A hip hop symphony? Meet Jazz Mafia and their show Brass, Bows & Beats

Posted on 05/31/10 by

Ian Andersen

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Note: I found a FREE 15 song sampler that includes songs from the Jazz Mafia bands as well as two songs from Brass, Bows, and Beats. You can't beat this. Download it here.

When I first heard Felonious (who we recently filmed), my reaction was something like, "What the hell? Why haven't I heard about this group before?" I read something on their website along the lines of "Felonious is a live hip hop group and kills every live show it performs." I was instantly hooked since that's not something most hip hop groups can lay claim to these days. I immediately knew that I'd be filming them for a One Night Music session some day. There's no way that a group like Felonious with so much passion and creativity wouldn't vibe well with One Night Music where we're also passionate about good music, good art, and good people.

Fast forward about 6 months. Producing the Felonious session was an awesome experience that has connected me with quite a few new folks and introduced me to some incredible new music along the way. One path I got led down brought me to the group Jazz Mafia, whose new project called Brass, Bows, & Beats, is an experience to watch and absorb. It's an eclectic, smooth, sometimes over-the-top mix of jazz, hip hop and spoken word all backed by a 40 piece orchestra. After learning about Jazz Mafia I was left with the same question as when I first heard Felonious: "Why didn't I already know about this group?"

Jazz Mafia, as far as I can tell, is a collective of some of the finest and most accomplished jazz musicians, hip hop artists, composers, and creative talents around, but mostly based out of the San Francisco Bay Area. The Jazz Mafia Symphony Orchestra then is the group that creates Brass, Bows, and Beats. But the members of each Jazz Mafia outfit seem to meld into the other projects. What it boils down to is a massive pool of talent that seems to endlessly create a number of projects that push the boundaries of jazz music.

Brass, Bows, and Beats is the brainchild of Adam Theis, someone who I feel like I should already know about because of how accomplished he is in the Bay Area music scene. Chances are some of his work has graced my speakers at some point. This most recent and prolific project of his has received quite a bit of attention: the group has been invited to join a number of world-renown jazz festivals after they impressed with their sold out premiere at the Palace of Fine Arts.

I'm proud to say that the Bay Area is home to creative, inspirational groups like Jazz Mafia and Felonious making music that can be appreciated all over the world. In one of the videos of Jazz Mafia I found online, Aima the Dreamer, one of the contributing performers to Brass, Bows, and Beats, says, "Brass, Bows, and Beats is not a one time thing. This is a movement. This is gonna keep spreading, keep evolving." Based on everything that Jazz Mafia has done, I have no doubt that this is true. They seem unstoppable, especially when paired with artists like Lyrics Born, a staple of the East Bay hip hop scene. Check out the video below:

This blog post was written by

Ian Andersen

Comments

MasAppeal on 07/13/2010

I was very intrigued by the Jazz Mafia and am now looking into Felonious as well. Both these groups would make great additions to my website The Underground Hip Hop Spot.

The only thing about Jazz Mafia I didn’t really like was the way their Emcees sound. Their musicians are incredible though.

A hip hop symphony? Meet Jazz Mafia and their show Brass, Bows & Beats

Comments

MasAppeal on 07/13/2010

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