Oglio's video: The Evil Genius Orchestra - The Evil Genius Awakens Strikes Back With New Hope Official

The Evil Genius Orchestra performs Star Wars Main Title by John Williams from their album "The Evil Genius Awakens & Strikes Back With New Hope," available now on Apple Music, iTunes, Amazon MP3 and Amazon Disc-On-Demand. Featuring, Alex Kim, Joel Kleinberg, David Uebersax and Carvin Knowles. Around the end of the last millenium, I decided to arrange John Williams’ music from the original Star Wars trilogy as Jazz. At the time, it seemed crazy, which suited me just fine, but in truth, John WIlliams was a notable Jazz Pianist before he became the notable Composer. I could always hear Jazz hidden in his complex orchestrations. So, influenced by Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn, Stan Kenton, Tito Puente, Antonio Carlos Jobim, and Juan Garcia Esquivel, I enlisted a handful of mad musicians and began recording. The goal was to make our small ensemble sound like a giant orchestra. To be precise, an Evil Genius Orchestra. In order to give it the illusion of size back then, we added layer upon layer of synthesizers. After all, we were trying to sound like Esquivel and Kenton. The project was fun. We made some recordings, sold a handful of records and all moved on with our various music careers. I ended up producing funk and EDM for several independent films before moving to New Zealand. But something always bothered me about the recordings. For all this time I knew that beneath all those synthesizers were some great performances, that at the heart of those old recordings there was some actual Jazz. I felt like we had cheated ourselves by hiding behind a wall of digital samples. I wondered if anyone could hear past all the layers of keyboards. I secretly wanted to tear away the digital curtain and let the saxophones and trombones be heard. After several years, I convinced the executives at Oglio Records to let me remix those old recordings with fewer synthesizers. At least that was the plan. Just a remix. That’s what I told them. I began by mixing the stripped-down original tracks of me, Joel Kleinberg and David Uebersax over the original jazz beats that I had created using a drum machine and my synth-bass. In order to freshen it up a bit, I added live snare drums, at first just for texture but as my drumming grew stronger, I added bongos, congas, and Latin percussion. I became obsessed, playing until my hands were bruised and swollen. That’s when I discovered a pair of timpani. The drum machines faded into the background. It was no longer just a remix. Adding to the original recording sessions, I played all the extra, as yet unheard, brass parts from my original arrangements on trumpet, french horn, valve-trombone and the much maligned “marching french horn.” I recruited a pair of crazed saxophone players, Johnson Zhuang and Sean Martin-Buss. I enlisted the brilliant Edwin Yu and Annie Hong to play piccolo and flute. And for the hard work of replacing several layers of synthesizers with live pianos, I brought in Alex Kim and Tania Hiskens. Without meaning to, I had built a larger, louder Evil Genius Orchestra. The old arrangements sprang to life and began to transform into something else. Stripped of all its original digital filler, the new version of The Asteroid Field became a manic mix of Bebop and Swing. Ben Kenobi’s Death & The TIE Fighter Attack, grew into a massive Afro-Cuban jam. In some instances I started over completely, re-arranging Binary Sunset as a Cha-Cha and performing Lando’s Palace as late ‘50s Cool Jazz. But there was more to come. Over the years, Mr. Williams has written a great deal more Star Wars music. From the first time I heard it, I knew that The Duel of the Fates wanted to be huge Mambo. But I was even more inspired the first time I heard Rey’s Theme. All it needed was a little more rhythm. Now, after months of recording and mixing and obsessing, I can present our new and improved recordings This time, instead of an army of droids, I have employed an army of clones with a few human commanders to make them more effective. Hopefully, after all this time, we have finally turned John Williams’ work into Jazz...or something like it. –Carvin Knowles (May 4, 2016)