JAZZ IS DEAD
''BLUE LIGHT RAIN''
JUNE 9 1998
56:40
1/Crazy Fingers
Jerry Garcia / Robert Hunter/8:37
2/Unbroken Chain
Phil Lesh / Robert Peterson/6:32
3/Scarlet Begonias
Jerry Garcia / Robert Hunter/4:58
4/Dark Star
Jerry Garcia / Mickey Hart / Robert Hunter / Bill Kreutzmann / Phil Lesh / Ron "Pigpen" McKernan / Bob Weir/9:07
5/Red Baron
Billy Cobham / William E. Cobham, Jr./7:38
6/King Solomon's Marbles
Mickey Hart / Bill Kreutzmann / Phil Lesh/7:50
7/Blues for Allah Medley: Help on the Way/Slipknot/Franklin's Tower/Spir
Jerry Garcia / Keith Godchaux / Robert Hunter / Bill Kreutzmann / Phil Lesh / Bob Weir/11:53
Billy Cobham/Drums
Jimmy Herring/Guitar
Alphonso Johnson/Bass
T Lavitz/Guitar, Keyboards
REVIEW
by Jim Newsom
With a rhythm section made up of two electric jazz legends, bassist Alphonso Johnson and drum god Billy Cobham, this quartet uses the Dead's music as a starting point, then takes off to places unimagined by most Deadheads. Dixie Dregs founder T. Lavitz sits in the organ and keyboard chair, while guitar wunderkind Jimmy Herring steps to the front to take fusion guitar to heights unreached since Al Di Meola left Return to Forever. Looking like the Allmans' little brother, Herring moves from looping lines reminiscent of Jerry Garcia and Dickey Betts to inspired improvisations out of the Larry Coryell/John McLaughlin/Al Di Meola playbook. Longtime Dead listeners will recognize most of the melodies, but the arrangements and solos by this amazing quartet transform the originals. And, while this album only hints at the phenomenal interplay Jazz is Dead achieves in concert, it is one of the most remarkable studio recordings to fall under the often-maligned jazz-rock fusion banner in many a year. Cobham's work with Mahavishnu Orchestra and Johnson's with Weather Report helped redefine the parameters of jazz and rock in the '70s. Through this project, they and their bandmates bring musical adventurousness, rhythmic complexity and instrumental virtuosity to a whole new generation, while rekindling the spark in those who were around for fusion's heyday 25 years earlier. With Blue Light Rain, Jazz is Dead affirms that this music anything but.
BIOGRAPHY
by Bill Meredith
Tribute albums became very popular in the 1990s, but the members of Jazz Is Dead sidestepped the accompanying clichés of most tributes with their 1998 Grateful Dead concept CD Blue Light Rain. The four jazz fusion veterans -- bassist Alphonso Johnson (Weather Report), keyboardist T Lavitz (Dixie Dregs), guitarist Jimmy Herring (Aquarium Rescue Unit), and drummer Billy Cobham (Mahavishnu Orchestra) -- performed instrumental versions of Grateful Dead classics, at once showing the influence of jazz fusion on the Dead and the quartet's playing and arranging prowess. Cobham, Johnson, and Lavitz were known commodities through their previous band affiliations, but Blue Light Rain proved to be a coming-out party for Herring. A player of immense skill who had subbed for Dickey Betts in the Allman Brothers, Herring was nonetheless underrated through the relative anonymity of his primary groups, Aquarium Rescue Unit and Frogwings. On tracks like "Crazy Fingers," "Dark Star," and the closing, live "Blues for Allah Medley," Herring soars over Lavitz's tasty keyboard work and the rhythmic muscle of Johnson and Cobham.
For their next CD, Jazz Is Dead chose to interpret the Grateful Dead's 1973 Wake of the Flood album in its entirety. Cobham's departure opened the door for two drummers -- Jeff Sipe and Rod Morgenstein -- who played separately and together during the four nights of recording. Vocalist Donna Jean Godchaux reprised some of her original vocal intros for the Dead; guest violinist Vassar Clements ("Sunshine Jam") and guitarists Steve Kimock ("Stella Blue") and Derek Trucks ("Row Jimmy") add icing to some of the Dead's most jazz-influenced pieces. With a near-endless Grateful Dead discography to pick from, Jazz Is Dead has the talent and material to become one of the world's most popular and original cover bands.
''BLUE LIGHT RAIN''
JUNE 9 1998
56:40
1/Crazy Fingers
Jerry Garcia / Robert Hunter/8:37
2/Unbroken Chain
Phil Lesh / Robert Peterson/6:32
3/Scarlet Begonias
Jerry Garcia / Robert Hunter/4:58
4/Dark Star
Jerry Garcia / Mickey Hart / Robert Hunter / Bill Kreutzmann / Phil Lesh / Ron "Pigpen" McKernan / Bob Weir/9:07
5/Red Baron
Billy Cobham / William E. Cobham, Jr./7:38
6/King Solomon's Marbles
Mickey Hart / Bill Kreutzmann / Phil Lesh/7:50
7/Blues for Allah Medley: Help on the Way/Slipknot/Franklin's Tower/Spir
Jerry Garcia / Keith Godchaux / Robert Hunter / Bill Kreutzmann / Phil Lesh / Bob Weir/11:53
Billy Cobham/Drums
Jimmy Herring/Guitar
Alphonso Johnson/Bass
T Lavitz/Guitar, Keyboards
REVIEW
by Jim Newsom
With a rhythm section made up of two electric jazz legends, bassist Alphonso Johnson and drum god Billy Cobham, this quartet uses the Dead's music as a starting point, then takes off to places unimagined by most Deadheads. Dixie Dregs founder T. Lavitz sits in the organ and keyboard chair, while guitar wunderkind Jimmy Herring steps to the front to take fusion guitar to heights unreached since Al Di Meola left Return to Forever. Looking like the Allmans' little brother, Herring moves from looping lines reminiscent of Jerry Garcia and Dickey Betts to inspired improvisations out of the Larry Coryell/John McLaughlin/Al Di Meola playbook. Longtime Dead listeners will recognize most of the melodies, but the arrangements and solos by this amazing quartet transform the originals. And, while this album only hints at the phenomenal interplay Jazz is Dead achieves in concert, it is one of the most remarkable studio recordings to fall under the often-maligned jazz-rock fusion banner in many a year. Cobham's work with Mahavishnu Orchestra and Johnson's with Weather Report helped redefine the parameters of jazz and rock in the '70s. Through this project, they and their bandmates bring musical adventurousness, rhythmic complexity and instrumental virtuosity to a whole new generation, while rekindling the spark in those who were around for fusion's heyday 25 years earlier. With Blue Light Rain, Jazz is Dead affirms that this music anything but.
BIOGRAPHY
by Bill Meredith
Tribute albums became very popular in the 1990s, but the members of Jazz Is Dead sidestepped the accompanying clichés of most tributes with their 1998 Grateful Dead concept CD Blue Light Rain. The four jazz fusion veterans -- bassist Alphonso Johnson (Weather Report), keyboardist T Lavitz (Dixie Dregs), guitarist Jimmy Herring (Aquarium Rescue Unit), and drummer Billy Cobham (Mahavishnu Orchestra) -- performed instrumental versions of Grateful Dead classics, at once showing the influence of jazz fusion on the Dead and the quartet's playing and arranging prowess. Cobham, Johnson, and Lavitz were known commodities through their previous band affiliations, but Blue Light Rain proved to be a coming-out party for Herring. A player of immense skill who had subbed for Dickey Betts in the Allman Brothers, Herring was nonetheless underrated through the relative anonymity of his primary groups, Aquarium Rescue Unit and Frogwings. On tracks like "Crazy Fingers," "Dark Star," and the closing, live "Blues for Allah Medley," Herring soars over Lavitz's tasty keyboard work and the rhythmic muscle of Johnson and Cobham.
For their next CD, Jazz Is Dead chose to interpret the Grateful Dead's 1973 Wake of the Flood album in its entirety. Cobham's departure opened the door for two drummers -- Jeff Sipe and Rod Morgenstein -- who played separately and together during the four nights of recording. Vocalist Donna Jean Godchaux reprised some of her original vocal intros for the Dead; guest violinist Vassar Clements ("Sunshine Jam") and guitarists Steve Kimock ("Stella Blue") and Derek Trucks ("Row Jimmy") add icing to some of the Dead's most jazz-influenced pieces. With a near-endless Grateful Dead discography to pick from, Jazz Is Dead has the talent and material to become one of the world's most popular and original cover bands.
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