JAZZ IS DEAD
Laughing Water (Wake of the Flood Revisited) (Zebra)
Reviewed by Shaun Dale

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On their debut album, Blue Light Rain, Jazz Is Dead offered up a sampler of some of songs from the Grateful Dead catalog, featuring material that had created the highlights of legendary Dead shows over a period of thirty years. This time out, they go straight for heart of one of the most successful studio projects in the Dead discography, 1973's Wake Of The Flood.

The Jazz Is Dead lineup has changed in a single but significant way. Drummer Billy Cobham has departed, with the drum chair being taken over by a pair of the hottest stickmen on the jam band scene, Rod Morgenstein and Jeff Sipe. Morgenstein and Sipe swapped off legs of the recent Jazz Is Dead tour, and they trade off tracks on this release. (It's reported that they'll be sharing stages on the next tour, re-inventing the legendary double-drummer attack of the Grateful Dead.) It doesn't matter so much which track features which drummer, really, because they're both highly capable players with an evident heart for the music - generally more so than was evident in Cobham's work with Jazz Is Dead.

Also along for the ride are fiddler Vassar Clements, who appeared on the original Wake Of The Flood, former Dead vocalist Donna Jean Godchaux, who contributes a pair of vocal intros to the otherwise all-instro set, and guitarists Derek Trucks (Allman Bros.) and Steve Kimock (The Other Ones and just about everyone else on the jam band circuit). Along with the all-star lineup that forms the core of Jazz Is Dead, guitarist Jimmy Herring, bassist Alphonso Johnson and T Lavitz on keyboards, this is one of the strongest lineups imaginable for this kind of music.

Combining that lineup with material of equal strength is bound to produce some magic, and Laughing Water is full of magical moments. The band has taken a few knocks in Deadhead circles, because instead of being a purely reverential cover band, they take certain liberties with the music, reinventing where others might be satisfied to merely recreate. A guitar might spit out a vocal line, or Jerry's part may come through the voice of a keyboard, or they may lose track of the source altogether for a bit, with an original improvisational jam worthy of the Dead themselves on a good night. For some, that hints at near sacrilege. For me, it's an important part of the magic of Jazz Is Dead.

I heartily commend this album to you, and encourage you to catch them in the act as soon as possible.

Track List:

Vocal Intro-Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodleoo * Let Me Sing Your Blues Away * Row Jimmy * Stella Blue * Vocal Intro-Here Comes The Sunshine-Sunshine Jam * Eyes Of The World-Two Sisters * Weather Report Suite Part 1 * Weather Report Suite Part 2: Let It Grow

© 1999 - Shaun Dale