Jafar Thorne is a singer/songwriter and visionary poet. Crafting song-spells of sacred union, life, death, rebirth, and the search for a life of divine purpose, his writing deals largely with themes of spiritual alchemy, mythical archetypes, and the evolution of the soul. This is music to be reborn by.
Jafar began singing before he could talk...as a small child his earliest memories include making up songs and singing "guitar solos" to the car radio. Picking up the guitar at age 13, he moved to the San Francisco Bay Area and before long was playing the local circuit with various bands including an early psychedelic collaboration with singer/songwriter Cass McCombs, then with world-tribe rockers Mister Green's Opinion, and later the folk-rock oriented Hobo Jungle.
As a solo artist Jafar has developed a unique voice and style that somehow manages to skirt the line between the exotic and the familiar. With literary influences ranging from the American folkloric tradition to the ecstatic poetry of the Sufi mystics, from the wisdom of Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, his songwriting is a spiritually evocative and personal testament to the wonders and challenges of becoming. Combined with a rich, soulful voice, and beautifully earnest melodies, he can occasionally bring a listener to tears. Musicians who have inspired his work include Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Bob Marley, Paul Simon, Bruce Cockburn, Joni Mitchelle, Jackson Brown, Emmylou Harris, Ani Difranco, Gillian Welch, John Hartford, John Prine, Daniel Lanios, Radiohead, U2, and The Grateful Dead.
In 2010 Jafar released an EP of raw solo performances as a time-capsule entitled "The Zoe Sessions." In 2012 he released the results of a collaboration with legendary producer Jack Douglas, called "Dark Matter." Douglas is a Grammy Award winning producer/engineer who had previously produced records for John Lennon, Patti Smith, Aerosmith, and Cheap Trick, among others. He and Jafar had been friends and colleagues for a number of years, but after Jafar was nearly killed in a motorcycle accident in 2009, Douglas approached him saying, "Why don't you put a band together so I can record it?" Over the next few years they worked on the tracks that would become "Dark Matter," enlisting a bevy of local San Francisco Bay Area musicians in the effort. The result marks an artistic transition from gritty folk troubadour to polished recording artist. The emotional, thought-provoking collection of songs deals with the underworld journey of the soul, human interconnectedness, and the search for love and meaning in one's life.
