Unbelievably from Skrillex to Jazz
- Feb 27, 2016
- 3 min read
It all began for a college fest. Scoring points, picking up chits, selecting music artists and then BAM! We've been hit by the toughest challenge in the history of our collegiate music or perhaps even in Mumbai. Here's what the challenge was: to make a Jazz cover of a Skrillex song!
Yes! You've heard absolutely right! Astonishing!
Most of us are familiar with Skrillex. They're a combination of genres. EDM + Electro house + Dubstep + Post-hardcore. If you haven't give it a ear :
I purposely chose this song because you'll see how Skrillex barely has lyrics. Just a couple of lines and the song is done.
For those who don't know Jazz listen to At Last by Etta James definetly the best song I've ever fallen in love with.
Now that you've heard both the artist Skrillex and the genre Jazz, let's take a deeper peek into the two of them to learn some interesting facts!
Sonny John Moore a.k.a Skrillex one of the most popular and Grammy nominated DJs of the world started off with music since the age of 13. He used to toy with FL studio, a software that helps compose and produce music. He learned about Warp records and that's where he got hooked on to electronic music and from there on began all his early experiments in music. Young Skrillex after spending two years in an arts academy, was home schooled due to immense amount of bullying. When he was 16 he got to know that he was adopted, although he doesn't seem to want to touch upon the past and only work ahead towards the future. He definitely is only moving forward when you see all the grammys he's won so far (6 of them is a BIG DEAL) and the fact that he does 300 or more shows a year. Like WOW!!
Before his solo career Skrillex made music under the stage name of Twipz, you'll find his earlier tracks on Youtube. He also initially made his way into a band. He wanted to be a guitarist for an emo rock band and eventually became the lead vocalist of the emo rock band " From first to last" but left because he had a few vocal issues and admitted that singing was never his passion. Finally after 2007 he set out to pursue a solo career. Now only 26 years, but he's making waves on the electronic scene for years. While Benny Benassi's "Cinema" was a hit in its own right, Skrillex's remix achieved its own success. Not only did it clock in over 30 million views on YouTube, but it sat on iTunes' Dance Music chart for six months and was used in an advertisement for the WWE, ultimately leading to a Grammy win for Skrillex in 2012.
P.S. Skrillex also has the trending quarter fade hairstyle.
Here's Skrillex's remix of Cinema:
So it was this song that we chose to make a Jazz cover for the band competition. It was definitely a great challenge considering none of us in the band were EDM fans and only one of us was a Jazz fan. Getting everyone in tune with both the genres, learning the different ways of Jazz, we managed to pull it off by working as a team. You'll find the audio of our cover on top.
Did you know what the word "Jazz" meant?
In the earlier days, 'to jazz' meant to fornicate and jazzing' meant 'having sex’. ‘Jazz baby’ was used to refer to a woman who was easy to get while a Jazzbo' was a lover of ladies!
The first time the word jazz was used in a song was by famous song writer Clarence Williams. And so began numerous ways to use the word and went on to become one of the greatest genres of the world.
New Orleans is claimed to have been the origin of jazz music. It's there where raw jazz music was polished and then it grew into a genre with a wide range of styles like Dixieland, gypsy jazz, big band swing, bebop and Bossa Nova jazz. The musical genre also comprises of plenty of contemporary sub-genres such as free jazz, acid jazz and soul jazz.
Jazz music brought dozens of new dance steps in America. The Charleston, Black Bottom, Shimmies, Trot and the Tango are the prominent ones.
Every year International Jazz day is celebrated on April 30th.
So here was a small little piece of fusion on how a great artist and a classic genre collided into eachother and made some fabulous music.
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