Photo & Video by Jon Bahr via IG


Three recently dormant bands, The Slip, JFJO and Surprise Me Mr. Davis, reunited for special shows in the Bay Area in celebration of Jambase’s 20th anniversary this past weekend.

Saturday’s festivities at San Francisco’s The Chapel were slated to feature appearances by Ron Artis II & The Truth, Big Light and a project billed as “The Camp Harry All-Stars,” a mystery band named after Jambase staffers’ longtime campsite at Quincy, CA’s High Sierra Music Festival. That group turned out to the Surprise Me Mr. Davis, the collaboration between The Slip and singer-songwriter Nathan Moore, who have not performed in years besides a rare sighting at this past summer’s High Sierra. The ensemble ran through tunes like “Summer of My Fall,” “One of Us Standing,” “Everything Must Go” and “I Hate Love,” and Moore stepped offstage with a tambourine so The Slip proper could play “Sissyfuss.” (The Slip have been on hiatus since 2012, minus a 2015 reunion at High Sierra and a single-song performance at the festival this past summer during Davis’ own reunion performance.) Earlier in the night The Slip’s Bras Barr also sat in with Artis while Moore emerged during longtime collaborator Big Light’s set.

Then, on Sunday, Jambase celebrated their milestone with an invite-only show at Mill Valley, CA’s Sweetwater Music Hall. The evening was bookended by two special reunion sets and looked back on many of the acts the website has covered during the years. The night kicked off with a reunion of the classic Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey lineup of keyboardist Brian Haas, bassist Reed Mathis and drummer Jason Smart. (Smart left the group in 2007 and Mathis parted ways with them a year later to tour with Tea Leaf Gree; In general, JFJO has been quiet in recent years.)

From there, the show boasted appearances by keyboardist Holly Bowling, an ad hoc version of Tea Leaf Green weaving in drummer Scott Rager, singer/keyboardist Trevor Garrod and bassist Eric DiBerardino as well as ALO’s Dan Lebowitz and the duo of Strangefolk co-founders and West Coast transplants Reid Genauer and Jon Trafton. Next up, was the evening’s biggest jam session, a super-group billed as Jen Hartswick & Friends that included Trey Anastasio Band trombonist Natalie Cressman, Disco Biscuits bassist Marc Brownstein, Matisyahu keyboardist Rob Marscher, Nth Power guitarist Nick Cassarino and Turkuaz  drummer Mikey Carubba, as well as special guests Eric Krasno, Break Science keyboardist Borahm Lee, Umphrey’s McGee keyboardist Joel Cummins and Artis.

Bringing things full circle from the previous night, Moore returned for a set that started solo but he was eventually backed by the members of The Slip, Lebo and Bowling. Finally, The Slip proper closed the night with their first full set since 2015, running through “Headshot,” “Sometimes True to Nothing,” “Get Me With Fuji,” “Soft Machine,” “Alsoa,” “Something Learned,” a segue from “Original Blue Air” into “Children of December” and “If One of Us Should Fall,” pausing along the way for a freer jam with Krasno during “From The Gecko.” They then returned for encores of The Who’s “Baba O’Riley” and “The Last One.”