Synthesthetics recently posted a remix of a tune by John Coltrane and Duke Ellington on his soundcloud. Eventually, it was taken down due to ‘copyright infringement,’ but the remix currently rests, safely, at a Bandcamp page Synthesthetics set up.
I really enjoyed the remix, and I saw a description on the site about how Synthesthetics made it to honor his late grandfather. It seemed like a touching thing to do, and I was curious about it, so I asked this talented musician if he could explain the whole story to me. He did, and instead of wasting time paraphrasing, I’ll just post what he wrote about it:
“Well, the reason that I chose that song, was because a number of years ago, my grandfather took me to a local restaurant that had live jazz every weekend. So we went, and a jazz quartet from the local college was there and they were playing mostly what my friend nick calls “snobby jazz”, in that only music snobs can appreciate what they are throwing down. I would call it non-melodic jazz.
“I am not a huge fan. My grandfather who was a jazz saxophonist was also not a huge fan. However, they broke into Coltrane’s In a sentimental mood, and I immediately got that feeling that I get when I hear good music (almost like goosebumps on the back of my neck). and as if he got the same thing, he leaned over to me and whispered “This is real jazz”…, words that keep with me. A few years after he passed away I had a dream about said dinner, and I woke up and made the remix.
“It took 1 day to make the song. I started with chopping out piano lines that I liked on one audio track, and sax lines that I liked on another track. Then without a drum track or click track I started to chop up and arrange something new that sounded nice. In my head I was trying to create a conversation between the 2 instruments, and when I got something that I liked, I muted both tracks and started writing the drums. When I got a nice groove going, I added in the sax and piano tracks back into the mix and it sounded great!
“The rest of the track came together very quickly, or what felt quickly….I soon realized it was dark out and I started in the morning. I though it was a day well spent. I kept the original intro, and added some restaurant ambiance samples to keep to the feeling of the memory/dream. On a mixing/mixdown note, it was nice because the piano and sax were already panned to left and right in the original recording so the mix came together nicely.”
So, if you’re looking for the bandcamp page, you can click on over to http://synthesthetics.bandcamp.com/track/john-coltrane-in-a-sentimental-mood-synthesthetics-remix
It’s mixed well, it’s fun, and after considering the story behind it, I would say it’s a very touching way to honor someone you care about. I hope you guys enjoy this one as much as I do! This remix has some of that “real jazz” in it :)
By the way, you can download this mix for free from Synthesthetics’ Bandcamp page!
Thanks for posting this awesome track, Synthesthetics !
-StrangeFlow
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