Jazz Mafia Tuesdays - A San Francisco Tradition since 2000

Jazz Mafia Tuesdays Are Returning!! Tuesday, August 4th @ Coda Jazz and Supper Club. The monthly lineup will feature The Shotgun Wedding Quintet, Joe Bagale, Spaceheater and many other related bands. Check out Coda’s website HERE

In November of 2008 Jazz Mafia Tuesdays ended our longest and most successful run (of 5 years +) at Brunos in SF. In May, we are moving to a brand new club that is geared towards live music, with an emphasis on jazz. The venue is called The Redemption Lounge and is owned and operated by a great friend of ours so we are very excited. We will be announcing the location in the next few weeks.

Tuesday is the New Saturday…

On Tuesday nights in San Francisco, the Jazz Mafia operates one of the finest music scenes on the West Coast. Voted ‘Best Weekly Live Music’ in the San Francisco Bay Guardian in 2006 and 2007, the Jazz Mafia is recognized across the Bay Area as a unique musical treasure. The Jazz Mafia is a collective of bands, including, but not limited to Realistic Orchestra, Brass Mafia, The Shotgun Wedding Hip-Hop Symphony and Joe Bagale’s Dirty Workshop. Many of which have also been individually voted Best of the Bay.Jazz Mafia Tuesdays have grown into a staple of San Francisco culture and art in addition to serving up select out-of-town bands to an enthusiastic audience. In 2008, Jazz Mafia Tuesdays often reaches capacity crowds, helping to make Tuesday the new Saturday in the Bay Area.

It all started in North Beach with Realistic as the Tuesday night house band at the legendary Black Cat/Blue Bar. Today’s Jazz Mafia is built on the innovation, concepts and musical relationships nurtured over the years on Tuesday nights at the Black Cat. In 2003, sadly, the Black Cat/Blue Bar was forced to shut its doors. However, this led the Jazz Mafia to expand its following to San Francisco’s Mission district. In March 2003, the debut of the 17-piece Realistic Orchestra, a far expanded version of the standard four or five piece line-up, launched a new era of Jazz Mafia Tuesdays at Bruno’s on Mission Street.

Holding onto the raw organic energy that characterized the early years in North Beach, the move to the Mission further elevated the exchange between San Francisco’s Jazz musicians and local Bay Area hip-hop. Jazz Mafia Tuesdays at Bruno’s provides a ritualized time and place for musicians from various backgrounds and traditions to collaborate and experiment. Audience members experience hearing and seeing some of the Bay Area’s best straight-ahead Jazz musicians sitting on stage alongside local rappers, MCs and singers.

Realistic Orchestra occupied the first Tuesday of the month for many years. Realistic features tribute arrangements to artists such as Prince, Stevie Wonder and James Brown, and has consistently sold the club out. Realistic Orchestra now performs the every-other month on the first Wednesday @ Yoshi’s in San Francisco.

Starting in August, the First Tuesday’s are held down by the multi-talented Joe Bagale and the various projects he is involved in including Supertaster, Disappear Incompletely and his nine piece Dirty Workshop Band.

Brass Mafia began somewhat by accident because of demand for a good brass party band in the Bay Area. After predominantly playing private events, the Brass Mafia brought themselves to the public via Bruno’s, they will perform frequently at Jazz Mafia Tuesdays.