Cal Poly Jazz Night Concert
Presented by The Cal Poly Music DepartmentCHRISTOPHER COHAN CENTER
Adam Theis of "The Jazz Mafia" will be the special guest artist!
Trombonist and composer Adam Theis is the prime mover behind a group of jazz bands known as the Jazz Mafia. In 2008 Theis received the prestigious Gerbode-Hewlett Grant for jazz composition. With this commission, he composed a 50-piece one-hour symphony, “Brass, Bows & Beats," which premiered to sold-out audiences in April 2009 at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, and has since been performed at major festivals across North America, such as the Playboy Jazz Festival at the Hollywood Bowl, Montreal International Jazz Festival and the Newport Jazz Festival.
The big band in the Jazz Mafia is called the Realistic Orchestra. The Realistic Orchestra received wide recognition for its ten-year run on the first Tuesday of every month at “Jazz Mafia Tuesdays” at the Coda Club in San Francisco’s Mission District. The band has also taken home SF Weekly’s “Best of the Bay” award for Best Jazz Band.
The University Jazz Band #1 first played pieces from the Realistic Orchestra, composed by Theis, in May 2010 with guest artist DJ Logic on turntables. "No other big band uses hip-hop so creatively and musically," says University Jazz Band Paul Rinzler. "The members of the band, as well as our audiences, love the music of the Realistic Orchestra, and we're very happy to have the chance to play some of these pieces with the composer himself, Adam Theis, on trombone."
Tickets ($12 & $15 general, $10 & $13 seniors and Jazz Federation members, $6 & $10 students)
