THE GREAT VIDEOGAME SONGBOOK
T ony Award-winning composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist Charlie Rosen has certainly seen his fair share of orchestral arrangements. But when Jake Silverman gave the NYCbased band leader the chart for his version of Meta Knight’s Revenge, Rosen was taken aback. First and foremost, he was impressed with Silverman’s work – with one caveat. “I remember looking at the chart and being like, holy shit, this is so hard to play,” he laughs. Rosen tried to rebalance the arrangement, and make it easier for the jazz orchestra he leads, The 8-Bit Big Band. “Still, everybody was like, ‘This is the hardest chart I’ve ever played.’” To which Silverman bursts into laughter.