20 Classic Breaks | Brass vs. DJ | DJ Qbert + Jazz Mafia
On November 14th, 2021 Jazz Mafia and DJ Qbert collaborated on what we think, will be a legendary piece of Bay Area history. The World Champion Turntablist teamed up with some of our top instrumentalists to perform and record an ambitious 20 song Mashup in one of the Bay Area's most beautiful outdoor locations... (which happened to be on top of a huge hill in the middle of winter).
As we embarked on this somewhat spontaneous endeavor to record numerous live videos on top of Bernal Hill, we knew it was ambitious as hell. These aren't the easy to produce "Lipsync" vids that permeate the internet, we're talking 100% live performance captured with valuable audio equipment, state of the art cameras and lights. There was the threat of getting shut down by cops and on top of that, we had to deal with something that was not at all in the weather forecast for that day...RAIN. Sounds like the perfect setting for an exciting day right?
Bernal Hill lives somewhat in the shadow of it's more iconic tourist attraction relative, Twin Peaks but it remains a more interwoven and important high altitude landmark to many Bay Area natives. I lived a few blocks from Bernal Hill for over 15 years and have so many fond memories of special times spent up there celebrating various occasions, or even just walking a dog. To be on top of the City filming a Jazz Mafia video was definitely a bucket list item for me and the crew. However, our deep emotional attachment to this place may have been what clouded our better judgement when deciding to tackle this quite risky task...however, we love a good challenge!
We drove up the dead end street that leads to the bottom of Bernal Hill and proceeded to load half of our recording studio, tons of camera, light gear and instruments up a bumpy path in various janky carts. The film/audio crew we assembled was a serious dream team and all helped each other out from beginning til end - "No gear left behind!" We managed to get everything up the hill and setup within 90 minutes and started filming some smaller solo videos right on schedule.
We also brought a huge generator and some speakers which created a real concerna bout getting shut down by the popo, park rangers or other authorities. We needed to be able to hear DJ Qbert, so there was no other option. At one point an official looking truck came driving towards us up the no public access road to the top and we were freaked. Fortunately, the dude smiled, waved and drove right past us up to the sorta sorta secret military communications tower thing at the top just past us. A local later told me that they do their own weird stuff up there and don't mess with anyone. Ooooooh, spooky!
The weather had been fairly cloudy all day but after we got the full Brassband setup, it started to turn bad, quickly. After we finished our first rehearsal take of the 20 song medley, some solid raindrops began falling. I looked at all the gear we had out there, completely unprotected... Easily over $50K worth of stuff not including our instruments. I suddenly saw the reality that this was possibly a REALLY bad idea.
At one point during the first full take of the medley, I spotted our over-qualified assistant for the day, Shaina, ran over to our audio engineer Chris to hold an umbrella over him and the giant digital mixing console that was sitting out there unprotected in the meadow off to the side of the band. We were all sorta freaking out and we knew this would be our one and only take because it was really starting to come down. When we finished that take, we felt pretty good that we at least got to get one in the can but we knew we could do better as we were just getting warmed up. Qbert's tables were soaked and he was having trouble scratching and not being able to get a grip. In the video, on the closeups you can clearly see water covering his expensive DJ mixer. Crazy.
After the take, somewhat miraculously, the precipitation stopped on a dime. We all looked at each other and almost at the same time all gave the "Let's do this" look and almost without saying anything we made the quickest transition into take 2 we've ever done, for sure!
By this time a gaggle of onlookers had assembled and was adding to the excitement, making our "live" video shoot REALLY feel live. You could feel a sense of wonder and magic since none of those folks had any idea they'd run across a blasting brassband, a film crew, lights and DJ Qbert rocking out on their dog walk that day!
The rain held out for take 2 and we played with a newfound sense of urgency and appreciation. No surprise, take 2 was WAY better than the first and that's what ended up being what you see here. Thankfully the rain also held out for the remainder of the clean up as well so we were able to have a bit of fellowship as we wound up cables and packed up our gear.
We're so proud of this piece of art we've created together and I can't find words to emphasize how important the specific people on the team were integral to the success of this project. We also, could not have made this happen without the support of you, our Patreon family. This thing wasn't cheap.
- Adam Theis
Songs Performed: Spottie Ottie Dopalicious, No Diggity, Flavor of the Month (Fever for The Flavor), Sex, Love & Money, Rebirth of the Slick (Cool Like That), Hollywood Swingin', Its Your Thing, Into My Own Thang, Express Yourself, Soulful Strut, Love The One Your With, Can I Kick It?, Back 2 The Hotel, The Choice Is Yours (This or That), Patti Dooke, Don't Sweat The Technique, You Should Be Dancin, Workin Day & Night, Planet Rock, It's Just Begun
Personell:
DJ QBert- turntables Adam Theis - bandleader, trombone Ross Eustis - trumpet Richard Benitez III - trumpet Thomas Occhiuto - sax Jonathan Seiberlich - sousaphone Darian Gray - drums
Cinematographer: Mogli Maureal 1st AC: Mitchell Tong 2nd AC: Ime Umoh
Grip: Steve Reddell
Assistant: Shaina K. Evoniuk
Audio Recorded by: Chris Nishimoto/ Moto Audio Audio
Mixed/Mastered by: Ethan Headnodic Parsonage
To Purchase The track: www.bandcamp.com/jazzmafia
