Jazz is Dead

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CURRENT PLAYERS

JEFF PEVAR, a virtuoso guitar (mandolin, steel) player in all styles has toured & recorded with so many legendary Artists, it is hard to comprehend. Most recently, and of particular interest to Deadheads & JAZZ IS DEAD fans, is his stint with PHIL LESH & FRIENDS which (ironically enough), also featured JID alumnus JIMMY HERRING. "The way a guy plays guitar is a combination of dexterity and taste and inventiveness and passion. Peev has all of those things. Pretty much any style he's playing--the blues, rock 'n' roll, edge-of-jazz kind of stuff, he's there. And besides being talented, he's just a wonderful guy. He's one of the nicest guys in the music business. To have that kind of talent and not be a jerk? It's just insanely wonderful. He'll be my friend all my life." --DAVID CROSBY, 1999

JEFF SIPE, a.k.a. Apt. Q-258, is a listening drummer, as able to support as he is to lead, & always willing to invite the creative spirit. Combining intuition, chops, & years of experience, Jeff provides a unique musical situation for players & listeners alike. His performances with the original Aquarian Rescue Unit, also featured Jimmy Herring, and Oteal from the Allman Bros. Jeff joined Leftover Salmon in 1997 & has toured 200 days a year with them, ever since. The JAZZ IS DEAD 1999 Spring & Summer tours & “Laughing Water” recording, reunited Jeff & Jimmy for the first time since ARU. Jeff is the current drummer for Phil Lesh & Friends.

T LAVITZ, award winning keyboardist and co-founder of the legendary and six-time Grammy-nominated band Dixie Dregs, has forged a distinguished career in both jazz fusion and rock music. In 1981, he was voted "Best New Talent" in Keyboard Magazine and in 1992, won the magazine's coveted "Jazz Keyboard Player of the Year" award. Relying on his solid background as a classically trained acoustic pianist, T has evolved his own brand of fresh and sophisticated music, combining color and "cool' - that is equally at home on Hammond Organ, as on the latest keyboard technologies. In addition to his groundbreaking work with the Dregs, T has toured and recorded with Widespread Panic, Jefferson Starship, Nils Lofgren, Mother's Finest and BILLY COBHAM. He produced and performed on the cult favorite Players with Jeff Berlin, Scott Henderson and Steve Smith (of Journey). His solo career consists of four releases, all of which charted on Billboard's Jazz Charts - Storytime, From The West, T Lavitz and Bad Habitz, and Mood Swing with Danny Gottlieb, Marc Johnson and Dave Samuels. Guest players and singers on these records include such luminaries as Michael McDonald, Paul Barrere (of Little Feat), multi-Grammy winner Marc O'Connor, Maria Muldaur, (Santana's) Alex Ligertwood and Bruce Hornsby. At the behest of Hornsby and close friend Chuck Leavel (Allman Bros., Rolling Stones), T was asked to audition as keyboardist for the legendary Grateful Dead, whose Brent Mydland had suddenly and tragically perished from a drug overdose. The Dead's leader Jerry Garcia, loved T's playing, but confessed the band's need for a vocalist surpassed its need for a keyboardist, and T lost out to Vince Welnick of The Tubes

ROD MORGENSTEIN is a founding member of the ground-breaking progressive rock fusion group, the Dixie Dregs, whose six most recent recordings received Grammy Award nominations for ‘Best Rock Instrumental Performance’. The Philadelphia Inquirer called the Dregs, “possibly the most important, and certainly the most technically advanced instrumental group in progressive fusion.” Rod also tours & records with award winning guitarist Steve Morse. He is a 5 time winner of Modern Drummer magazine’s Reader’s Poll for Best Progressive Rock Drummer, & teaches at the world famous Berklee School of Music in Boston when not touring & recording.

DAVE LIVOLSI Born in Derby Connecticut on February 6th 1971, Dave has been playing bass guitar since the age of nine. Brought up listening mostly to rock groups such as Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Rush, Yes and numerous others, Dave was also exposed to Jazz Fusion around the age thirteen. Return to Forever, Chic Corea, Jeff Beck, Stanely Clarke, Jaco Pastorius, Weather Report, are just a few of the groups which inspired him to pursue a career in music. Dave also attributes his strong groove and big sound to the influence of R & B, Funk, & Soul Music heard on AM Radio as a child.

At the age of 16, a junior in high school, Dave attended a weekly Jazz Ensemble class at Western Connecticut State University (W.C.S.U.) where he developed a deep love for the art of Jazz improvisation. Some of the artists that he was exposed to at that time were John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Dexter Gordon, Herbie Hancock, Paul Chambers, Charlie Parker and many more. Dave states, A I love the spontaneous interaction that goes on in Jazz music, everybody knowing their roll on their instrument and being able to communicate their feelings.

After graduating from High School in 1989, Dave attended Berklee College of Music. It was there in Boston where he began combining all of his influences of Rock, Jazz, R & B, Blues, Fusion, Funk, and Soul Music to create his style of bass playing.

Dave's view on music was best summed up in a W.C.S.U. article which solicited his views; A Music is meant to be played with passion and honesty. Communicating with the other musicians through music is how are souls connect".

ALUMNI

JIMMY HERRING, is a guitar god to fans of neo-hippie music. Born in Fayetteville, NC in 1962, JIMMY started playing music at age 10, placing first in his high school 'Battle of the Bands'. He attended Berklee College of Music in Boston & The Guitar Institute of Technology in Los Angeles, joining Col. Bruce Hampton & Aquarium Rescue Unit in 1990. JIMMY recorded their title album (Capricorn, 1992), Mirrors of Embarrasment (Capricorn, 1993) & In A Perfect World (Intersound, 1994). But it 's his 1992-3 participation in The H.O.R.D.E. Tour that congealed his national rep among the 'tie-dye' constituency. Therein, he appeared nightly, a highlight of electrifying jams, performed with Phish, Blues Traveler, Widespread Panic & Bruce Hornsby. In 1997, JIMMY toured & recorded with Frog Wings featuring Allman's drummer Butch Trucks & nephew Derek Trucks, now with The Allman Bros. Band. JIMMY played & recorded with Jazz Is Dead in 1998 & 1999. This led him to being summoned by The Allman Bros. Band, as a replacement for lead guitarist Dickey Betts, in 2000, as well as by Phil Lesh for Phil & Friends.

BILLY COBHAM, whose drumming with The Mahavishnu Orchestra in the early 1970's revolutionized drum set technique, was for the generation of drummers that followed, the reference point for blending a jazz sensibility with the power of rock - delivered with flawless execution and technical brilliance. COBHAM was the drummer with Dreams, a band that foreshadowed the fusion era and whose members included the Brecker Brothers and John Abercrombie, after which he worked with Miles Davis on eight albums including Bitches Brew, an important transitional period when rock and jazz were coming together. His three recordings with Mahavishnu brought COBHAM great acclaim, and subsequent solo albums such as Spectrum and Crosswinds were huge successes which further increased his standing as a drummer, composer, and band leader. He also appeared in a variety of other settings, ranging from jazz, as with the Gil Evans Orchestra Live At The Public Theater New York 1980 Vols. I and II, to rock experiments with (Creams') Jack Bruce and Friends, Bobby & the Midnights with Grateful Dead's Bob Weir, and the Dead themselves for their annual New Year's gala in 1982. In 1987 COBHAM received a Grammy Nomination for a composition from his Power Play release. He is also heard on Peter Gabriel's soundtrack for Martin Scorsece's film The Last Temptation of Christ, re-teaming with Gabriel in 1994 for the latter's "Secret World Tour" of the U.S., Europe and the Middle East. Billy toured with Jazz Is Dead throughout 1998, and recorded their debut Zebra Records set, “Blue Light Rain.” ALPHONSO JOHNSON, the internationally acclaimed bassist, has accumulated so many performing, recording, producing, and composing credits during his illustrious career, they read like a “Who’s Who” of jazz and fusion. In 2000, he joined Grateful Dead members Bob Weir, Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, and Bruce Hornsby, as bassist for THE OTHER ONES - which as center of the “Further Festival,” continue THE DEAD’s storied musical legacy.

ALPHONSO studied bass at the Philadelphia Music Academy with John Lamb (bassist with the Duke Ellington Orchestra), and began his touring career began when only seventeen - by age twenty-one, he had toured the world with the Woody Herman Orchestra. He then joined the Chuck Mangione Quartet and played on The Land of Make Believe. Wayne Shorter heard ALPHONSO perform with Mangione and asked him to record Mysterious Traveler with Shorter's group Weather Report. ALPHONSO cowrote two songs for the album and toured with the band in 1975 and 1976, during which time he also recorded his first solo album, Moonshadows (CBS/Epic). In 1976 he took up the 'Chapman Stick' (a ten-stringed electric touch board), and recorded a second album, Yesterdays Dreams (CBS/Epic), and a year later, his third album, Spellbound, which featured his work on 'Chapman Stick'. In 1979 he toured with the CBS All-Stars (Tom Scott, Billy Cobham, and Steve Kahn), recorded a live album in England with rock legend Rod Argent, and received a Grammy Nomination for 'Best R&B Instrumental' for the album Street Life, recorded with The Crusaders. In 1984, ALPHONSO joined Santana, touring Europe with Bob Dylan and appearing on Real Live, recorded on that tour. ALPHONSO was also featured on Santana’s Beyond Appearances, for which he co wrote two compositions. Some of his other touring, performing and recording credits include: Bobby & the Midnights (with Grateful Dead's Bob Weir), George Duke, En Vogue, Wayne Shorter, Flora Purim, Quincy Jones, Lee Ritenour, Phil Collins, The Whispers, John McLaughlin, Jeffrey Osborne, and Sarah Vaughan.