The Music Plays The Band: Stanley Jordan Launches Grateful Dead Tribute Project

Acclaimed jazz guitarist Stanley Jordan announced the formation of a new band dubbed Stanley Plays The Dead to perform “cosmic vible variations on the music of the Grateful Dead.” The new quartet will be “expanding the harmonic structure and adding more jazz elements, while preserving the original feel and flavor of the music” as well as “keeping the trippy vibe-maybe even deepening it,” Jordan explained in a bio for the project on his website.

Stanley Jordan is joined in Stanley Plays The Dead by drummer Kenwood Dennard (Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock), bassist Greg Koerner (Vince Welnick, Crimson Rose) and keyboardist/guitarist Jesse Hiatt (Cedric Burnside). The band has three gigs on the books so far with the likelihood of more to come.

Jordan has been a frequent member of Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh‘s Phil Lesh & Friends ensembles over the past decade but his appreciation for the band dates back to his childhood. “When I was a kid growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 60s and early 70s the Dead were a local as well as a national treasure,” Jordan noted. “Their marathon happenings in San Francisco were an important part of what shaped that city’s culture.”

Stanley learned a lot from only performing with Phil Lesh but through his conversations with the bassist. “Many things that he’s said have helped me to understand this music in a deeper way,” Stanley said. “For example he once told me, ‘If you want to understand the Grateful Dead’s music just think Dixieland. Each instrument is doing something completely different but it all fits together.’ Wow, that was a revelation! From there I began to approach my role in a more melodic way and to not fixate so much on the chords.”

Jordan has seen the composition of those attending the guitarist’s concerts audience change in the wake of performing in Phil & Friends and that transition was among the inspirations for launching Stanley Plays The Dead. “Since I’ve been playing with Phil a lot of his fans have started coming to my shows,” Jordan added. “I wanted to reward them with something that I knew they would like. I also wanted to bring new people in to share in the spirit of openness and belongingness that this music brings about.”

Stanley Plays The Dead will make their debut with a two-night stand at Washington D.C.’s Blues Alley on April 4 and 5. The four-piece also has a show slated for the Kennedy Plaza Boardwalk in Atlantic City on July 10.