A little knight music

From Green Greens to Grammys: the story behind an award-worthy Kirby remix

Tony 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.

The two are unsurprisingly in good humour as we talk to them over Zoom, with Rosen currently working in London and Silverman calling in from his home in Baltimore. Before we start, they briefly catch up; it’s only the second time they’ve seen each other since the recording session that recently earned them both a nomination for Best Arrangement, Instrumental Or A Cappella at the 64th Grammy Awards. Silverman recalls the moment he heard the news. “My family was in town for Thanksgiving, and I went for a walk with my dog. I wasn’t thinking about getting nominated, I’ll just say that. And then I get a text from Charlie in all-caps that says, ‘DUDE’, and I knew immediately what had just transpired.” The subsequent scream, he says, was so loud he scared his dog.