Jazz Mafia's Crossroads Collective Review
This high energy, amazingly talented group of musicians formed a funky eclectic band known as Crossroads Collective on the Playa stage at Burning Man in 2010. They are now the biggest live music act at the 60,000 person gathering. With influences from Prince, Parliament Funkadelic, James Brown, Stevie Wonder and Tower of Power, this fierce party band features a lineup of uniquely talented vocalists and instrumentalists from the Bay Area, Los Angeles, and Chicago.
The Great Northern is a beautiful venue with Art Deco styling and many original fixtures from when the building was originally built, still gleaming like new. The staff all had something all their own to offer. One had snacks, stickers and memorabilia dressed as an old Hollywood cigarette girl. Another was offering shoulder and neck massages in a special massage chair. Others served food and drinks. The venue is a smaller place and filled up quickly with smiling faces; all who were there to support the bands efforts to raise funds for this years Burning Man show. Getting to Burning Man is no small task or expense and all the band members work tirelessly for months before the big event takes place. It was great to see people coming from near and far to support the bands efforts. That says a lot about the community and their love for the Jazz Mafia and them making it to Burning Man.
Watching the Crossroads Collective preform was a real treat. Zooming in on their passionately played instruments to their soulful expressive countenances was just the kind of show we like to cover and capture in photographs. The crowd was dancing, smiling and happily all participating in the show. Lovers hugged and swayed, while others jumped for joy and clapped as the energy rose. We met many really cool and genuine people who all had different talents. Some artists, dancers, musicians, business owners and young professionals about to graduate from College. All in all it was a huge success and we look forward to not only seeing them preform again, and hopefully we will be at Burning Man sometime within the next few years? Something we would love to attend and capture and photograph. We will definitely be back next year to help support the bands future needs.
