An elite team of instrumental outlaws, The Jazz Mafia has taken many shapes since its inception, the most notable of which is certainly The Shotgun Wedding Quintet. In 2013 they completed a nationwide tour with hip-hop stalwarts Zion I & The Grouch, and have backed many other musical rebels in the studio and on the stage: Beck, Digital Underground, Lyrics Born, Carlos Santana, Mixmaster Mike, and Q-Bert.
In 2011 Shotgun Wedding Quintet recorded twelve new tales of San Francisco’s underworld. “Tales From The Barbary Coast”, the group’s sophomore album, is a Bay Area themed record with red light district, saloon seedy stories in sync with the vibe of the California Gold Rush days (where San Francisco’s Barbary Coast got its name) executed with all the edge of right now.
“Each song has its own character,” says Dublin, the group’s MC. “We commit to each song by dropping the instruments we played on the previous track, and picking up a whole different set of instruments for the next number to give it the right feel. What sounded like a brass band on the last song suddenly sounds like an electro slap project. There’s always that Shotgun flavor to it but our focus is total commitment to the song, so it has a life of it’s own that will last."
Forming in 2003, The Shotgun Wedding Quintet has worked to create an illicit blend of hip hop and jazz that’s rooted in tradition, but is ever looking forward. Each member of the band is a multi-instrumentalist, making use of samplers and looping-techniques to create a wall of sound as band members shift from instrument to instrument building continuous layers of music and rhythm. As a result, this 4 piece ensemble creates the sound of a 10 piece group that is equal parts big band and boom-bap, paying homage to the art of improvisation both lyrically and instrumentally.
Albums: Shotgun Wedding Quintet (2007) and Tales From The Barbary Coast (2011) are both available for purchase in our store.