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Dave's Picks Volume 11: 11/17/72 and Wake Up to Find Out: 3/29/90
by Doug Collette
The story of the Grateful Dead may be the most fascinating in the history of rock and roll, the chapter dealing with the archiving of their live recordings perhaps the most absorbing of all, if only because it continues to be written with the ongoing release of various projects from various stages of the iconic band's career. Under the tutelage of current archive chief David Lemieux, his quarterly series of concert pieces unearths stellar performances that illustrate the changes the ...
Continue ReadingGrateful Dead: Dave's Picks Volume 10 Thelma, Los Angeles CA 12/12/1969
by Doug Collette
One of the great virtues (and there are many) of the Grateful Dead's archiving projects is that research regularly unearths 'lost' recordings about which little or nothing may be known but that, when brought to the light of day, fill in crucial links in this iconic group's history that further illuminate their evolution. Dave's Picks Volume 10, like the so-called 'Houseboat Tapes' that comprise Dick's Picks #35 (Grateful Dead, 2005), is just such a title, with its first ...
Continue ReadingGrateful Dead: From the Archives '74, '76, & '79
by Doug Collette
With the Grateful Dead's impending 50th anniversary in 2015, the legacy of the iconic band continues to grow. The surviving four members continue to play regularly (with the exception of drummer Bill Kreutzmann) in their respective bands (Phil Lesh & Friends, Bob Weir & Ratdog, Mickey Hart in varying ensembles) with the former two having collaborated extensively over the past few years (in Furthur). Meanwhile, the current archiving of the Dead's vault yields treasures like Sunshine Daydream (Rhino, 2013) as ...
Continue ReadingBeing Grateful: Defining the Jazz Years Part One - 1973
by Jacob Hobson
Jazz, like the Grateful Dead, has never been particularly easy to define. It seems jazz, in its most simply defined meaning, is improvised music. The Grateful Dead have been called a thousand different things since its official formation in 1965, but has rarely been called a jazz band. There have always been and will always be heated debates about which years were the best, which tone of Jerry Garcia's was the best, which keyboardist was the best. I've heard it ...
Continue ReadingGrateful Dead: Dave's Picks Volume 6
by Doug Collette
Dave's Picks Volume 6 represents an important entry in this Grateful Dead archive series, on its own terms and as a crucial reminder of how this iconic band evolved around the cusp of the 1960's and the 1970's. Plus which, the sound quality of the recordings, originally administered by the famous Owsley “Bear" Stanley, is as notable as the evolving style of the group itself.As keyboardist Tom Constanten notes so vividly from a performer's perspective in his abbreviated ...
Continue ReadingGrateful Dead: Dick's Picks 24
by Skip Heller
The plethora of available live Grateful Dead material might be a completist's delight, but it can make for a nightmare for the consumer who just wants a few really good discs. This was a truly multifaceted band, with every facet documented to the point of exhaustion (or even tedium, depending who you ask). At their rootsy best, they could claim kinship with both The Band and The Allman Brothers, and as a longform improvising unit, they could be on par ...
Continue ReadingGrateful Dead: Dave's Pick's Volume 5: Pauley Pavilion, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 11/17/1973
by Doug Collette
Each successive Grateful Dead archive release illuminates a new perspective on the history of a band whose career may be the most colorful in the history of rock and roll. Dave's Picks Volume 5 catches the iconic group on the cusp of two crucial junctures in one of the most prolific stages of its time together.Recorded at UCLA in November 1973, the Dead plays with uncommon poise and good humor, whether skipping lightly through succinct performances such as ...
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