Smooth Criminal for beatbox flute quartet and piano-Michael Jackson

Smooth Criminal is a Michael Jackson song, first released on his 1987 album Bad, built on a tense, driving groove. This arrangement keeps that engine and gives it to the flutes.

The four flutes open with beatbox alone: kick, snare and hi-hat sounds voiced through the instruments set up the pulse at 108 BPM, before a single note of melody is heard.

The melody then enters over piano chords, while the flutes keep the groove going underneath. In the middle of the piece all four flutes lock into the same repeating rhythm, so the ensemble becomes one large drum machine. A beatbox improvisation section opens a space for solo freedom, the opening groove returns, and the piece closes on trills over rolling piano.

The point of the arrangement is simple: in this song the tension lives in the rhythm, so the flutes play both the melody and the rhythm section.