New
Lesh On Life
Pittsburgh
City Paper - ONLINE
writer: JOHN PATRICK GATTA
April 18, 2001
Phil Lesh got a second chance at life. Diagnosed with hepatitis C in 1992, the former Grateful Dead bassist and current leader of Phil Lesh & Friends eventually received a liver transplant on Dec. 17, 1998.
Rejuvenated physically and mentally, he changed his approach creatively by working with a host of new musicians and personally by striving to make a difference for others by promoting organ and blood donations.
The summer before his condition worsened, Lesh toured with his fellow members in the Grateful Dead as part of The Other Ones. "That was an okay tour," says Lesh during a telephone interview from his Bay Area home. "The music was pretty good, but there were lots of issues involved in that. Then I got sick and had the transplant. When I came out the other end of that, I wanted to do something else. I wanted to do something different or at least approach the music that I'd been working with for 30 years in a different way."
By early 1999, he wasn't interested in participating with The Other Ones anymore. Since then the relationship between him and his onetime band mates had become further strained due to the proposed distribution of the Dead's legendary vault of live shows. In his case, free downloads of entire concerts from last fall's Phil & Friends tour are available at Lesh's web site, www.phillesh.net.
In comparison to what he wants to accomplish musically now, the 61-year-old Lesh, who signs his correspondence "Art is Long, Life is Brief," admitted that the last years of the Grateful Dead were "forumulaic." He blames this on how each show was uniformly constructed. "The concept that I have, the way that I want to approach the music, I want to open everything up. To me the transitions between the songs and the open spaces inside the songs are equally as important as any of the parts with the lyrics. What I'm doing is opening up the songs, I think, more than the Grateful Dead did." Initially, this was fleshed out onstage through an assortment of "Friends," musicians who were peers or were influenced by the Dead.
Pittsburgh concertgoers caught a sampling of what the band was about in November 1999 when Lesh & Friends opened the Bob Dylan show at the Civic Arena. The current unit on this spring's Here Comes Sunshine Tour -- drummer John Molo (Bruce Hornsby), guitarist Warren Haynes (Gov't Mule and the Allman Brothers Band), keyboardist Rob Barraco (the Zen Tricksters) and guitarist Jimmy Herring (Jazz Is Dead and the Allman Brothers Band) -- played together during last fall's dates. Lesh is ecstatic to work with them again because he sees that with their input his concept is becoming a reality on a nightly basis.
"This band is absolutely unique. The performances just keep getting better and better every night because what we have in this band is more than chemistry. This is alchemy. Everything this band touches turns to gold. "The degree of openness that these guys have," Lesh continues, "the willingness to just put it all out there and play if need be until something happens. It's unique among all the bands that I've ever worked with; their degree of commitment and the alchemy that these guys have together." He's also pleased to find that those who attend the shows are searching for the same thing as him.
"The audience wants to go with this. They want to help make it happen. They want that magic. Believe me, they are being very successful." Phil Lesh & Friends appears at 7:30 p.m. Wed., April 25, at A.J. Palumbo Center, Uptown. 562-9905.
writer: JOHN PATRICK GATTA
Pittsburgh City Paper - ONLINE