Jazz Mafia Symphony #2 Debut "Emperor Norton's Suite" at Stern Grove June 26th!
Debut of Jazz Mafia Symphony #2 "The Emperor Norton Suite"
The program includes the world premiere of a new piece, “Emperor Norton Symphony No. 2,” celebrating the spirit of San Francisco’s favorite eccentric. Chali 2na, known for his MC skills with hip-hop group Jurassic 5 and Ozomatli, guest stars.
Roy Ayers & The Jazz Mafia Symphony At Summer Stage NYC!
Join SummerStage as we celebrate the 70th birthday of famed jazz, funk and soul pioneer, Roy Ayers with world premieres of commissioned works from The Jazz Mafia, which has re-envisioned Ayers’ classic works. The performance will include select students from Harlem School of the Arts. Though he has gained renown for his funky, soulful and jazzy compositions, Roy Ayers’ signature sound is the vibraphone, incorporated into virtually all elements of his music. With hits such as “Brother Green” and “Everybody Loves the Sunshine,” Ayers set the stage for modern R&B artists over the course of his forty plus year career with his innovative use of synthesizers and modern production techniques. Widely considered to be one of the most sampled artists of all time, Ayers’ music continues to engage and inspire audiences of all ages. The Jazz Mafia Symphony, an intricately woven collective of jazz virtuosos, top MCs, singers, arrangers, and composers that include many of the San Francisco Bay Area’s most innovative and prolific musicians, had a break-through year in 2010. Performing their critically acclaimed 45 piece symphony, “Brass, Bows & Beats” in front of tens of thousands at major festivals including the Montreal and Newport Jazz Festivals. They return to the road in 2011 to premiere the Jazz Mafia Symphony #2, “The Emperor Norton Suite.” The Jazz Mafia Symphony is bravado post-modern orchestration, blistering solos, spoken-word, Latin poly-rhythms, boom-bap rhymes, and emotive ballads, all spun together with the spirit of improvisational jazz.
05.14.11 - Brick and Mortar San Francisco, CA Tickets
Jazz Mafia Presents: A Miles Davis Birthday Tribute Featuring The Jazz Mafia All Stars
05.25.11 - Freight and Salvage Berkeley, CA Tickets
Shotgun Wedding Quintet On Tour W/ Zion I & The Grouch!
The Shotgun Wedding Quintet is hitting the road with Zion I & The Grouch for the “Healing Of The Nation” Tour! Click here for more tour info.
AN EVENING WITH JAZZ MAFIA AT FOLSOM LAKE COLLEGE’S THREE STAGES ON FEB 19, 2011
FEATURING THE DEBUT OF JAZZ MAFIA SYMPHONY #2 “THE EMPEROR NORTON SUITE” W/ PRE-SHOW AND AFTER PARTY FEATURING JAZZ MAFIA ENSEMBLES
The Jazz Mafia—an intricately woven collective of jazz virtuosos, top MCs, singers, arrangers, and composers that include many of the Bay Area’s most innovative and prolific musical forces—will be debut their brand new symphony, “The Emperor Norton Suite”, at Folsom Lake College’s Three Stages on February 19, 2011. The entire evening will be dedicated to the music of the Jazz Mafia, and mark as the first time that all of the rooms at Three Stages will be used in one night. The San Francisco collective will begin the night with performances on the smaller stages by the Brass Mafia, Jazz Mafia String Quartet, and the Jazz Mafia Quintet, all leading up to the highly anticipated debut of Jazz Mafia Symphony #2 , “The Emperor Norton Suite”. The Jazz Mafia Symphony will also perform excerpts of their critically acclaimed hip-hop symphony “Brass, Bows & Beats”. Following the symphony, there will be a very special after party in the theater with a performance from the Jazz Mafia’s own Shotgun Wedding Quintet.
12/28/10 - Jazz Mafia Trio w/ special guest Rupa Marya (from Rupa and The April Fishes)
Moody’s Bistro Truckee, CA
12/29/10 - Jazz Mafia Trio w/ special guest Rupa Marya (from Rupa and The April Fishes)
Moody’s Bistro Truckee, CA
12/30/10 - Jazz Mafia Trio w/ special guest
Baxter’s at Northstar Tahoe, CA
12/31/10 - The Shotgun Wedding Quintet w/ special guests
Baxter’s at Northstar Tahoe, CA
01/01/11 - Joe Bagale
Baxter’s at Northstar Tahoe, CA
Jazz Mafia Perform Hip-Hop Symphony "Brass, Bows & Beats" At The Craneway Pavilion In Richmond, CA On December 3, 2010
The Jazz Mafia are set to perform their critically acclaimed 45 piece hip-hop symphony "Brass, Bows & Beats" at the beautiful Craneway Pavilion in Richmond, CA on December 3rd. This show marks as a celebration of the Jazz Mafia's 10 year anniversary, and their break-through summer tour where they performed "Brass, Bows & Beats" in front of thousands at major festivals nationwide including the Montreal Jazz Festival, Newport Jazz Festival, Playboy Jazz Festival at the Hollywood Bowl, and the Monterey Jazz Festival. This will also be the last "Brass, Bows & Beats" show for a while, as the Jazz Mafia is currently working on their new symphony. Excerpts from the new symphony, which features multi-instrumentalists, will be debuted for the first time at the Craneway Pavilion on December 3rd.
800 loving fans, friends, family and fellow artists, 50 musicians, 6 bands, Lyrics Born, Lateef, 8 video cameras, 48 Channel Multi-track recording and non-stop live music from 8pm-2am made for perhaps Jazz Mafia's most memorable night in SF yet...
Highlights by Harley Howard:
There were many highlights of the night, too many to list here but some of my favorites were:
- I felt that the JM included a great cross section of the music they've been known for as well as some new things that I'd never even heard of. The JM String Quartet/Trombone set at the VIP party was completely unexpected and seemed to go over well, especially considering it was performed all acoustic in a 1000 person capacity venue. Each band that performed sets seemed to take pride in doing what they would normally do and not trying to tailor their set to a "Weekend party crowd" too much, which I was personally a bit weary of walking into the event.
- Crystal Monee's set was a great example of the contrast of styles; most of her set was subdued, tasteful, yet incredibly dynamic. It was by far the most people I've seen Crystal perform in front of and she handled it like it was a walk in the park! I was impressed with how the audience already of about 500, was very attentive to her music and reacted with great enthusiasm and respect. Joe Bagale's band followed Crystal and focused on revisiting the groove-oriented tunes from Joe's first album, arranged for a larger band than he's been working with the past few years; it was another great contrast from Crystal and Spaceheater's sets.
- Spaceheater's Blast Furnace played earlier in the night and came out hitting hard - The addition of Seneca as a vocalist on some of the songs was a new sound for me since I last saw them and I thought it was a perfect fit. Immediately after Spaceheater's incredibly melodic and rhythmic set, Brass Mafia stormed the dance floor marching around blasting their SF style of Marching Band/Funk music. As they weaved through the crowd I couldn't find one audience member who wasn't smiling as the band approached them. It was a great way to get the vibe of the night going in an "anything can happen" direction. Things got even more crazy when Shotgun Wedding Quintet took the stage and drove the audience through and incredibly eclectic set of music that often sounded very unlike traditional Hip-Hop yet somehow definitely is carrying on the tradition at the same time. The addition of turntablist Teeko as a guest brought a new sound to the band which I thought was a new and fresh approach.
- JM Co-founder Dublin introduced a new multimedia technology known as "Hijack the band" which at first I was very skeptical of because it required (or rather encouraged) audience members to get out their phones and login to www.hijacktheband.com and play along with an interactive game. Well, much to my surprise it was actually really fun and I saw hundreds of different people's names up on the screen that they were projecting various JM related trivia onto as well as audience suggestions for freestyle topics and other interactive musician/crowd business. I'd like to see them do more with this at maybe a smaller club or a less action packed night to use it even more.
- Of course one of the main reasons many people came was because of the reunion of one of the most talked about Bay Area underground Duos of all time, LATYRX. The JM has been working with many well-known Hip-Hop artists for years now including many recordings and performances with Lyrics Born, (who is one half of Latyrx) but how they got Lateef (the other half) and LB to get back together and perform these mostly incredibly sophisticated and beautiful rare gems, was not explained and everyone was having such a great time hearing this treat that it didn't seem to matter. First the Realistic Orchestra took the stage, played a few of their favorite songs ("Mountain Man" and a song featuring Dublin which I think is called "Perfect Ending" then they were joined by a string section, more rhythm section players and Lyrics Born came out to a deafening noise from the crowd. They rocked two songs from LB ("Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda" from his new album and "Over You" which is one of my favorites produced by DJ Shadow. Crystal Monee sounded incredible on Over You! Next Lateef joined the band for a solo song and performed "Don't Stop" from his record with Chief Xcel. By this point it was well past midnight and the crowd at the Mezzanine was almost to capacity, over 800 and it felt like more. LB came back out onstage to join Lateef as they started "Lady Don't Tekno" and the audience FREAKED OUT. It's very rare to see these two emcees perform together, when I've seen them they've performed a few songs together at the most if Lateef comes to an LB show in the Bay. Many people seemed to sense how special it was to see this duo reunited and performing a set of many of their most talked about songs. For the next half hour the full orchestra backed Latyrx on an incredibly diverse set of music from two of the Bay Area's true Hip-Hop heavyweights. For me, hearing the songs "Storm Warning" and "Say That" orchestrated with a 30 piece band was one of the musical highlights of my life. Once again, I was impressed that the set touched on much more than just party music, which I'd like to see more often in live hip-hop shows these days.
When the Latyrx set climaxed with Last Trumpet, the audience went nuts and there were many smiles and hugs on stage.
Following the Latyrx set there was an all-star freestyle jam backed by Supertaster featuring many familiar faces in the Bay Area Hip-Hop scene including: Soulati and Infinite (Felonious), Seneca, Dublin, Orukusaki, Ryan Greene and many others. The night ended with everyone asking where the afterparty was gonna be, I'm not sure where it ended up but 6 hours of non-stop music left me completely satisfied and I drove home in my car with the window down because it had been broken into (I love 6th Street!)
Jazz Mafia 10 Year Anniversary Show!
This amazing night will feature exclusive performances by more than 35 Jazz Mafia musicians, performing complete sets for the various acts, including THE SHOTGUN WEDDING QUINTET, SUPERTASTER, BRASS MAFIA, JOE BAGALE, and CRYSTAL MONEE HALL. The grand finale of the event will be a once-in-a-lifetime performance of THE REALISTIC ORCHESTRA doing an entire set of LATYRX material accompanied by the Latyrx MC's, Lateef the Truthspeaker and Lyrics Born.
This show is 10 years in the making and is sure to sell out, so please get your tickets in advance.
Jazz Mafia’s Brass, Bows & Beats to Play The Monterey Jazz Festival + Special Afterparty
Jazz Mafia’s Brass, Bows & Beats is back on the west coast to perform at The acclaimed Monterey Jazz Festival in Monterey, CA on Sept 17th. The groundbreaking piece has been featured this summer to enthusiastic crowds at Harmony Festival in Santa Rosa, CA, The Playboy Jazz Festival at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, CA, The Newport Jazz Festival and The Montreal Jazz Festival in Montreal, QC ( in front of 60,000 + fans ) as well as (le) Poisson Rouge in NYC and Harbourfront Centre in Toronto. See below for upcoming show ticket information.
Sept 17th - Monterey Jazz Festival - Monterey, CA - tickets
Oct 15th - Laxson Auditorium at Chico State University - Chico, CA - tickets
Jazz Mafia’s own Crystal Monee Hall and Joe Bagale will also be performing at The Monterey Jazz Festival After-Party at Planet Gemini Sept 18th Click here for show info.
The Jazz Mafia’s Realistic Orchestra: A Tribute to Michael Jackson Comes To Yoshi’s in San Francisco, CA on August 28th!
On August 28th, The Jazz Mafia’s Realistic Orchestra perform their very popular Tribute to Michael Jackson at Yoshi’s in San Francisco to celebrate the King of Pop’s birthday. Don’t miss this amazing 20 piece orchestra featuring the voices of Joe Bagale, Chris McGee, Karyn Paige, and many more as they perform MJ classics. Come celebrate the life of a pop icon! Get your tickets here.
The Jazz Mafia Michael Jackson Tribute will also be performed at the Hopmonk Tavern in Sebastopol, CA on August 26th at 9:30 PM. Get your tickets here.
Brass, Bows and Beats Live album from The Palace of Fine Arts San Francisco now available.
$15.00
Jazz Mafia at The San Jose Jazz Festival
Jazz Mafia will be out in full force at The San Jose Jazz Festival August 14 and 15th. See below for details.
John Ellis and Double Wide w/Adam Theis
August 14th - Noon - Main Stage
Crystal Monee Hall
August 14th - 3PM - Blues Stage
Brass, Bows and Beats
August 14th - 5PM - Jazz at the Rep
Joe Bagale and the Fantastic Fabulous
August 14th - 10PM - Jazz Beyond Stage
Anthony Blea Y Su Charanga feat. Adam Theis
August 15th - 4PM - Salsa Stage
Jazz Mafia's Brass, Bows and Beats is coming off a monumental month of touring. The groundbreaking piece was featured to enthusiastic crowds at Harmony Festival in Santa Rosa, CA, The Playboy Jazz Festival at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, CA and The Montreal Jazz Festival in Montreal, QC ( in front of 60,000 + fans ) as well as (le) Poisson Rouge in NYC and Harbourfront Centre in Toronto. See below for upcoming tour dates for this amazing performance.
View Recaps of the tour by Adam Theis at the below links:
Jazz
Mafia’s Brass, Bows and Beats, which recently came off of knockout
performances at The Harmony Festival and The Playboy Jazz Festival,
will be headed to the East Coast for a string of shows that are not to
be missed. See below for details.
06/25/10 - (Le) Poisson Rouge New York, NY tickets
06/26-06/27/10 - The Montreal Jazz Festival Montreal, QC info
Jazz Mafia’s Brass, Bows & Beats Performing at The Harmony Festival and The Playboy Jazz Fest
After
bringing down the house at the Grand Sierra Resort in Reno, NV, the
Jazz Mafia will be headlining the main stage Friday night at the
Harmony Festival along with Lyrics Born and Chali 2na. Two days later
on Sunday, The Jazz Mafia will be bringing their unique sound to Los
Angeles for the Playboy Jazz Festival at the Hollywood Bowl.
For Tickets to the Harmony Festival Performance click HERE.
For Tickets to The Playboy Jazz Festival click HERE.
Jazz Mafia’s Hip Hop Symphony - Brass, Bows & Beats at The Grand Theatre Reno, NV
Jazz
Mafia will be putting on a special concert at the Grand Sierra Theatre
in Reno, NV on May 8th, performing “Brass, Bows, and Beats” in its
entirety. Joining the Jazz Mafia for this special concert will be
hip-hop legends Lyrics Born and DJ Qbert. DJ Qbert will open the show
with a set of his own, before the Jazz Mafia takes the stage to perform
Brass, Bows & Beats with special guest emcee Lyrics Born. Fans of
Lyrics Born will also get to see the renowned emcee perform his hits
with the entire Jazz Mafia Symphony backing him.
Dublin has been called “the rapper for people that don’t like rap”. He’s been referred to as “a crooner” and “residential white boy smart ass”. He doesn’t appreciate any of these labels.
“People enjoy making up genres for me since it’s a little hard to pin down when you first hear it. I except them all and reject them all at the same time.”
Then what would he define himself as?
“A song writer with deep roots in hip-hop I guess. If I had to label it. Is that pretentious?”
After gaining a loyal following as the emcee and front man of San Francisco jazz and hip-hop band The Shotgun Wedding Quintet Dublin is expanding out with a solo record entitled “Ease the Pain” that is dropping October 27th on independent label Jazz Mafia Recordings. Completely produced by frequent collaborator Elon.is “Ease the Pain” is a collection of what Dublin does best: intricate story telling, melancholy hip-hop ballads, and straight ahead rapping with Dublin’s signature grace and wit.
Record Release Show at Coda SF Oct. 27th 9:30 PM.
Adam Theis interview on KPFA
Listen to Adam talk about his Brass, Bows & Beats Symphony plus hear songs from the new album! Click here.
"Symphonies From Down the Block" is now available. LISTEN to the entire album using the player below, then DOWNLOAD all 10 tracks for only $10! Just click the download button, choose your file format, put in a credit card number, and start downloading.
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