mario kart lick origins

DIMENSION is a Japanese jazz funk fusion band that recorded much of the Mario Kart 8 soundtrack. The now famous Mario Kart lick from Dolphin Shoals can be heard at 0:32 by lead saxophonist Kazuki Katsuta during a performance in 2012. Mario Kart 8's release in 2014 was 2 years after this performance so Katsuta seems to have been sitting on this lick prior to the recording of the Mario Kart 8 soundtrack.

[Psykel]

That’s been his signature lick since at least the 90’s. In the last seconds you can also hear the guitar of Takashi Masuzaki, who also played on the MK8 soundtrack, most notably on the Big Blue track together with Kazuki.
Hell, all the members of Dimension plays on that excellent soundtrack!

[ThaddeusSilva]

Katsuta has been playing this lick ever since the 90s.

[thomasc.d.]

It's very important to me to have discovered that the members of the Mario Kart Band have done their own independent stuff, thank you.

[Moderrnclassic]

I love how bold and thick Katsuya plays and as he opens up with that fat growl. What a legend.

[dr.kokiri]

Ya! I started listening to this guy a few months ago and when I heard this in his songs I was like "is that the mariokart lick?" Now I know 😂

[laurensagteresch]

goofy falling off a cliff soundeffect 0:06

[acetylen]

I've recently discovered this band (seriously, Spotify is surprisingly good in recommending Japanese jazz) and they're absolutely amazing. Even their first album, Le Mans, starts with a banger.

[fool]

Katsuta is a wonderful saxophone player, I am a clarinet player currently learning tenor sax, although this is alto, Katsuta is my motivation. This is my favorite lick of all time.

[Gran]

I was listening to this and was like, “Yeah this is fine.” And then I heard it

[kody.l]

at measure 24, that is called a split tone. its different from a growl.

[jaredkhan]

I’ve been transcribing and learning a ton of his solos on his Spotify albums, and omg. He uses variations of this lick in like every song lool. It’s like when he needs a new idea, he defaults to playing a variation of the lick and builds off of it. I honestly love it and it’s been so much fun to learn myself!

[damarihanson]

I love how it feels so forced here like the saxophonist wanted to put the "MK Lick" in his solo knowing that this lick would just be popular in the future so he has to use it everywhere so people look for it elsewhere

[mrbagginz]

Dimension is an amazing band. So underrated!

[DVDKC]

This guy deserves to play in jazz festival everywhere in the world. So underrated.

[Louiesarge]

the funny thing here, as opposed to the dolphin shoals lick, is that these lines are played through changes which make everything in key, whereas the dolphin shoals track doesn't have these to my knowledge which creates this post-bebop-esque outside playing (using the same lick)

[onastur]

can you post the original whole performance? this sounds amazing

[redpepper]

Read the title as “mario kart lick organs” and I had to do a triple-take

[JacksonBaumgartner-kehl]

The lick was also in dolphin shoals in mk8 so this makes me happy

[eelamite]

its funnier cos yk he just did it like "ha i'm gonna pull this lick out" and now it just sounds like he did it for the joke but like he jut genuinely was liek "nah im doin my shit"

[y....]

Lots of other dimension songs have this lick too