Jazz Mafia Grateful Brass: the music of the Grateful Dead

“. . . brings a welcome dash of hip-hop energy to the big band tradition . . .  for all the diverse sounds coursing through the group’s veins there remains ample room for unfiltered improvisation.” —Los Angeles Times

Grateful Brass reimagines the iconic music of the Grateful Dead with an instrumentation of brass, drums, and vocals (no guitar!). The music digs deep into the Grateful Dead discography with creative re-imaginations infused with the ebullient spirit of New Orleans Second Line, trance-like grooves of Afrobeat, brass-driven energy of Balkan music, and energetic Afro-Cuban polyrhythms, all sitting on top of a heavy foundation of funk.

Grateful Brass is led by Adam Theis who is a current member of The Wolf Pack with Bob Weir & Wolf Bros and whose arrangements are featured in their live shows, as well as two Bob Weir albums released in 2022 (“Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros: Live in Colorado” and “Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros: Live in Colorado Vol. 2”).

Some of the finest musicians on the West Coast have joined Theis in creating this newest offshoot of the Bay Area music collective Jazz Mafia; many who have long collaborated with other artists in the Grateful Dead community like Mickey Hart, Joe Russo’s Ain’t Dead Yet, Peter Rowan, Reed Mathis, Jackie Greene, and Cold Blood.