ReMix:Banjo-Kazooie "Banjo's Signature Bar" 3:52

Order a beer and get comfy! Lucas Guimaraes assembles a team rivaling the skill & panache of the bear & the bird, with their sophisticated, jazzed up jam of Banjo-Kazooie! Lucas's lineup, all living in his backpack:

• Lucas Guimaraes - Producer, Arranger, Mixing Engineer, Sound Design
• David Russell - Piano
• Alejandro Espinosa - Bass Guitar
• Louie Aronowitz - Drum Set

Lucas successfully challenged himself on style and structure mimicry:

"I figured I need at least one single from my Volume 1 re-release of old tracks, yeah? This track was originally on BUDDIES: A Tribute to Banjo-Kazooie (BEAR SIDE) before being pulled from distribution. So, what's the story with this one? Well, I wanted to do a jazz trio in the style of Hideaki Hori that sounded super chill. Specifically, his cover of "Pure Imagination". I loved how this track built up more and more to a hype point, only to then bring it all back down, and I wanted to emulate that. Overall, I'd say I did a pretty good job. Funny enough, I think this is the only time I've been particularly inspired by another cover. So, I made the sheet music and arrangement pretty simple and gave the three a lot of room to improvise.

The result? Hoh man, calling me the mix engineer on this is almost a far cry. I feel like I didn't even have to do anything. It was just some slight gluing together and adding in some sound design. That's it. I learned about sound design from this track, and definitely boosted up production skills.

One funny production story from this whole track is when I asked David Russell about doing it. I don't remember the specifics, but he was like "Surprise, I already did it" and I was just like "What." - I guess, when the arrangement and idea is inspiring enough, that really pushes people to record. One thing I love doing, absolutely *love* doing with covers by now (as clear for anyone familiar with my music), is taking a classic tune and really flipping it around. It's one where I enjoy a lot of the process behind it, like really digging deep into the source material and understanding how it works, but also the end product. Getting everyone to go "What the heck, how?!" and create something that (hopefully) inspires.

David, Louie, and Alejandro - I have an infinite number of nice things to say about them all on this track. Each of them excel it beyond what I thought was possible. Especially David. There's at least two reference licks in there. Can you spot them? Let me know any you spot in the comments. LOL. I hope you all enjoy!"

Color judge Emunator impressed by the Hori-inspired refinement of the irreverent B-K theme while also being tickled by David's turn on the ivories:

"It's incredible how much you were able to class up a very silly source tune - this is simultaneously tasteful and showboat-y somehow, in a very pleasant way. I'll echo the sentiment that this gets by on the virtue of the clever adaptation and the extremely vibrant performance from David Russell. [...]

Easy vote, you knew what you wanted to craft here and you left enough space for the performers to color between (and occasionally outside) the lines in spectacular fashion."

Judge Chimpazilla also said as much, as well as "GIMME A DRINK!":

"The piano is the star here, wowza that's a cool performance! [...] What an awesome arrangement [...]. You gave it such a new vibe with attitude and class. [...] I feel like I need to summon the waitress for yet another cocktail."

What libations would you pair with this performance? No one has any suggestions? Feel free to leave your drink pairing as part of a ReMix Review. :-) You've never heard a quirky track from Grant Kirkhope's catalog reconditioned like this! Genuine class from the terrific trio of David, Alejandro, and Louie, perfectly fitting puzzle pieces who brought Lucas's tremendous & transformative vision to fruition!