SF Chronicle talking shop with Adam on Bob Weir’s Wolfpack and their Bay Area show this weekend
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(excerpt from the article by Andrew Gilbert)
In expanding his lupine ensemble Weir said he was looking to cover the entire spectrum of American music, “from the early roots of country and blues to current pop,” he told The Chronicle in an email. “It’s all part of a bigger picture. Long years of experience have taught me that if I’m looking for players with the flexibility to drift back and forth between all those idioms, the jazzbos are probably gonna be the first place to look.”
Like the Planet Drum satellite players, the Wolfpack features some of the Bay Area’s apex improvisers, including Grammy Award-winning violinist Mads Tolling, reed expert Sheldon Brown and trombonist Adam Theis, the founder and guiding force behind the Jazz Mafia collective. Joining an already well-stocked combo requires a judicious sense of how and where to contribute.
“Sometimes our job is to be felt more than heard,” Theis said. “We realize that a lot of the music we’re playing isn’t traditionally built around horns and strings, so in general we’re less heavy-handed when coming up with our arrangements than we would be in a jazz or funk band.”
At the same time, the Wolfpack can step forward to deliver a choice moment, like Theis’ note-for-note arrangement of Jerry Garcia’s solo from “Lost Sailor,” “but flipping it with horns and strings, bringing a whole new life to the notes that everyone already loves so much and has heard played many times, but likely only on a guitar,” Theis explained.
