THE JAZZ MAFIA

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 — have announced their first tour of major festivals nationwide. Traveling as a 45-piece group for the tour, Jazz Mafia will perform their critically acclaimed hip-hop symphony "Brass, Bows & Beats," which they premiered to sold-out audiences in San Francisco in 2009. Jazz Mafia will take to the road to appear at many of North America's best-known jazz festivals including the Playboy Jazz Festival at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles (6/13); the Montreal Jazz Festival in Montreal, Quebec Canada (6/27); the Newport Jazz Festival in Newport, RI (8/7); and the Monterey Jazz Festival in Monterey, CA (9/17). Select stand-alone dates include shows at The Grand Theatre in Reno, NV (5/8), (le) Poisson Rouge in NYC (6/25), Laxson Auditorium in Chico, CA (10/15), and the Kimo Theater in Albuquerque, NM (10/30).

The 60-piece incarnation of Jazz Mafia that came together last year for two sold-out performances of "Brass, Bows & Beats" at San Francisco's Palace of Fine Arts were recorded for a forthcoming live album due out on June 8th. "Brass, Bows & Beats" will be released on Jazz Mafia Recordings. On May 8th, the Jazz Mafia will also be launching a free download on their website for a 15 song sampler, which will include two tracks from the forthcoming "Brass, Bows & Beats" live album.

"Brass, Bows & Beats" is a genre-defying, multi-thematic, and community-oriented work that ecstatically embraces and fearlessly expands on jazz tradition. Jazz Mafia's 2010 tour brings this borderless tour de force—by principal composer, arranger, and conductor Adam Theis—outside the Bay Area for the first time. Rick Marianetti, reviewing "Brass, Bows & Beats" for the San Francisco Examiner, wrote that the monumental symphony is, "one of the most exciting new works of American music in years—a seamless fusion of jazz, funk, hip-hop, electronica and digital turntable that deserves to be heard worldwide." Bohemian.com's Gabe Meline wrote that it is, "on par with Miles Davis and Gil Evans' Live at Carnegie Hall or Charles Mingus' Epitaph—visionary in scope, staggering in depth."

TOUR DATES
June 8 – Grinstead Amphitheatre, Sonoma, CA
June 11 – Sonoma Fairgrounds, Santa Rosa, CA
June 13 – Playboy Jazz Festival at Hollywood Bowl, Hollywood, CA
June 25 – Le Poisson Rouge, New York, NY
June 27 – Montreal Jazz Festival, Montreal, QC
Aug 7 – Newport Jazz Festival, Newport, RI
Aug 14 – San Jose Jazz Festival, San Jose, CA
Sept 17 – Monteray Jazz Festival, Monteray, CA
Oct 15 – Laxson Auditorium, Chico, CA
Oct 30 – Kimo Theater, Albuquerque, NM

www.jazzmafia.com