“Just when I thought I was out… they pull me back in.” My musical roots are in what is now referred to as jamband and at the top of that pyramid were the Grateful Dead. There were however extended periods…
Blog Archives
The Final Frontier . . . . : The Grateful Dead’s Dark Star
Tagged with: Dark Star, Dave Franks, Grateful Dead, John Oswald, Plunderphonics
Posted in Grateful Dead, Jam Band, Music Appreciation and Analysis
Posted in Grateful Dead, Jam Band, Music Appreciation and Analysis
“So You Wanna Play The Blues . .” : Cool Blues Guitar Instructional Videos Part II – The Hendrix Edition
With September 18th marking the 46th anniversary of his accidental and tragic death, it seems like a a good time to mention Jimi Hendrix. In addition Legacy Recordings has announced the release of the complete first set ever played by…
Tagged with: Band of Gypsys, Blues, blues guitar, Jimi Hendrix
Posted in Blues, Classic Rock, Improvisation, Jam Band
Posted in Blues, Classic Rock, Improvisation, Jam Band
“It Was Forty Six Years Ago Today” : Santana at Tanglewood, MA., 1970-08-18
Sometimes I have a specific topic in mind when I start writing a post for this blog. Other times. . . well, not so much. I had just finished reading “Live At The Fillmore East and West” by John Glatt…
Tagged with: Bill Graham, Fillmore East, Santana, Tanglewood
Posted in Classic Rock, Jam Band, Jazz, Music Appreciation and Analysis
Posted in Classic Rock, Jam Band, Jazz, Music Appreciation and Analysis
Summer In The City Part 2: John Scofield Proto-Uberjam
It was the summer of 2000. I had just left playing bass in a funk band called Celebrity Hottub (yes, named from a SNL Eddie Murphy skit called James Brown’s Celebrity Hottub) and had decided to take a break from…
Tagged with: Celebrate Brooklyn, John Scofield, Uberjam
Posted in Jam Band, Jazz, Music Appreciation and Analysis
Posted in Jam Band, Jazz, Music Appreciation and Analysis
Follow Your Bliss – Guitar Shredding Edition: Santana/McLaughlin’s Love Devotion Surrender
A previous post discussed the work of Alice Coltrane, 2nd wife to jazz legend John Coltrane, as an example of a specific strain of jazz in the late sixties/ early seventies that has been referred to as Spiritual Jazz. The…
Tagged with: Alica Coltrane, Carlos Santana, John Coltrane, John McLaughlin, Love Devotion and Surrender, Spiritual Jazz
Posted in Improvisation, Jam Band, Jazz, Music Appreciation and Analysis
Posted in Improvisation, Jam Band, Jazz, Music Appreciation and Analysis
“Ooh . . Scary”: Phish Perform Disney’s Chilling, Thrilling Sounds of the Haunted House
As an old Deadhead, the thought of discussing Phish can indeed be scary. I have tried to get into Phish in the past but I just could’nt do it. My main problem was the quality of the songwriting. I would…
“Layla, you’ve got me on my knees. . . : Isolated Guitar & Backing Tracks
If you’re a music geek like me (and I assume you are if you are reading this) then you are fascinated by the the process of creating music. You want to see how it’s put together. If that’s the case…
Tagged with: Bobby Whitlock, Carl Radle, Derek and The Dominos, Duane Allman, Eric Clapton, Jim Gordon, Layla, Tom Dowd
Posted in Classic Rock, Jam Band, Music Appreciation and Analysis
Posted in Classic Rock, Jam Band, Music Appreciation and Analysis
“There were days. . .”: The lost final Grateful Dead studio album
This is sort of a continuation of my previous post. There I talked about the “missing” studio record that Grateful Dead never made as a follow-up to their classic 1970 albums Workingman’s Dead and American Beauty. The songs that would…
Tagged with: Bob Weir, Days Between, Grateful Dead, Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh, Robert Hunter
Posted in Grateful Dead, Jam Band, Music Appreciation and Analysis
Posted in Grateful Dead, Jam Band, Music Appreciation and Analysis
“Jack Straw From Wichita”. .: The Missing Third Album of the Grateful Dead’s American Beauty Trilogy
As the “core four” of the remaining members of the Grateful Dead play their final shows this weekend, I want to talk about something that I’ve been curious about for some time now. It all starts in 1970 when the Dead…
Tagged with: American Beauty, Bob Weir, Europe 72, Grateful Dead, Jerry Garcia, Skull & Roses, Workingman's Dead
Posted in Grateful Dead, Jam Band, Music Appreciation and Analysis
Posted in Grateful Dead, Jam Band, Music Appreciation and Analysis
“Beauty Is A Rare Thing. . .”: Ornette Coleman 1930 – 2015
It’s a depressing sign of one’s own mortality when you hear that yet another of your musical heroes has passed. Last week, Ornette Coleman, the alto saxophonist, composer and musical revolutionary passed away at the age of 85. As I…
Tagged with: Grateful Dead, Improvisation, Jazz, Ornette Coleman
Posted in Grateful Dead, Improvisation, Jam Band, Jazz, Music Appreciation and Analysis
Posted in Grateful Dead, Improvisation, Jam Band, Jazz, Music Appreciation and Analysis
ManRoy Music 