!

[@yetanotherbassdude]

Thank you! Was sat for ages trying to place the reference. Was so much in a jazz muso mindset that I totally missed the best reference source material: memes.

[@jebroiroij2176]

I love that he took double dash and made it MarioKart 8

[@TheSchaef47]

When you think about it, there was really no other option. I was actually thinking he should do that before he started the clip, and ten seconds later, there it was.

[@Sphagetti__]

Is bar 4 (including upbeat) of the soli a foreshadowing of the reference? I almost thought that that was the entire reference on first listen (would've been very subtle) before I heard the actual thing

[@villagestone2199]

Seeing Casiopea's Space Road in 8 bit music theory just puts a smile on my face

[@WyattJBowie]

It blew me away too! I’ve been listening to them for like 3 years now after my friend got a random video of Casiopea’s self titled album got recommended to him while we were in class together. I’ve been absolutely hooked since. Seeing this *seemingly* obscure band get put in a video like this blows me away. Im very happy for them to get more recognition

[@Abra391]

Cultured

[@doofs]

@@WyattJBowie as far as i know, casiopea is one of the bigger names in jazz fusion! at least, online, 'cause i hear their name brought up a pleasantly surprising amount of times. i also specifically like how the track inspired 8-bit was _space road_ which i found very cute.

[@sairaiiii1692]

ikr

[@ezgolf1764]

@@doofs casiopea is one of the biggest jazz fusion bands in japan, up there with t square both in how long they’ve been around and influence

[@TheAdvertisement]

11:16 Eyyy the Mario Kart lick!

[@owlyus]

That hand drawn album cover in the middle of the video made me chortle to a vociferous degree

[@perspii2808]

yes vociferous indeed

[@lighting7508]

ouch my head 🤕 too many Oxbridge words

[@joost9430]

vociferous chortle sounds like a band name

[@tydavis.3.1]

@@joost9430 a jazz fusion band tho, right?

[@joost9430]

@@tydavis.3.1 yeah probably, or some weird fusion punk

[@nshady16]

It's hard to pick a standout on your album but this one is definitely up there. Thanks for walking us through it.

[@gamingdragon2361]

"This is why Jazz Fusion will never be mainstream again" (I forget which video you said this) It's coming full circle isn't it...

[@ultrahotwings9738]

If memory serves, it was the Chrono Trigger video about non-functional harmony, specifically the section talking about Secrets of the Forest? (That last part, I'm not sure of.)

[@liquidsolids9415]

Most songs benefit from a little “shameless thievery”. Nice job - sounds awesome!

[@jawson3903]

Backed - there are only *so many* good ideas, it's prudent to recycle them intelligently

[@pluspiping]

My college teachers always said "good artists innovate, great artists steal" Probably a quote stolen from someone else, stolen from someone else, stolen from someone else....

[@1warmday1]

Next album you’ve got to take jazz standards and turn them into a game OST ;-)

[@bret6484]

Not sure that would qualify as an /O/ST

[@yetanotherbassdude]

@@bret6484 he just needs to code up an entire game for it to be the soundtrack of, no biggie!

[@1warmday1]

Haha yeah, I should have said in Koji Kondo style - kidding of course ;-). I would love to hear what kind of video game compositions 8 bit would come up with though! Love this album

[@roma540]

That's actually not half bad idea. Excellent one, in fact.

[@joel7604]

Absolutely loving the album! My only "complaint" is that I wish there were even more tracks from even more games!

[@geo_chronick209]

THE DOLPHIN SHOALS QUOTE YESSSSSS

[@johnhoag6720]

THIS IS AMAZING I CANT STOP SMILING MY MARIO KART MUSIC DREAM HAS COME TRUE. Love the dolphin shoals lick

[@the_kruzdawg]

Hearing the Casiopea lick reminded me of a few jams by Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, like Vix 9, that make me wonder if Bela and the gang were also inspired.

[@Zastrava]

I can't believe this is coming out of Winnipeg! Love seeing my home town representation, especially love seeing folk who are in circles i frequent when I return to visit.

[@alexispetrowski3218]

When I heard Winnipeg I legit straight up from my seat because I can’t believe that one of my favourite KZbinrs could be down the street from me!

[@xenon8966]

So happy to see you mention Casiopea! They actually only play that solo in live versions of Space Road after 1982 of which there are many uploaded on youtube

[@AtomizedSound]

“All the drum bullshit” 🤣. I love this line and the drums are totally essential to this track

[@Gwobs]

It truly is a great, fun arrangement to play. Let's do it again!

[@sebastianalvarez8438]

I was just getting halfway through transcribing the cool unison line and you go and release this video with sheet music and all lmao. I love the entire album and this song in particular has been on repeat since it came out. You did a great job arranging all of these iconic songs! (also, turns out I had gotten the harmony way wrong lmao)

[@laitentierdotcom]

appropriate that you took inspiration from Space Road for your arrangement of Rainbow Road great tune, one of my favorite off the album and i'm super pumped to get a peek into your thought process. great video!

[@Dairalir32]

Would love to indulge you more! Hearing you walk through your own arrangement is very cool!

[@emmbeesea]

Double Dash is one heck of a nostalgia trip for me, so adding some _jazz_ and _fusion_ feels to it was such a treat. Great stuff as always! (:

[@spicetea4060]

"Analyzes great music" "Analyzes his own song"

[@DomPalombiMusic]

The major change is "all the drum bullshit" 🤣, I love this so much! Congrats once again my dude!!!

[@matthewjones6786]

This music theory jargon is so over my head!

[@elihodges5593]

Not gonna lie, as a sax player I've never understood this kind of jazz music. What I do understand is how hard that sheet music at 9:30 is. That saxophonist is insane! Those runs are killer.

[@secrets7301]

Yeah, he's insane! Great solo

[@ThatsAggravating]

Sick arrangement! Y’all got chops

[@TheAdvertisement]

Hearing you talk about your own music is awesome.

[@Vuusteri]

Loved your album! What an age we're living to get professional level jazz arrangements of classic video game tunes. Gone are the days when the only source were midis on VGMusic :D

[@xanderdaniels8284]

Seeing my favorite music youtuber talk about Casiopea, my favorite band, makes me very happy.

[@jvdrumming8859]

ayyy my favourite band too!

[@annieoddo1475]

The rainbow road track is one of my favorites on the album (but the whole thing is just so dope from start to finish). An awesome take on an already fantastic soundtrack!

[@NicoMendozaMusic]

Loved getting the sneak peak on this at VGMCon last month. Killer writing!!

[@laddismaximus9535]

Musicians are the world’s greatest songs thieves. Also the dolphin shoals lick had me laughing. Fantastic work!

[@NephilimShredder]

Your rhythmic (and melodic!) transcription skills are so wild that it made me seek out your new album, amazing job!

[@NickHoad]

Ends with a 6/9 chord, nice

[@demiurge2501]

The way people make these jazz chord progressions is so impressive to me

[@tobiaspetersen9788]

I love seeing 12 bar blues done in such a unique style! My mind was blown watching Steely Dan do basically the same thing 8bit did in taking blues and switching up chords to make it a unique, personalized sound. This is the standard that all musicians should be reaching. Great job dude!

[@MusicOfLee]

Thanks for this! It's always great to have some insights into another arranger's/composer's thought process!

[@FahmiZFX]

4:00 owh no you did not just did that. I laughed like a dumbass when I heard it. Got me good, gotta hand you that one.

[@mrsaxman3602]

This was one of my favourite games as a kid. And this was one of my favourite tracks both in the course and musical sense which still holds true today even with all the other Mario Kart games out there now. I commented when your albums dropped about how I'd love to have your arranging skills and to see how you do it. Therefore I'm so, so glad you made this. To see a glimpse of the brain behind the brilliance :) I do compositions myself (not as often as I'd like to these days sadly), and I've always had the trouble of having so many ideas but I could never weave them together fluently and logically onto the page, they just all swirled around in my head. At school, everyone was classically trained in my class whereas I started classical and then also took jazz lessons as well for saxophone (the jazz side I took to that like a duck to water). I struggled greatly trying to understand harmony as classical music is all they ever talked about (I understand that this is the easiest way according to every teacher as they say it is the root of musical theory and harmony, but I could never properly mesh with it). The teachers said that the human ear loves repetition and therefore I should stop being so expressive and should stick to basic classical chords to draw from when composing, that I should stop developing the melody and have clean basic structure as the number one priority with no flourishes or anything else to shake it up. I was pushed into this box and it was stifling. Now that I'm finished with education, I've been watching your videos and learning a lot from them. I have this jazz theory book as thick as my arm and am making good progress each day, and it is just far easier to understand than from the classical angle. The analyses, along with all your videos, are truly invaluable to me. I hope you know just how much of a positive impact you make for folks like myself :). Keep up the good work my man, and congrats again on an astoundingly stellar album. I look forward to seeing what comes next ^-^.

[@Ben-ej1wl]

You sound like y'all are having a blast, so we're having one too!

[@jansestak954]

Damn, that tune is killin'. Well done indeed!

[@Zenthex]

watched this while eating dinner. the introduction of the word "jazzy" nearly ended my whole life.

[@SimpleBean]

Rainbow Road was begging for a jazz composition and you did it fabulously. So cool to see the behind the scenes. That rendition of moon river is wild btw.

[@ariamelody5560]

I finally found you! I love your vids on hollow knight and Celeste and botw and I forgot to sub, and this finally popped up so yay!

[@djhemm5278]

Love a shout-out to, and seeing products of fellow Winnipeg musicians! Phenomenal album I've been binging it since it released!

[@ajohnsonpercussion]

Yo, those drum tones are absolute fire. I mean, everything about your arrangement is fire, but those toooooones!

[@AIFMusician]

Loved the arrangements.

[@julianpaublini]

That was my favourite track in the album, it was crazy

[@giggityguy]

You know what they say: good artists borrow, great artists steal

[@RoseVerdict]

gox, your album gives me CHILLS every time and i am THRIVING on this behind-the-scenes look!

[@AugustBurnsSam]

I've been wanting to make my own covers of video game music but didn't know where to start. This is a great resource, thank you ❤

[@mayonnaisical]

love the dolphin shoals foreshadowing at 11:03

[@wofie9785]

thank you so much for this album. It is a fucking gem and I am just completely obsessed with it

[@pluspiping]

Another great explanation that helps me enjoy things I didn't quite understand before. Thanks!

[@pfeifanddrum4610]

I love these breakdowns for arranging/composition. I'm sure a lot of people like myself find inspiration in these kind of videos!

[@dramaticdrummer0397]

Album good, also that reharm at the end killed me it’s so good

[@MatthiasGarner]

huge grin on my face the entire time I was watching this. You KILLED it my man. Loving the album.

[@zachindes]

Rainbow road memories, wow! So so excellent

[@redalchemy7322]

Recipe for for a Jazzy Rainbow Road: 2 parts 8-bit Music Theory 1 part inspiration 2 scoops of "borrowed" funk Mix with Winnipeg Jazz musicians Serve hot with an album on the side

[@MSGrantMusic]

This album is fire!!! Congratulations, it sounds great!

[@LBVocals]

Amazing work 8-bit. I’ve been giving the album a lot of spins ever since it dropped! This is definitely one of my favorite tracks.

[@a52productions]

OUGH those CHANGES! couldnt stop grinning whenever you showed us a new chord. very brecker brothers, excellent job

[@dancenow1337]

Absolutely loved this! Please more! Gonna check out the album right now! :)

[@Protsky]

Absolutely loved your album ! Stellar job as usual with you ! :D

[@rubyjane16]

You are absolutely brilliant!!! Love the album and learning about your creative process. Your music is far too good to keep in your head so please keep sharing!

[@bentfishbowl3945]

Thanks for going in depth on this one. I felt like the tracks I liked more were the ones I was less familiar with, call it expectations or nostalgia

[@cristiangamesgames]

THE BEST CHANNEL ON KZbin PLEASE NEVER STOP

[@zacharyliles8657]

DUUUUUUDE that unison soli section go so damn hard!

[@amadeusherrera]

Man this is amazing! The whole album is. Thanks for sharing the process behind it!

[@mikebryant4146]

Cool album. I’m diggin’ it!

[@plutostudios1417]

holy cow this was so enjoyable, and i cant wait to listen to the album!!! killing my dude

[@andrewroes7942]

Absolutely love seeing a video of your style from the perspective of the other side of writing music, would love to see it again. And of course, was listening without video and knew Dolphin Shoals immediately lol

[@huhneat1076]

9:23 the first bar you can TELL that he was thinking of the lick

[@ddthegreat]

I've listened to the whole album on Spotify and I think it's really great! I just wish there was even more!! Hopefully you'll do a followup album at some point! :D

[@Kjhgar12]

Please make one of these vids for each of the album’s tracks ah it’s so wonderful to hear you talk about your compositional craft

[@Jon-a2x]

This is so awesome!!! I had no idea you had a band first off .. really cool. Secondly, your writing/arrangement of this tune is other worldly ... I love it and have been listening since.

[@randomness264]

7:25 is giving me the intro to Josie by Steely Dan. gotta love a collection of "frankly stupid" jazz chords to get the blood pumping

[@Gold---Mole]

Art Blakey!! Moanin' was my big band gateway so to speak, well chosen!

[@nathandorsey9145]

Would looooooove it if you did more videos like this.

[@dominicmanzella5493]

So Mario Kart Double Dash was the second videogame I ever played. I cannot tell you exactly how much I love this. I wish I had known about this when I met you at Magfest (where you covered smash melee, the first videogame I ever played lol).

[@VectressWasHere]

That guitar solo is soooo goooood

[@roposhipin]

i got so many ear tingles listening to the instrument solos! And that weird chord concoction you made, fitting it in with the piece? ah! So nice! This was a delight to listen to! Very entertaining and wonderful! 👏

[@ivanfaigenbom5300]

just found this vid and channel. Awesome content. Love it

[@jaredkhan8743]

You are an absolutely incredible musician. I've learned so much from you!

[@alejandroemilianoguzmantej8231]

The album is AMAZING, best jazz i´ve heard since 2010

[@charmikarma9726]

this vid was super cool, wouldn't mind seeing more explaining the rest of the tracks

[@percussiveseer415]

I would never ever have been able to reverse engineer your arrangement and find everyting you just described here, but I appreciate that you counted on shameless thievery and music theory more than just inspiration Inspiration i useful but never mandatory and that's one big thing I learned this year! Thanks for your work. Will definitely check out your album!

[@bcpeters1457]

Very much appreciated the MK lick

[@blubobbie]

my guy got me in tears before the 1 minute mark

[@EC42904]

Oh man, hearing the N64 Rainbow Road theme makes me happy

[@user-tb5mb2ng9n]

I never thought I’d live to see the day Audrey Hepburn featured on this channel. Also, congrats on the album!

[@aquaflame8334]

The whole album's absolutely killer bro! You've taught me a lot over the years, so it's awesome to see you create something so cool!

[@comfy39]

loved the nods to casiopea :)

[@rizzbod]

this is amazing

[@VolaJelly]

I was just casually listening to the video picking up on the music then i just hear the Mariokart Lick out of nowhere and just pause the video for a moment to process it... Amazing vid and music though! I love it all

[@nnesineg]

Man your album is dope I love it so much ! And Im kinda sad theres no material version of it. I respect your work a lot and it's so cool to see how your write your tunes !

[@ShoesMagoo]

Came for the nerd theory, stayed for the A.N. cameo.

[@tim5749]

This is awesome! I’m about to start teaching music (guitar), and you’re a big role model for me. Ive been watching for years, and I’m happy to see you released an album! Loving this song, wishing you success and more years of great jazz music!

[@anlev11]

Amazing

[@reicejiru4133]

I'm so happy to see you are close to half million.. I remember when you was about 18K followers and tough to my self, why this dude didn't get more recognition?? You deserve it man! I hope you the best and enjoy ur well deserved success bro! I love games and jazz too 😙😊

[@ericmyrs]

Love the Katsuta quote.

[@TheSteelDialga]

Loved this video. I'd really enjoy seeing another analysis of one of the other songs from your album. A solo analysis could be sweet also. I thoroughly enjoyed pretty much every solo on the album