tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post4297493358837511313..comments2024-03-26T23:10:34.814-07:00Comments on Grateful Dead Sources: 1967: Garcia & DjangoLight Into Asheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-15062655454181164692018-06-20T14:57:56.072-07:002018-06-20T14:57:56.072-07:00Not really Dead-related, but another interesting R...Not really Dead-related, but another interesting Ralph Gleason article on a similar theme I came across from January '67: <br /><br />"Dizzy Gillespie's Quintet and the Jefferson Airplane opened Wednesday night at Basin Street West for ten days in one of the most unusual bookings in local night club history. <br />As far as I am concerned it was an unqualified success, since I dig both groups the most. Not everyone will agree, however; many of the jazz fans objecting to the volume and the sound of the Airplane and many of the Airplane fans just simply not being interested in jazz at all. A closed mind is not the exclusive property of any one group. <br />Gillespie played magnificently Wednesday night, with strength and fantastic technique and great feeling. I was moved much more by his playing Wednesday than the last time he was in town. His comedy was groovy, too, if somewhat less prominent in the presentation than in former years. ... <br />The Airplane struck me as being in great shape. The sound was loud, of course, but so is Count Basie and so, for that matter, is Dizzy when he gets that terrific churning cauldron going in the middle of 'Kush.' Marty Balin was in good voice, singing 'Tobacco Road' and 'Today' very effectively, and Grace Slick came through well on her solos, too. The flexibility that the group gets from three vocalists is useful but the most fascinating thing they did for me was a wonderful instrumental opening number in which both Jack Casady and Jorma Kaukonen really let go on bass and guitar and sounded very exciting." <br />(Ralph Gleason, On the Town: "A Brave New Whirl in the Park," SF Chronicle, January 13, 1967)<br /><br />In the same column he also announces the Human Be-In the next day: "It ought to be a magnificent and inspiring afternoon... If you want to know what is really happening, you will not miss this. And if you want a glimpse of the future as it will be (poetically if not practically), dig it." Light Into Asheshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-71065042842237515522018-03-08T20:34:25.820-08:002018-03-08T20:34:25.820-08:00At the time, Gleason's comments that rock musi...At the time, Gleason's comments that rock music was getting closer to jazz were ridiculed by other jazz critics like Leonard Feathers - saying that Grateful Dead music "is really jazz" in 1967 would have been scoffed at by many. (It's still debated to this day.) <br />Gleason had the advantage of being in San Francisco, where genre-mixing was already becoming common, jazz and rock artists were playing at the same shows in the Fillmore, and rock musicians like Garcia were improvising and openly talking about their borrowings from other styles of music. (Most jazz musicians, contrary to Gleason's hope, generally continued to look down on rock music as three-chord teenage crap that was beneath them.) <br />Garcia never did record with John Lewis, but he did record with Ornette Coleman... Light Into Asheshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-81606207360340521112013-09-15T02:36:59.142-07:002013-09-15T02:36:59.142-07:00While reading Gleason's article, I thought it ...While reading Gleason's article, I thought it would be nice to mention the name of the violin player Jerry was digging, but jerlouvis beat me to it: Stephane Grappelli!<br /><br />It's also interesting to note that this article came just before Miles Davis began to develop the music that eventually became "Bitches Brew": jazz musicians picking up elements of rock and running with them. There's that great line from Phil about the Miles Davis Quintet opening for the Dead, when he said something like "we should be opening for them."Andrew Shieldshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02804655739574694901noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-64191233501021894952013-09-11T10:45:58.645-07:002013-09-11T10:45:58.645-07:00"and the solos played by Garcia are pure jazz..."and the solos played by Garcia are pure jazz solos"<br /><br />"and the over-all feeling of the group is precisely the same kind of feeling that emanates from the best jazz groups and always has"<br /><br />Mr. Gleason makes two insightful comments in this column.Especially considering it was April '67 and the band was still very much a work in progress.At that point in time they were mainly playing blues,rock and folk based material.The sole jazz oriented piece was New Potato Caboose,to be followed months later by The Other One suite,Dark Star,Spanish Jam,Clementine and Born Cross-Eyed.<br /><br />To my ear at the core of the improvisatory portion of their catalog (pre-hiatus) they are very much a pure jazz band playing with rock instrumentation.<br /><br />As for Django's influence I don't hear any direct Django licks in Jerry's playing,but more of a loose sort of loping swing feel that Django and Stephane Grappelli created.Jerry also might have developed his penchant for playing long runs with lots of notes from Django's style,but that would be better stated coming from someone with a strong knowledge of guitar technique.jerlouvisnoreply@blogger.com