Jazz Articles about Grateful Dead

Grateful Dead: Formerly The Warlocks

by Doug Collette
October 30, 2010

Grateful DeadFormerly The WarlocksRhino2010 Formerly The Warlocks is an ingeniously packaged set of six CDs and assorted memorabilia that documents two “stealth" shows by the Grateful Dead in the autumn of 1989 at the Hampton Coliseum in Virginia. Due to the increasing difficulty in managing the group's live appearances in the wake of its 1987 entry into the mainstream with “Touch Of Grey"--from In the Dark (Arista, 1987)--the Dead had been ...

Grateful Dead: Road Trips Vol. 3 No. 3 - Fillmore East 1970

by Doug Collette
August 21, 2010

Grateful DeadRoad Trips Vol. 3 No. 3: Fillmore East 1970Rhino2010 This edition of Grateful Dead's Road Trips albums, Volume 3 No.3, may be the pinnacle of the archive series as in summer 2010 it approaches its third anniversary. The three main discs capture the iconic San Francisco band at the Fillmore East in New York in May of 1970 (a fourth, bonus disc includes more from that run plus content from ...

Grateful Dead: Crimson, White & Indigo - Philadelphia, July 7, 1989

by Doug Collette
May 8, 2010

Grateful Dead Crimson, White & Indigo: Philadelphia, July 7, 1989 Rhino 2010

Designed as if to represent a microcosm of its unique style of improvisation, Grateful Dead's Crimson White & Indigo, July 7, 1989 is a worthy companion piece to its predecessor--Truckin' Up to Buffalo: July 4, 1989 (Monterey Video, 2005). It not only reaffirms the band was at a pinnacle of strength and versatility at this late stage of its career, but in ...

Grateful Dead: Road Trips Vol.3 No.1

by Doug Collette
February 13, 2010

Grateful Dead Road Trips Vol.3 No.1 Grateful Dead Productions 2009

The Grateful Dead's archive series Road Trips begins its third year somewhat, but not wholly, as it began. Like the first edition, Vol.3 No.1 is another excerpt from the time of keyboardist Brent Mydland's membership of the band. Steve Silberman, in his wide-ranging essay in the liner booklet, reaffirms the high level of inspiration Mydland brought to the group, more validation of which appears ...

Grateful Dead: Winterland June 1977: The Complete Recordings

by Doug Collette
December 25, 2009

Grateful Dead Winterland June 1977: The Complete Recordings Grateful Dead Productions 2009

There's an uncommon clarity to every aspect of Winterland June 1977: The Complete Recordings. David Fricke's essay captures the essence of the activities, even if he overreaches a bit in his description of the sensation. The photos in the booklet and cigar box graphics are of a band in good health and high spirits (no gray hair in an array of hirsute ...

Grateful Dead: Grateful Dead: Road Trips Vol. 2 No. 4: Cal Expo '93

by Doug Collette
October 25, 2009

The Grateful Dead archive series Road Trips was conceived to include highlights of a given period in this iconic band's history, and Volume 2 Number 4 presents a streamlined take on two shows from the Cal Expo in 1993. In stark contrast to the cookie cutter amphitheatres the group was finding itself forced to play to accommodate their growing audience at this point in their history, the open-air atmosphere no doubt contributes directly to the overall vigor with which the ...

Grateful Dead: Road Trips Volume 2, Number 3

by Doug Collette
July 22, 2009

Recorded in the summer of 1974, marking the initial use of the famed “Wall of Sound" system, this latest edition of the Grateful Dead archive series finds the band scaling what may be the pinnacle of its performing powers. At the same time, the group was devoting its organization's resources of time, money and expertise to the massive sound system that offered them and their audiences the most realistic sound imaginable.

Secure in the knowledge that one of their primary ...