Today we’d like to introduce you to Charlie Rosen.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Charlie. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I was born in Los Angeles to musician parents. My mother is a classical Bassoon player and my father is an Organist and keyboard player. They were both fans of all kinds of instrumental music both large and small. I wanted to play guitar in bands so when I turned ten, I started playing rock music with my friends.
This was the beginning of the melting pot of musical influences that would eventually turn into The 8-Bit Big Band. Also since I was five, I’ve always been a huge gamer growing up mainly with the various Nintendo consoles, but also with Playstation as well.
In highschool, I started playing drums in the jazz band there, and thats where I absorbed vocabulary for that style of large ensemble jazz arranging. I moved to New York City at 17 to perform in a Broadway show as a musician and have found a home for myself in that scene. As time went by I began to arrange and produce music for various other Broadway shows and head their music departments. The great thing about working on music for Broadway is that it requires you to draw upon many different musical genres depending on the show.
About a year ago I had the itch to arrange video game music from my youth for a full-sized Jazz orchestra that I could conduct and play in that would feature all the amazing talents of the musicians I met here in NYC, and could eventually become a touring production that showed that the music of video games had created a catalogue of songs that resonate with a generation, and show them the large ensemble and pedagogical respect that we as a culture give to other collections of materials such as “The Great American Songbook” and “Jazz Standards.” I wanted to show that these themes deserve to be realized as fantastically as other great composers of the past.
Thats what brought me here!
Has it been a smooth road?
Of course, the music industry isn’t without its setbacks, it really requires you to be a self-starter. Your reputation for interpersonal relationships is everything, as well as your ability to create a fun but also musically fulfilling work environment. There have been plenty of times when jobs fall through unexpectedly, but overall if you keep doing great work and are able to pay people on time, then your network of peers and supporters will continue to grow!
So, as you know, we’re impressed with The 8-Bit Big Band – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of and what sets you apart from others.
I’m known for my ability to blend genre in my musical arranging, taking themes and lyrics out of their original context and fusing them with other new feels and sounds, particularly through the vehicle of large ensemble arranging. (Orchestra, big band, symphonic rock, jazz orchestra, film scoring, etc, etc.)
Contact Info:
- Instagram: http://instagram.com/the8bitbigband
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/the8bitbigband
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/the8bitbigband
Image Credit:
Mehdi Hassine
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