No concerts? Bay Area’s Jazz Mafia keeping plenty busy
Adam Theis and his band lay down series of videos for YouTube channel
Adam Theis wasn’t counting on a captive audience. As the founder and driving spirit behind the Jazz Mafia collective, the Oakland trombonist-bassist just figured that the early months of 2020 seemed like a good time to start letting the world know about the dozen or so projects that Mafia associates have been perpetrating. The confederation of Bay Area musicians has long made savvy use of video, but with furious bursts of activity “we were finding we weren’t documenting what we were doing,” Theis says. “We’re always worried about moving forward. So we booked three days at this soundstage connected to Sound Wave in Oakland and taped a bunch of performances.” More than a welcome dose of funk and soul, the flood of videos posted on the Jazz Mafia YouTube channel offers hours of spirit-lifting diversion. Some of the performances were captured on multi-camera shoots, like saxophonist Joe Cohen’s brass arrangement of the Rolling Stones’ “Paint It Black,” a prescient performance that could serve as the season’s theme song. Other pieces were documented via iPhone, offering a particularly intimate view of the performance, like the Cosa Nostra Strings version of the Scottish band the Proclaimers’ “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles).” Arranged and sung by violist Keith Lawrence, it’s one of those covers that permanently purloins a song from the original source. “The multi-camera shoots cost money and take a lot of coordination, and the iPhone ones cost almost nothing,” Theis says. “We’ve been finding a lot of enjoyment in that simple way of creating content, with viewers really responding to the raw stuff. And once this pandemic hit, it seemed like the perfect time to focus even more on this homespun way of recording that was already in the ether.” Theis has put out a call for musical friends and colleagues to send in self-made videos for Jazz Mafia posting. In the meantime, the YouTube channel overflows with seriously funky tunes featuring some of the region’s most dynamic artists. Arranged by Theis for a brass-augmented lineup of the Heaviest Feather ensemble, “Karlita” is a Crescent City stomp delivered by vocalist Trance Thompson. For a pure shot of horndriven funk there’s the Brass Mafia’s “Rollin’ in Da Hood,” a high-stepping instrumental Mardi Gras anthem. But part of the fun is remembering just how many musical bases the Jazz Mafia can cover. There’s the gorgeous track “Get Back” by the folky T Sisters with the Cosa Nostra Strings. The Jazz Mafia’s Choral Syndicate delivers an inspired performance of gospel music legend Kirk Franklin’s “Miracles” conducted by Trance Thompson. Vocalist Lilan Kane explores the future-soul sound of Hiatus Kaiyote’s “By Fire” with the Cosa Nostra Strings, and bilingual rapper Dakini Star tears up “Driiip,” delivering a few sly “azucar!” shoutouts in tribute to legendary Cuban singer Celia Cruz. When it comes to old favorites, there’s no beating the 2009 video of Stevie Wonder jamming with the Jazz Mafia spinoff outfit Supertaster. Theis says there are dozens of tracks they’ll continue to upload in the coming weeks. When it’ll be safe to document current projects isn’t clear. “We have all these recording studios we have access to, but it doesn’t seem safe to have five or 19 musicians crammed in a small room,” Theis says. Instead of recording new music, he and his closest associates are looking at ways to keep fellow musicians from fading out on a scene that’s turned into a barren desert. “I feel like artists live in a sense of panic anyways, especially in the Bay,” he says. “People can survive for a little bit, but a few months will be a deal breaker for a lot of artists.”