Original Game Soundtrack - Mario & Zelda Big Band Live

MArio & Zelda Big Band Live CD - Live at Nihon Seinenkan Hall, September 14th, 2003. Album Description

An Excellent Album

This album is really good. I must also disagree with Mr. Watson; the Zelda music is a bit better than most of the Mario tracks. There are only three things that keep this CD away from perfection:

1. There are a few intonation problems near the beginning. This would be okay by itself, but the Mario Scat version is simply horrible, even cringe-worthy. It sounds as if they learned it about two seconds before they performed. Avoid that track at all costs.
2. Be prepared for the audience to clap in time to most of the tunes. It'd be alright if they did it once or twice throughout the album, but the incessant clapping takes away from the power of the songs after a while.
3. The price is a bit high, but that's to be expected of an import.

Is this album worth the import price? Maybe. Is it worth at least $30 in the 'Used and New' section? Definitely! Ignore Mario Scat version and you'll love this album.

Oh, by the way, 'Go Go Mario' and 'Song of Epona' have Japanese ladies singing with them. I thought it was pretty interesting. September 15, 2007

Another pro musician's opinion

I would certainly second Mr. Madsen's take on the music. This is obviously a group either happy amatuers or a band that is sight reading the music.

That said, I'm not sure that the quality of the performance was poor enough to bother me, but then again, maybe I have a different perspective. I tend to like albums with warts (*sometimes*) as long as they aren't intrusive. Listening this reminds me a little bit of something like Thelenious Monk's medium sized ensemble recordings, as he would often hand the musicians hastily penned arrangements. As a result, these performances often have some missed notes and other issues.

Of course, "The Band of Rogues" does not have the deep sense of swing that Monk's players did (which is always going to make up for other problems), but they do keep the groove tight enough that you aren't going to get too distracted. Of course, I suppose that depends on your tolerance for technical perfection.

The main element, however, to the big band's performance that wins me over is the enthusiasm and excitement in both the performances and audience. Everyone is having a good time, and I like that in a live album. An example: The Who's Live at Leeds is so good because it just sounds like everyone is enjoying themselves so darn much. So I like the "happiness" that is on this recording. As my wife put it, "it's cute!" (-:

The small group that plays the Yoshi's Island and Wind Waker material, however, is a different matter. They are very tight, and are clearly in a different class of musicianship than the big band players. Excellent stuff which makes this album worth the price (as long as you aren't paying the $40 "import" price that is! Yikes!).

Incidentally, on the first track: I heard somewhere that the opening number was actually Shigeru Miyamoto playing (which would certainly explain the good but not quite professional performance). I have not confirmed this.

January 15, 2007

Some good, some not so good...

Shawn Watson is a tad misinformed. The opening solo rendition of the Super Mario Bros. theme is played on an electro-acoustic guitar and is very well arranged and played as far as I'm concerned. The big band isn't actually very good, but the tracks played by Yoshihiro Arita and his band are fantastic, but not worth this CD's ridiculous price. The highlights of this CD for me are: The Theme of Athletic from Yoshi's Island, The title theme and the Dragon Roost Island theme from Zelda: Wind Waker and the Delphino Plaza music from Super Mario Sunshine. July 24, 2006

Overall, an average cd

First off, let me state that I have a Bachelor's and Master's degree in music. I have been a professional jazz saxophonist and pianist for about five years. I just got this cd, and I'm not very pleased with the product. The arrangements are pretty good, the band playing them is not. The trumpets miss quite a bit of notes and the saxophones have a tendency not to swing well. The scat arrangement of the Mario theme is very creative, but the singers keep going out of tune. My final verdict is that this is fun, interesting music done poorly.

[...] Not a great CD, but not the worst I've heard either. Hope this helps. October 14, 2005

Not to be Underestimated

Mr. Watson's review of this album is his opinion, but I can assure you that his opinion is far from shared. First of all, gamers around the world recognize the Zelda franchise as having some of the best music to be found in games...probably second only to the Final Fantasy series and maybe a few others. That being said, many of these tunes have been arranged very well though the performances sound adolescent at times - a high school-aged group maybe? The various groups performing do have some issues with the technical aspects of the music at times (intonation), but I've noticed this to be common among Japanese ensembles and anyone who is reasonably familiar with music of this genre will no doubt be familiar with that as well. (There are just as many, if not more, really great moments...especially the solo work in the two WindWaker tracks, among others). Despite some performance flaws, this is a great album - not just because of the music but because of the energy and fun just oozing out of it. You can almost see these performers just having a blast playing some descent music that many people recognize and enjoy reminiscing to. Shawn Watson "God of Gods" (good lord!) is obviously too young to understand this. So what it boils down to is if you enjoy Nintendo music...and have since the mid 80's...and if you enjoy live performances, you'll enjoy this album. Without a doubt. October 16, 2004

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