Dead cert

David Murray and more remain Grateful

by Norman Weinstein

Whether or not you're grateful that the Grateful Dead are now dead, there are three new tribute albums even the most steadfast non-Deadheads can't afford to miss. Two are avant-garde jazz, one is roots reggae -- styles the Grateful Dead dabbled in but never really mastered. Yet all three offer the most meaningful kind of homage to the band: radical retoolings of signature tunes that cause you to reconsider what made the band tick. Jerry Garcia's death and the ensuing media hype surrounding it falsely conveyed the notion of the Dead as primarily a guitar improviser's rock outfit. In the wake of Garcia's death, who wasn't imagining a band gravely enfeebled by the loss of their guitar superstar? An alternative vision of the Dead could rightfully place them as an electrified folk band with improvisational ambitions and bluesy colorations.

This version of the Dead is what I think David Murray and his Octet had in mind when they recorded Dark Star: The Music of the Grateful Dead (Astor Place). Except for Bob Weir's guest spot on acoustic guitar on one tune, Murray and band are quite happy to reconceptualize the Dead sans guitar. What drives "Dark Star," "Shakedown Street," "China Doll"? There's Murray's joyfully brawny tenor sax, James Spaulding's braying alto, Craig Harris's raucous trombone, and the bright trumpets of James Zoller and Omar Kabir. Imagine the Stax studio horn section on loan to Lester Bowie's Brass Fantasy. This horn section has a rollicking good time transforming the folksy, bluesy, jazz elements implicit in the Dead originals into jazz anthems. Robert Irving III's nasty little Hammond B-3 organ touches (recalling Don Pullen's contribution to Murray's 1992 Shakill's Warrior) are just icing on the richly funky cake. The original Dead recordings of these tunes sound a bit anemic by comparison.

Bass-guitarist and big-band composer Joe Gallant may be an even more devout Dead fan than Murray (who did perform with the Dead in concert). His fidelity to the Dead is realized through re-creating in jazz form the entire Blues for Allah album. The Blues for Allah Project by Gallant & his Illuminati (Knitting Factory Works) is an uneven but captivating musical experiment. Imagine 17 instrumentalists and three vocalists on stage at New York's Knitting Factory doing jazz improvisations light years beyond what the Dead were capable of. "Franklin's Tower" and "Blues for Allah" are simply excuses for hot soloing, with two frenzied electric violinists, a battery of hornmen, and a tight rhythm section around to create a wall of sound. Looser and less bluesy than Murray's Octet, the Illuminati shine in capturing the loose, folk-flavored, psychedelic spirit of the Dead in their youth.

Fire on the Mountain: Reggae Celebrates the Grateful Dead (Pow Wow) sets the Dead to reggae rhythms with surprisingly upbeat results. Eleven of reggae's finest acts cherrypick the Dead songbook. The Mighty Diamonds offer soothingly smooth vocal harmonies on "Touch of Grey." The Wailing Souls locomote "Casey Jones" as energetically as the Dead ever did. Best of all is Joe Higgs's version of "Uncle John's Band." When Higgs sings "Think this through with me," I do, considering how the Dead aren't dead yet.