Final Chapter: Jazz Mafia Tuesdays and Brunos

The Final Jazz Mafia Tuesday at Brunos was on 10/28/08 and was the Shotgun Wedding Hip-Hop Symphony 5 Year Anniversary. There won’t be any more Jazz Mafia Events at Brunos. Me and the Jazz Mafia have went our separate ways from Brunos and are not in communications with them anymore.

Jazz Mafia Tuesdays were supposed to end at the beginning of December but In the past week emotions were running very high and I said some things in an email that I shouldn’t have said, which caused the owners of Brunos to close the doors on Jazz Mafia Tuesdays right before our show Tues Nov 11th. Even though at the time of writing that email I felt like what I was saying wasn’t unprofessional or inappropriate, looking back now I wish i would have not said some of the things I did. It wasn’t worth not getting to play all the amazing music we had planned for our last 3 weeks of Tuesdays. Sorry y’all!

For more information you can read the post below but basically the club didn’t feel like Tuesdays were profitable enough for them and for us, because of the popularity of the night, we were looking to move to a venue that could fit more people and not be so crowded; so a change of scene was kinda needed by both parties involved. Unfortunately there were some egos bruised on both sides and people felt like they weren’t being respected and being given the credit that they were due. In the past two years of Tuesdays at Brunos there was very little communication between us and the club about how to improve the night and make it better for both sides. That is most likely why things ended so messed up.

Like I said, the original message I sent said some things that offended the owners of Brunos and I’m not in the business of trying to hurt anyone or put anyone out of business. So here is a revised version that tries to explain a little of both sides:
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Brunos is and always has been a special place to me, it was one of the hottest clubs to play and and see music at when I first moved to SF 10 years ago. Even in it’s ups and downs through various owner/management changes and remodels I’ve always managed to keep my bands playing there and people always have continued to show up, which is a testament to the good times people have had there in that small cozy room referred to as the “cork club” for the past 15 years or so. Eric Garland, Dublin, Aspect McCarthy and I have played there in our various bands since the late 90s and moved our regular Tuesdays there in 2002 from Black Cat/Blue Bar – I’ve probably played there over 500 times. Crazy.

When the new owners took over Brunos 3 years ago they did a full rennovation that took almost a year and changed things a lot. In the Cork Club they put in a new sound system for the bands and DJs and hired the talented Chris Fletcher as a sound engineer which were good choices. They also put in an AC/ventilation system, which was much needed. Me and my musicians feel like most of the other decisions made to “improve” the club were done so without consulting any experts or people who have experience in live music venues etc…Spending lots of money on rebuilding the stage twice, each time decreasing it’s size and then installing a giant DJ Booth was one of the things that makes it difficult for a band to play there. The owners felt like they were going out of their way to make things better and we felt frustrated that they were wasting money on things that were not helping, or were even hurting – The Giant second set of speakers they installed ON the stage made it smaller for a 3rd time – so small that now a 4 piece band can barely fit on it. Week after week of playing there it felt like each time there was a new hurdle that we had to jump over. The club apperently also felt the same – They said that on Tuesdays our patrons “trashed” the place and that there were other problems that our night brought the club.

Another thing that confused me and many people is why the club has never put an ad in the paper saying they have live music and many people still think the club is closed due to their lack of publicity. Even an ad saying “hey! brunos is open!” would’ve helped I’m sure.

Even with these problems we’ve managed to have a great run and the last two years have been the most successful we’ve ever had with many capacity/sold out nights. We are currently in negotiations with two other places that we are considering moving JM Tuesdays too – I’d imagine that even if we do secure a new venue we will take Tuesdays off until at least mid January. I am also getting kind of burnt on doing the bulk of the producing for the events so I will be looking for a promoter to work with on producing bigger and better Tuesdays when we get to that point. If you’d like to read more about the history of Jazz Mafia Tuesdays I wrote a more extensive article at:
www.jazzmafia.com/jazz-mafia-tuesdays-brunos/

I’d like to thank all the musicians and folks who have helped out thru the past 6 years of JM Tuesdays at Brunos. Special shout-outs go to Mark Rosenberg, Steve Redell, Bill Evans, Fletch and Baytaper.com for their documentation in photos video and audio. Also thanks to the staff at Brunos who have always been SUPER cool to us and to those who stood up for us. Many promoters have helped spread the word and helped immensely: Davin Showy McShow, Biss List, Tom Montgomery, Eli Spector, Caren Rueven… Our door people: Rachel Hornaday, Danny Grewen, Steve Redell, Chumpchange Charles, Big Ken, Ryan Greene…All the regular Tuesday freaks are the backbone too, so hugs to y’all…you know who you are!