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The Night Stevie Wonder met the Jazz Mafia by Adam Theis 09.27.09

As I’m writing this, the day after Stevie Wonder showed up at my band’s gig I’m still on a musical high that feels like it will last a lifetime – it was the best night of my life. Last night was magical in so many ways even before Stevie showed up, so as you can imagine, everyone lost it when he got up to sing with us!

It’s getting kinda hard to retell the story because I start getting a bit emotional so I figured I should write down my recollections of what happened so people can share the joy that one human being brought to a whole community in a little jazz club in the Mission on September 26th, 2009.

So, this all happened at a new spot in San Francisco called CODA Jazz and Supper Club which is only 2 months old. Coda is the newest home of our 8 year long series “Jazz Mafia Tuesdays” and also where we host the party that happened last night when Stevie showed up called “Last Saturdays Remix Live” with Supertaster. As the night approached there was a lot of magic around the excitement of our good friend and Jazz Mafia supporter Davin (Showy Mcshow) celebrating his 30th Birthday – It’s kind of an annual thing that we do with him. There were a TON of his friends there which really helped to get the vibe going. Supertaster, who is kind of the black sheep of the Jazz Mafia, got a rare opportunity to perform in front of a full house of beautiful music loving party people on a weekend which was magic in itself since we usually play the off-nights. In addition to the amazing vocals of Karyn Paige and Joe Bagale we were joined by Dublin and Seneca on the mic for some amazing freestyles. I’m still laughing at the “Love Battle” where Dublin battled Seneca using compliments instead of put-downs, it was too many laughs and it was kinda gay! Seneca was so uncomfortable!

As Supertaster got ready to take the stage for our first set Chris Pastena, who is one of the owners, let us know that Stevie Wonder had come by the club but for some reason didn’t come in, maybe because it was too crowded (it was filled to capacity) or maybe because he was hungry but the kitchen was closed….Anyway we were BUMMED that we missed an opportunity to see and maybe play music for one of our musical GODS. We soon got over it and had an amazing time playing for our friends and family who were possibly the craziest audience we’ve had in SF in a long time. After the break as we were getting into the second set someone came up and whispered to me “Stevie Wonder is here, he is coming in the club!”. The rest of the band soon found out and we were all looking at each other like “WTF?”

As we continued our set of soul, hip-hop beats, jazz breaks and the like we were encountered with the question of “What do you do when Stevie Wonder walks into the small club you are playing?”. Supertaster is probably the most versatile band I’ve ever played with so the answer to that question could be one of hundreds of directions. I’m not sure how we decided but the way it went down felt very natural so I’m happy about it. I wanted to make sure to feature Karyn and Joe on vocals since Dublin and Seneca had gotten their turn on the mic. We did a Karyn and Joe original which was very inspired of course. After that it was feeling like we had to wind things up soon because it was 1:30am. Occasionally I would look back to see if Stevie was still there and much to my surprise he was not there with a giant entourage and he seemed to be just bobbing his head to the music. I also noticed him clapping and looking enthusiastic when I gave some mentions of our scene and what we’ve been building in SF over the past decade, felt good to know he was listening to that.

We ended up playing a Stevie song “You haven’t Done Nothing” which Bagale and Mcgee sang and I dedicated to the Birthday boy Davin. I didn’t want to even mention Stevie on the mic because sometimes celebrities don’t seem to dig that right? It was clear that after that song things were not meant to end yet so we played John Lennon’s “Jealous Guy” as an encore. Joe absolutely SLAYS that song and it was a fun way to end the night in style. As the song neared the last section I suddenly feared for my life as a large horde of people rushed the stage with cameras in hand. As I looked up there was Stevie Wonder being led by his body guard Eric!

When Stevie Wonder got on stage at Coda he acknowledged the band and was very polite and gracious. Stevie got a mic and did a short “sermon” about how beautiful this music is – talked about the connection between John Lennon and Donny Hathaway, and how those songs moved him when he first heard them. I think Joe’s version of that song really did inspire Stevie to get up on stage with us – I feel like if we woulda played a funk jam instead, it would’ve probably not happened the same at all. Anyway, as the song wound down and Joe gave 110% we could tell Stevie wanted to SING too – he was inspired. So we chatted with him for 5 seconds and decided on the tune “All Day Sucker” which is a tune we used to play a lot in Supertaster and also with Realistic Orchestra for the annual Stevie Wonder Birthday Tribute that we put on. I have to say that when he started singing the song it was beyond goosebumps…the crowd was going completely insane yet being very respectful, the band was playing better than ever and we honestly had no idea that Stevie would even want to sing with us. He did what I felt like was my favorite version of that song ever. As the tune was nearing a stopping point a leaned over to Bagale and suggested testing the water by playing the riff from “Can’t Help it”, the hit song he wrote for Michael Jackson. Joe gave me a huge smile and head nod.

It was a little weird when I merged into the bass line from Can’t Help It, Stevie was still singing All Day, and he kinda froze for a second to get his bearings – I was kinda freaked out because I felt like “I just cut off Stevie Wonder!!” Crap!!” But it took him literally 2 seconds and BAM! one of my favorite songs EVER came to life on stage live as Stevie sang those first few notes of a song that haunts many of us as one of Michael’s most beautiful performances. Seriously, when he started singing just the shouts from the band alone were like the rumble of a crowd of a thousand. He broke it down and said a little bit about MJ and how special the song is to him – He also mentioned that he wrote the tune in San Francisco, Sausalito to be exact.

Even though Stevie sings the tune in a much lower key than the MJ version we do, you wouldn’t have known he was struggling – He did vocal acrobatics that I’ve never heard anyone do, even Stevie Wonder! The tunes with him went off as if we’d rehearsed them with him – many people asked me if we knew he was coming; a definite NEGATORY on that one.

I have to also give the band props – Looking over at them during these tunes they held it DOWN, calm cool and collected but with hot FIRE – I felt like I was playing with some seasoned professionals who were BRINGING IT. As the song wound down Stevie thanked everybody talked a little more and basically brought a cloud of peace to the North end of San Francisco’s Mission District that will probably last for a long time.

It was well after 2am but Mr. Wonder stuck around and spent time with all of the band, taking pictures, listening to us talk about the Jazz Mafia and being an all around amazing person. I was lucky enough to hand him the new Brass, Bows & Beats CD of my Symphony and he seemed very interested when I told him about it. As our time together wound down, has asked us to huddle around him and imparted some of the most beautiful and inspiring information a human could ever communicate – true Stevie, true story, that just HAPPENED.

Out of ALL the musicians alive on this planet Stevie Wonder is THE musician I’ve wanted to meet the most for quite some time now. This was indeed a dream come true because not only we get to meet him but we got to share some beautiful music and play for him as well as the highest honor, getting to make music with one of the most amazing musicians and human beings ever.

Other highlights include Stevie singing a clip of his “Happy Birthday” to the B-day Boy Davin who was standing right on front of him. The look on D’s face!!!!!
Waking up and realizing it wasn’t a dream was awesome.
getting calls and texts all night from fellow music lovers.

Another observation that really impressed me is how the whole time Stevie Wonder was there it never felt like some paparazzi b.s. that seems to be everywhere famous people are. People were super polite and gave Stevie the space he most likely needed in a cramped club like that. Thanks to everyone who was there for making it a memorable night and helping us get the vibe just right so that someone like Stevie Wonder felt like that was where he had to be for his Saturday night.

I flew into New York on Wednesday, August 4th, stayed out in Brooklyn with our good pal/ guitarist Grey Macmurray. Grey showed me some new spots in Brooklyn and we had a great breakfast and it was ridiculously hot. Thursday night I did a really fun show with Crystal Moneee Hall at Living Room in the Lower East Side with Rich Armstrong, Yair Evnine and Ben Yonas. We had a terrific time and it had been a while since I’d played bass with Crystal, mostly been playing the bone with her, so that added some extra challenge for me which is always good to clear the cobwebs. After Crystal killed em’, we went a few blocks down to Rockwood Music Hall. Amazing spot, I’ve seen so much good music there and this time was no exception. Bay Area native Sahsa Dobson was in town for a few days on break from touring in Norah Jones’ Band – It had been years since I’d seen Sasha do her thing so it was great to get an update live. She brings a very unique blend of real jazz, with some old country, bossa and rock. Her band was smoking too. Perhaps the highlight of the night was stumbling into the “new” room at Rockwood which is much bigger than the tiny room and it’s right next door. Trixie Whitley was performing her weekly residency there. Apparently she’s the daughter of Chris Whitley who is a big deal but I knew nothing about until this night. Anyway, she kinda reminded me of a Fiona Apple for lack of better comparisons, low voice, talented on the piano but also really unique style on the electric and acoustic guitars as an accompanist. We got her CD and I’ve been bumping it.

By this point many of the Jazz Mafia musicians were showing up so a bunch of us got a dicsount room at the Marriott Residence in Times Square – Big ballin’ BUT not with 5 people in a room :  But that’s how we have to roll sometimes to save on the dough ya know? PLus it’s kinda more fun being cozy anyway, if you can deal with the epic, Earth shattering snoring of Joe Cohen!
We continued the night at a few more bars and made it to the beds at around 3 or 4. I think I slept on the floor but not sure.

in the days on Thursday and Friday I dedicated most of my time to being indoors rehearsing the NYC musicians who were joining 20 of us to make up the 45 piece Brass, Bows & Beats group for the Newport Jazz Festival Performance on Saturday. I was su pleased with all the musicians that we got on board and once again, dozens of new friendships and music connections were started because of our Symphony and the opportunities it has brought forth. We were especially lucky to have a few incredible musicians form Maria Schneider’s orchestra; Charles Pillow on flute and Greg Gisbert on trumpet. Success.

Friday after the rehearsals we cruised to Newport with about 12 of us in a van, got stuck in insane traffic going to the JFK to pick up “found” luggage; Thanks to Delta, they lost a huge box of all our CDs for the tour. After Ben calling them for 2 days and screaming they magically appeared. So, it took 6 hours to get to Newport from NYC but we had a lot of fun in the van playing Charades, The Movie Game and whatever else bands do when trapped in close quarters like that for hours.

When we finally made it to Newport Friday night, we quickly forgot about how crappy the drive was and were greeted by Joe Bagale standing on the porch of an incredible 7 bedroom house on the cliff of the Atlantic Ocean in Newport. YES! Joe had done all the shopping, fridge was stocked and we were RET TO GO! Joe’s high school buddies Jason and Theressa were so kind as to let us stay in their parents’ new place that was in mid remodel, perfect! Nothing we could do to mess it up really! There were up to about 20 people sleeping there by Saturday night and it felt completely comfortable. We saved thousands of dollars by not having to get hotels and we were able to stay for an extra day. We all felt lucky to get that kind of love. Jason and Theressa you guys are the best!

Going back to Friday night – Me and Pdub kinda wanted to get outside and cruise around the “downtown” area of Newport, which is really just a bunch of bars and shops on the Marina. Wait…did someone say MARINA? Hahaha, yes indeed the Mission invaded the Marina once again but this time it wasn’t SF’s Marina, it was New England Style! I was shocked at what I saw but like an overturned big rig, I couldn’t stop staring and people watching, It looked like literally dozens of wedding receptions had just finished and hundreds of drunk groomsmen and bridesmaids took over this 1/2 mile long strip of dozens of bars. I could be wrong, maybe they weren’t from weddings but it really reminded me of that vibe, Anyway, Pat and I cruised to many of the “hotspots” and managed to get some good ideas for the next “preppy” party, The best part was finding a tiny hole in the wall bar called “Sara’s Bar” connected to Rouchard’s Restaurant. We were chillin; there having a Sweet Tea Vodka Lemonade and some “Jersey Shore” dude was yelling at another dude screaming obscenities calling the other guy a “Jersey Shore dude”…Everyone in the bar was busting up. Priceless. No footage of that one unfortunately. Another funny thing is when we were at the bars talking to people we’d mention that we were playing at Newport Jazz Fest the next day, kinda like bragging I guess – but NOBODY in the Marina knew what we were really talking about. It’s like a different world.

On the way home Pat and I got lost and ended up going on an impromptu tour of some of the nicest neighborhoods at night. Super fun; I love the architecture, each house was totally different, even though all the people in the Marina looked exactly the same haha.

Saturday we woke up early and got to the festival early for soundcheck at the Newport Jazz Festival. The setting was breathtaking; Mainstage is out on a grassy filed at the edge of the Harbor with the Bay and Bridge behind the audience – Behind the band is a fort from the late 1800s which looked more like a castle. We were on the mainstage with one of the best Jazz festival lineups I’ve ever seen; Ahmad Jamal, Mariah Schneider Jazz Orchestra, Chick Corea/Kenny Garrett/Christian McBride/Roy Hanes…Oh and for the ladies….Jamie Cullum! The side stages were at times even better than the main. Scary good lineup.The highlight for me and many of the the others was Ahmad Jamal, who is one of my all time faves and he played the best I’ve heard him. Herlin Riley was on drums. Success.

The BBB set went off without a hitch, which is in itself a miracle. Getting that 45 piece band on stage, set up, soundchecked and running in less than 3 hours was something I’d thought impossible until this summer – We’ve got it down to a science now! I was expecting not that many people to be in the audience since we went on first but the crowd was there and gave us lots of love, it was much more than I had hoped for. The band smoked it and there were new features and talent that shone through from our guest NYC musicians. The rest of the day was spent listening to the aforementioned bands and us getting into all sorts of trouble and mischief. Dublin took a tour  of Fort Adams and got a little bit of a history lesson which he tried to explain to me in the van as we were leaving the festival but I couldn’t understand him because we had 17 people in a 13 passenger van WITH instruments. Awesome.

That night we went back to our giant house on the ocean took swims, ate home cooked meals from our hosts and enjoyed the perfect 75 degree at night weather, Me, Joe Cohen,Dublin, Erin and KAryn went to a highly recommended Seafood Shack to get a taste of the New England vibe; Lobstah Rolls, Clear Chowdah, Clam Cakes and many other fried delicacies were definitely an epic food success however, the Lobster Rolls didn’t live up to the expectations but still were yummy.

Midnight Saturday night brought the next crazy phase of our very action packed weekend – P DUB’s  BIRTHDAY!!!! Memory is spotty but some events included 15 of us stumbling around downtown at closing time causing trouble, lots of walking, Joe Bagale playing a new game invented by Rachel Hornaday called “TVDJ” (AWESOME) and all sorts of madness back at the house on into the early morning.

Sunday morning the “Lobsta” crew went to breakfast and had Crab Cake Benedeict; Yet another food success for the tour.

Sunday night Shotgun Wedding Quintet performed out NYC debut at the said Rockwood Music Hall. After seeing so much quality music there during my past few NYC experiences it was a real honor to be hittin’ there. We did a set with Crystal Monee first – Damn she always sounds so good – Even if the bass player (me) is messing up her songs! hahaha

Our Shotgun set was spirited; We played many new songs and featured NYC guests within our action packed set including Matt Nelson, Ryan Snow and a very talented singer who’s name I will work on getting, The owner loved us so we’ll hopefully be back soon!

After the show we continued celebrating PDubs Bday, stumbling around the East Village, Goodtimes. Another night with 5 of us crammed in a nice hotel room – Another night up til 5am and another night spent hanging out with some of my most funny,crazy and loudest snoring friends ever. I love you guys. Special thanks to our “Road Managers By Proxy” Rachel and Erin – Y’all helped out a lot and it was really special having y’all there for the journey.

Well, laptop battery is about to run out so I’d better send this off to Dylan before it’s too late. Hope to see y’all this weekend in San Jose Saturday when Jazz Mafia takes over the Jazz Festival! Checkout the lineup!

Stay Classy,
Adam Theis

Well, it’s been a crazy few weeks. I’ve been on the road with the Jazz Mafia sharing the Brass, Bows and Beats symphony with new audiences coast to coast. In June, our 40-piece band played at the Hollywood Bowl for the Playboy Jazz Fest. This was a special experience for me particularly because this is a stage The Beatles performed on. Wow. The stage is actually on a circular, rotating platform…it goes kinda fast, too. You gotta balance yourself. They actually will spin you off and literally rotates in the next band when your time is up, even if you’re in the middle of a song. Bang, bang, bang…very LA., and the next band is playing. We diligently timed our set, as to make sure we didn’t become part of the infamous “spinners club”. Here’s a view from the audience, courtesy of photographer Bill Evans:

After a couple weeks back in the Bay, we headed out to New York City. We were greeted by a very exuberant audience at Le Poisson Rouge in Greenwich Village. After the show, the band gathered on the street to load up our gear and created quite the party and impromptu jam-session on the streets of Manhattan. In would have been nice to hang out in NYC for a little longer, but we were headed to Montreal for their summer jazz fest.

Driving into Montreal last Saturday was amazing, I could tell right away that this was a special town, very reminiscent of Europe in it’s architecture, mixed in with some crazy modern buildings. After the muggy heat of NYC, the clear, crisp air was refreshing, like a perfect day back home in the Bay. I really didn’t have much idea what to expect from the Festival International de Jazz de Montreal…but as soon as our band pulled into the area of the festival, I realized this was a major international jazz festival. After getting a late start on our drive from New York, and taking a long time to get over the border, we had to rush to our first set. I was performing with Joe Bagale that night, and other smaller bands within the Jazz Mafia were slated to perform as well. Joe, The Shotgun Wedding Quintet and Crystal Monae Hall all did a wonderful job representing our slice of the San Francisco music scene that night…and the Montreal audience received us so warmly. For Joe’s second set that night, our crowd was really fired up, and I was so surprised that the plaza was packed with what I would estimate to be about 8,000 people…and this was just a side stage.

That got us all revved up for our main stage performance the following night with the orchestra…the festival organizers estimated the crowd to be 60,000 to 80,000 for the Canadian debut of “Brass, Bows and Beats”.

That Sunday night was a night none of us will ever forget, it was a great leap forward for the Jazz Mafia. We performed the symphony to a huge audience, on an insanely giant sound system, and stage equipped with jumbo-tron screens, ha!

The staff that night was amazing and professional, amazingly professional, in fact! Running the sound system and setting up a 40-piece band is no small task, and they didn’t even flinch. The folks at the Montreal jazz fest do things right. I heard from friends that the sound out front was mind-blowing…to hear that many horns and strings coming through that many watts was a first for even seasoned music fans.

We made so many great new friends in Montreal…it’s such an incredible city (haha…footnote, I probably couldn’t handle the winter there, though!). There were jam sessions every night, with our SF peeps sitting in with our new friends and their Montreal bands…among them Papa Groove, Coyote Bill, and the Kalmunity Collective. I’m seriously considering reserving an apartment NOW…so I can stay there next year for the whole 12 days or so of the festival, which brings in some of my favorite artists from all over the world. Herbie Hancock was there this year, as were The Roots, Bobby MacFerrin, Keith Jarret and many others. Of the lesser-known acts that I saw, I really enjoyed Slavic Soul Party and their 21st century brand of brass-band meets Balkan meets hip-hop combination.

Montreal is famous for it’s smoked meat, so I recommend Schwartz’s on Saint Laurent for all you foodies out there. Apartments Trylon is a great, cheap place to stay, and the rooms have kitchens, so you can eat cheap, too. There’s a huge open-air food market on the outskirts of the old city center.

After Montreal we headed to Toronto to play their Harbourfront Festival. It was a beautiful view from the stage…looking right onto Lake Ontario. Good times, but a little more of a county fair vibe then the rabid music fan vibe of the Montreal Jazz fest. I have to say, though, that the beds at the Toronto Intercontinental Hotel were crazy comfortable!

From Toronto, we headed back over the border and dropped off most of our fellow musicians at the Buffalo airport. At that point it was just the six of us in Joe Bagale’s band going to Rochester for 4th of July weekend. We played a great show for Brandon and Joe’s hometown crowd on the 3rd, then relaxed and rested on the 4th…lots of swimming in Lake Ontario, lots of Frisbee, and an amazing barbecue courtesy of Bagale’s parents, who fed us sooooo well the whole time we stayed with them.

So that’s the rundown…we’re back in the Bay now. It’s the last month of Jazz Mafia Tuesdays…so we’re going big. It’s been a ten year run (I’ve been happy to be a part of it for the last 2-3 years), but now we’ll be focusing on bigger shows around town, and more touring. Please join the Jazz Mafia email list at http://jazzmafia.com You’ll get a free 15-song sampler, and keep tabs on all the Jazz Mafia events.

I’ll be playing with Joe Bagale at the Great American Music Hall on July 23rd…we’re opening for New Orleans native Ivan Neville and the show is a benefit for the Gulf Coast oil spill relief effort. Then in August the Jazz Mafia Symphony Orchestra will continue our summer of jazz festivals at the famous Newport Jazz Festival. Stayed tuned for other upcoming dates!

Finally, this newsletter’s SHOUT OUTS and FREE DOWNLOAD

Adam Theis – you write awesome music, thanks for taking us all along for the ride!

Joe Bagale – way to sing your ass off in front of thousands of people, and special thanks to the Bagale family for hosting us and feeding us in Rochester

Karyn Paige – It’s here! Congratulations. The debut single, produced by myself and Joe Bagale…available for FREE DOWNLOAD at KARYN PAIGE’S OFFICIAL WEBSITE

Puck – Thanks for the free place to stay in NYC, so good to see you and glad you got to meet the Jazz Mafia family

Jazz Mafia Symphony Orchestra – it’s a party on a wheels, a mega-extreme scene on wheels…great traveling and partying with you all…can’t wait for Newport

Montreal and new friends there – Your city FUCKING ROCKS. I can’t wait to go back, I hope to make it a regular destination. Staying up til sunrise was never so much fun.

Ben Yonas and Phil of Yonas Media – it’s a brave and courageous act to manage, tour manage, roadie, schlep-around and accommodate the needs of 20+ plus raucous musicians.

Thanks for reading..I hope to see you at a show soon!

Peace, MB

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It’s absolutely unbelievable what we experienced here. Come along with me as I try to recollect what happened this week for me and my friends from San Francisco’s Jazz Mafia.Last week, for the first time in Jazz Mafia’s 10 years of existence, we successfully managed to fly 30 musicians from San Francisco to New York for our first ever East Coast show. We performed Brass, Bows & Beats at an amazing venue in New York called Le Poisson Rouge. We started working on this tour almost a year ago. Thousands of hours of planning, coordinating, emailing, phones, rehearsals etc.. went into making this very large scale event happen. Things went relatively smooth aside form some crazy red-eye flights, all being crammed into small quarters and long drives in vans with no space or time to eat! But hey, we’re all professionals and what do pros do? They make it happen! So that’s what we did.

The LPR show went off without a hitch. Sound check was smooth, the band was on fire and the venue was beyond cooperative with us. We featured special guest Dana Leong on trombone, cello and electronics. Dana grew up with our drummer P Dub and is now one of the heaviest hitters in the New York jazz and beyond scene. Dana is a very inspiring performer to me so having him with BBB brought many smiles to everyone including me. We rocked about a 70 minute set, played for a full, energetic house, and then commenced to take on loading out all our stuff which is quite an effort with a band that size.

We have three 15 passenger vans, one of them hauls a huge trailer with “Covergirl” advertisements on it. Very strange. (Something about the guy who rented it to us got paid grips of $ to have the banner on there for a tour and now it’s kinda peeling off on one side, or maybe he tried to remove it and it was just too much trouble.) Anyway, after our show in New York all 30 of us are out in a super busy street with the van/trailer loading up – It was a sight! (See pics) Luggage and instruments everywhere all over the sidewalk on a busy Friday night in the West Village. Awesomeness. Of course an impromptu street jam ensued, but this time instead of being instigated by the horns it was the strings that started it by playing some Swedish Folk songs, then some “Beat it” then I don’t know what.  It was crazy. Then we stumbled across the street led by our friend Chris Pastena, to one of his favorite spots “…something Castaway, fun place. We took it over, chaos happened and we left for Montreal at 1 a.m..

As we took the stage for what would be the biggest audience me and most of the musicians have ever played in front of, the situation was surprisingly calm. There had been so much hard work and planning for this moment, that somehow, miraculously, everything felt taken care of and ready. We got on stage, got situated, and took it in. After I got my music in order, I turned around to one of the craziest things I’ve ever seen in my life – people as far as the eye could see, with more people walking towards the stage in all directions -kinda like an ant hill. Weird. I still have no idea how many people were there but had to be around 30,000-60,000.

Set two brought out some of the different sides of the Jazz Mafia; we featured Karyn and Aima on the new song “Realize My Fantasy” that we wrote together. Joe Bagale rocked his “Love Song,” Colin Hogan played his Tango arrangement on accordian and Dublin repped Shotgun with “We Take it Back.” A really quirky/interesting note is we did my arrangement of one my favorite Joe Bagale songs called “Curiosity” that is on his album and features a beautiful bass trumpet solo by our friend Mike Williams, who as I said, was playing as a guest with us on this tour. In my arrangement I orchestrated Mike’s recorded solo for the entire 20 piece horn section who trades off the melodies and plays harmonized versions of his solo. It was awesome to see the look on Mike’s face when we hit that song. We closed the set out to the audience just standing there screaming for more! Montreal audience’s are just too much!

Of course the night didn’t end there – We went to a spot nearby called Metropolis and saw our Canadian trombone player Matthew play with one of his many groups which invited many of us up on stage for jamming until 3am (when the clubs close here). As we all were hanging outside getting ready to head back to the hotel I got my horn out and Brass Band mania begun! As soon as we started playing it started POURING rain! It actually felt really good. We paraded through the streets of Montreal with a big posse just being complete hoodlums making tons of noise at 4 a.m. People are sitting at Subway Sandwiches having a late night snack and BAM! in comes a brass band and  20 people dancing and partying…I’m so glad we didn’t get arrested. Other memorable images were Brandon Werlin’s hair when it’s wet and Shaina running barefoot through the water in the gutters.Of course that wasn’t the end…it’s blurry at this point but I remember being back at the hotel in one of the band member’s rooms for a huge party and Colin Hogan displaying his incredible talent for JUGGLING. I sat there staring at him for an hour! He has these awesome glowing juggling balls that change color and…ok, this is just rambling at this point. Time for me to get outta bed and get some food and play another show tonight!

Oh ya and we decided we love Montreal so much that we are going to stay here for the next three days! We head to Toronto Thursday morning. Now we are just out with the “Jazz Mafia Circus” performing a revue of different Jazz Mafia bands – The Shotgun Wedding Quintet, Joe Bagale, Supertaster, Karyn Paige, Brass Mafia….just having a great time.

More to come!