There were a lot of moments where I had to decide, “OK, I think they’re wrapping this up. We wanted to open things up, although every time you tell the orchestra to stop, you’ve got to start them again.
We changed many of the charts-some of which had already been written, including ones by me-after rehearsal. We added a lot more improvisatory elements into the show. So there needs to be good communication, which there was with this show. Rock bands, especially jambands, have a much greater element of freedom and flexibility, while the symphony is much more precise.
MONEY LONGER LYRICS FREE
SCOTT O’NEIL: All musicians lie somewhere on the spectrum of how precise and strict they play or how free and flexible they play. You can play around with these songs and identify with them in a new way. That’s what this material allows you to do. Or take a ballad and now it’s not a ballad. Or they might add a shuffle feel where it wasn’t a shuffle. At one point, they only would have been done one way but now someone will take that same song and make it reggae. I’ve seen tons of variations of the classic songs. Jerry never spoke with me about working with an orchestra but I’ve heard what they did on the album with “Terrapin.” The orchestration that was done on the record was great, although that was before me. If you believe that he’s up there in heaven then he’s certainly up there listening and smiling. MELVIN SEALS: I think Jerry would be fascinated by what we did with the orchestra. They’re going to be talking about “Ripple.” The lyrics were literature and the music was a masterclass in songwriting. Kids are going to be studying the lyrics to “Touch of Grey” and “Reuben and Cherise” in school 100 years from now.
TOM HAMILTON: Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead wrote the soundtrack to America from 1965 to 1995. At Red Rocks, I think we did right by him and that wonderful music.” So the opportunity and the challenge here was take all of that and be true to it now that we’re no longer in the room with that great mind.
Seals, a colorful presence on organ for nearly two decades with Garcia, notes, “In everything I did with Jerry there was fire and charisma but we were all working out of Jerry’s mind. On June 29, the Jerry Garcia 80th Birthday Symphonic Celebration teamed the Colorado Symphony with two longtime Garcia Band members-Melvin Seals and Jacklyn LaBranch-as well as Tom Hamilton, Dave Schools, Duane Trucks and Lady Chi. “At its essence, I’m a big fan of the idea that great music is great music, whatever labels we put on it,” says conductor Scott O’Neil after a special collaborative show at Red Rocks Amphitheatre.
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