Realistic (1998-2005 - and more!)
You loop, I loop, Everybody loop-loop
Genisis and Evolution
The original concept of Realistic was to try and recreate what the Drum and Bass Dj's were doing with live musicians with Fx's and loopers within free-form improvised setting. We had tunes and structures, yet a non-stop set could run over 3 hours with various combinations of DJ's, musicians, as well as, Michael's first attempt at solo laptop creations (Using REASON at that time, Abelton Live was still too unstable to do anything crazy on).
Over time the band evolved, hip-hop beats, Radiohead covers, and dead space were all incorporated. We recorded 1 Quintet album, and 2 big band versions. There are countless live mixtapes floating around from our years of weekly gigs at the Black Kat and Bruno's, some of which are on the Jazz Mafia website. We played 100's of shows, opened for Brad Meldau and Roy Ayers, and even played a couple wedding gigs (who were these crazy newlyweds ? Michael is happy to report that the many offshoots of the original quintet still exist today. Shotgun Wedding Quintet, Realistic Orchestra and the monster ensemble Jazz Mafia Symphony. There is talk of a reunion show in SF in 2021 while MNO was in SF playing at the Opera House.... We'll keep you posted. |
Recordings
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