10/20/2024: I've been listening to a ton of japanese jazz fusion lately, and I think it's safe to say Casiopea has quickly become my favourite band.
I had discovered jazz fusion in 2021, listening to Himiko Kikuchi's "Flying Beagle" album, and getting some song recommendations such as Masayoshi Takanaka's "Speed Of Love" in my youtube or Casiopea's "Dazzling" on my instagram over the years. Earlier this year I had just thrown on one of those mixes that youtube makes for you and "Looking Up" by Casiopea came on, and I was REALLY *****in with it heavy, and i decided to go through Casiopea P1's albums and make a playlist out of song's I liked, which grew to include some of Takanaka's as well, plus both of their live performances and some T-Square, and a bit of Dimension.
I haven't enjoyed a genre this much in a long time, and definitely never this thoroughly. I honestly think it's primarily shaped by my love for video game music (particularly Nintendo's), because that's what a lot of those composers were listening to at the time, and it sort of became a staple of Nintendo's image. It gave me sort of a natural affinity for liking this genre, and, sometimes, composing in it.
ABOUT THE SONG ITSELF: "Misty Lady" was one of my favourites I've heard from Casiopea, and I decided to learn it on the keyboard. I also learned Galactic Funk, as Minoru Mukaiya has become somewhat of an inspiration for me, and has fueled my desire to study music at a collegiate level. Those two songs will likely be what i audition with. I found a MIDI online, which I imported into OS, and in a separate tab I used the MIDI as a note guide to recreate the song from scratch. I just don't have the time anymore to transcribe things myself, and lose interest too quickly to do it over time. But it keeps me creating, which I like. The ONLY thing I copy/pasted exactly from the MIDI was the guitar, because it had such a great sound, whoever transcribed it did an excellent job.