Adam Theis MOBtet featuring Tiffany Austin

When: Wednesday, June 3
Where: Spoonbar, 219 Healdsburg Ave. 
Time: 7:30 – 10:30 pm
Dinner reservations recommended: (707) 433-7222

Adam Theis MOBtet

Powerful grooving, jazz elements and electro-acoustic textures will take charge of the Spoonbar when the Bay Area’s Adam Theis MOBtet hits it on Wednesday night. Theis, the founder-leader of the multi-faceted, crossover-friendly aggregation known cheekily as the Jazz Mafia Collective, returns to Healdsburg and unveils his latest project, combining horns—himself on trombone, Daniel Casares and Kevin Wong on saxes—the leader’s own electronics and such primal sources as didgeridoo, conch shells and special guest vocalist Tiffany Austin.

Theis, a Sonoma State graduate who found a groove working internationally with famed ska bands, as well as touring with Thomas Dolby in 2007, in the Bay Area, channeled his creative energies into creating the Jazz Mafia, with such projects as Realistic Orchestra, The Shotgun Wedding Quintet, the Jazz Mafia Symphony and Adam Theis & Subharmonic.

In his new group, just as the leader himself switch-hits on multiple instruments—including trombone, tuba, trumpet, bass and keyboards—wielding a natural flexibility in sync with his way of juggling multiple projects, MOBtet’s musicians alternate on instruments in the course of a set or a groove.

Austin is a valuable addition to the  MOBtet, a singer — and songwriter and artist in her own right — whose background includes work with Roy Ayers, John Handy, Marcus Shelby and Japanese composer Tomoyasu Hotei (of Kill Bill fame), and is poised to release her own debut album, Nothing But Soul, in June. She’s been a familiar mentor to members of the annual HJF Freedom Jazz Choir.