NASHVILLE |DATE: APRIL 27, 2011
FROM: TODD BRODGINSKI
BOB WEIR AND MARIN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
RELEASE REHEARSAL FOOTAGE OF
GRATEFUL DEAD SONG ‘LET IT GROW’
IN ADVANCE OF
SPECIAL ONE-NIGHT-ONLY ‘FIRST FUSION’PERFORMANCE
OF GRATEFUL DEAD MUSIC SATURDAY, MAY 7
Iconic singer, songwriter, guitarist and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame member BOB WEIR and the San Francisco Bay Area’s MARIN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA have leaked a behind-the-scenes rehearsal clip performing the GRATEFUL DEAD song “Let It Grow” in advance of their upcoming once-in-a-lifetime benefit performance Saturday, May 7 at the Marin Center in San Rafael, CA. The clip can be seen at www.tristudios.com (the website of Weir’s Tamalpais Research Institute studio) and it gives a few hints as to what the ensemble will be performing at the show.
WEIR and the MARIN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA will perform one set of music with the GRATEFUL DEAD co-founder performing with a stripped-down ensemble, and one with the full orchestra. As to exactly what DEAD songs they will play won’t be revealed until the May 7 concert though. The revelation of “Let It Grow” is the “kind of the drift of what we'll be doing in the first set," WEIR told the Marin Independent Journal last week (4/25). "Some of it will sound like big band arrangements. Some, I don't know what to call it. It's just what we came up with. We're going for variety. A lot of classical musicians don't improvise, but if you can get a core of guys who do, and you let them improvise over a repeated section, then lo and behold it takes a form and moves forward. We're trying to leave as much room for that as possible," he insisted.
In the clip, WEIR and longtime bandmates Jeff Chimenti, Jay Lane, Robin Sylvester, Rob Wasserman and orchestra members riff on the song, which was originally part of the “Weather Report Suite” movement on the 1973 GRATEFUL DEAD album Wake Of The Flood. WEIR and the orchestra discuss who solos when and one musician asks “What do I do here?” and is told, in the true GRATEFUL DEAD improvisational spirit: “Listen to us!”
The “First Fusion” performance, orchestrated by WEIR and Stanford University’s Dr. Giancarlo Aquilanti, is a benefit for the Marin Symphony Orchestra and will feature over 50 musicians interpreting Grateful Dead music, the band WEIR co-founded in 1965.
WEIR says, “This is completely different. For one thing, part of what makes this interesting is that’s not just going to be an orchestra playing Grateful Dead songs. I’m going to be playing too, along with Jeff Chimenti, Jay Lane, Robin Sylvester, Rob Wasserman and some other guys, and there’s going to be real interaction between the symphony and us.” Excited about the sonic explorations the music may take, Dr. Aquilanti described it as “a new medium” and WEIR adds that “this is definitely going to go to some new realms.”
The Marin Symphony Orchestra has been around for 58 years, bringing the area (just north of San Francisco) together and supporting a variety of programs including two youth orchestras representing 15 cities and 30 schools; an in-school music education program; a professional 100-member orchestra; special family and holiday concerts; and outreach to local businesses, senior living facilities and hospitals by bringing music to those who cannot travel to the concert hall.
A Bay Area native, WEIR co-founded the Grateful Dead in 1965 in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury neighborhood with Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh, Ron “Pigpen” McKernan and Bill Kreutzmann. The band made an indelible mark in music history and were always sonic and technological adventurers, combining their love of bluegrass, country, electric rock and jazz to create one of the most iconic repertoires in rock music. By touring continuously and never relying on radio hits or latest trends, the Dead and Dead Heads created an unparalleled bond. Fans were turned on to the group by live bootlegs and word of mouth, with many following the band on the road for whole tours. The group performed thousands of shows until the passing of Garcia in 1995. Since then, WEIR has performed with his own group RatDog and toured with various members of the Grateful Dead, including the 2009 Dead tour and his current group FURTHUR with Phil Lesh.
http://www.tristudios.com/
http://www.marinsymphony.org/index.php
http://www.rat-dog.com/
www.gdtstoo.com
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