TKO Release Show

Nicola Caminiti – alto & soprano saxophone
Michael Hilgendorf – guitar
Sam Towse – piano
Rafael Enciso – double bass
Miguel Russell – drums

TKO began as a compositional challenge, and more importantly: a joke (lol). Those that know us know we’re big fans of Jackbox party games (the most popular of which being Quiplash). Almost all of our late night hangs ended with at least one round of Tee K.O., a game in which players design T-shirts and write slogans that are shuffled and randomly paired, creating hilarious (and sometimes appalling) combinations. This project began with the idea to apply the rules of this game to a compositional exercise.

On March 31, 2025, we gathered at The Jazz Gallery with a simple but ambitious goal: write ten songs – two per person – in four hours, then record them immediately afterward. Earlier that day, we met at Sam Towse’s apartment to set the parameters. We generated ten compositional prompts (such as “piano ostinato with bass melody” or “melody in three keys with no repeating key pattern”) and twenty song titles. Both lists were shuffled and randomly assigned, so each of us received two irrefutable compositional prompts and four song titles to choose from which would define each piece’s direction before a single note was written.

From 4:00 to 8:00 p.m., we worked on our tunes separate from each other at the Jazz Gallery. Immediately, chaos ensued as some people (Rafael…) finished their tunes in 30 minutes (and proceeded to bother everyone else) and other people struggled with constraints and technological mishaps (we really wish the Gallery had a second piano, and Ableton really needs to find a way to allow people to export multiple MIDI tracks).

By the end of the writing session, we had nine completed pieces. We moved straight into recording, imposing another constraint: a maximum of 30 minutes per song. When the clock ran out, whatever take we had was the take. No polishing, no revisions.

Needless to say, it was a hilarious, chaotic SLOG. Regardless, by the time 3 a.m. rolled around, we managed to have all nine songs recorded. We thought we’d keep it to ourselves, but upon listening back, we realized we had something special. We’re enamored with what we came up with under such difficult constraints, and we think you will be too.