Very Mary Kate Season Finale

I had the pleasure of arranging and producing this song for the season finale of Very Mary-Kate- a webseries just named the 5th funniest web series of all-time by TimeOut New York.  Congrats to creative masterminds Sam and Elaine! and all the other sweeties at CollegeHumor who make this happen.

This project was a fun challenge as the Marilyn Monroe song it parodies features a kickass big band.  One thing I CANNOT STAND is the of use virtual instruments for jazz horn parts (if I am allergic to a sound.. this would be it), so I knew right away live horns were a must.

We obviously couldn’t afford to bring in a 20-piece jazz band (someday!) so I opted for the happy medium of a small but efficient live horn section (trumpet, trombone, and sax) accompanying a sequenced rhythm section.  We also recorded a few overdubs (2nd horn parts, solos, etc) to fill things out a bit.

It’s a real treat working with musicians as skilled as Walt (trumpet), Dan (sax), and Ryan (trombone)- many thank yous, guys.

A few photos from the session, courtesy of my friend Vivi Hoang: