- Aima The Dreamer with live band KILLED it. Hard to believe this was Aima’s first time performing her own music with backed by a rhythm section as a solo set. It was one of the major highlights of the night for me and I was glad to be involved.

- Jazz Mafia String Quartet was a surprise addition to the show and went on really early with an acoustic set in the middle of the dance floor. The Audience stood captivated in a circle around the band and the String Quartet (with trombone of course!) played completely acoustic. Props to the audience for maintaining a very low volume level for the set, it made for a really special beginning of the night. Special guests included Joe Bagale on percussion (Cajon specifically), rapping and beatboxing with Soulati and Infinite from Felonious, upright bass from Daniel Fabricant and 3 songs with guest vocalist Sonya D who sounded beautiful and was a pleasure to work with!

- A surprise appearance from Martin Luther happened on the last song of the JM String Quartet which happened to be Wham’s “Everything She Wants”…Martin and Sonya D improvised a very happening duet over it which included Sonya changing the lurics to “And now I say that I’m having YOUR baby…” it was a good laugh and very in the moment.Props!  After that  we decided to add one more featuring Martin on one of his originals, Touch the Sky, which we performed with him with the Orchestra at Stern Grove last Summer. 

- Soulati put on a great set of all solo looping, beatboxing, rapping, singing and amazed many, made many shake their bodies and made others drink more. Perfect. It’s a beautiful thing what this man can do with a looper!

- Joe Bagale rocked a flawless TRIO set with a few sit ins from the horn section. I really dig Joe’s stripped down set and Chris Mcgee and Brandon sound great singing the harmonies. Joe got the whole audience involved and brought the energy up a few notches.

- The Shotgun Wedding Quintet rocked a fun set of lots of new stuff including many of the Cab Calloway remixes we’d been in the studio recording until the wee hours of the morning the night before. We were joined by guests Rich Armstrong, Mike Olmos, P Dub (on the Bass Drum!) and Shaina Evoniuk. Thanks to Emily for the celebratory shots!

- Honorable mention goes to Brass Mafia who’s set got cut short because of everything running quite late but still rocked it strong for the last part of the night with a powerful party set.

---

Longtime Jazz Mafia violinist and youth education coordinator Shaina Evoniuk leaves this week for a 4 month World Tour with the violin supergroup BARRAGE. Shaina is keeping a blog for those of you who may want to check in from time to time. If you’re curious where she’s at  in the world, take a visit to www.shainaevoniuk.com .Feel free to leave a comment or question and she’ll try to get back to you. If you’re interested too, check out the calendar at www.barrage.org.

---

We hope everyone had a happy and safe New Year. We kinda layed low this NYE, Shotgun and Joe Bagale rocked it up in Truckee playing a private party for some really awesome friends of ours and we got some awesome snowboarding in at Northstar on New Years Eve and New Years Day!

Looking forward to many more fun and crazy musical adventures in 2012 my friends!

---

Also…  Check out the track “M’Lady” from Steven Bernstein’s Millennial Territory Orchestra -” MTO Plays SLY ” - Download Here.

---