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| Just days after Phish ended their New
Year's run in Miami, pianist Page McConnell and drummer Jon
Fishman marched up the East coast to jam with their side projects.
On January 10th, both Vida Blue and the Jazz Mandolin Project
took the stage at the Roseland Ballroom on 52nd St. Vida Blue
was hardly alone in their efforts to entertain for the evening.
"The Illustrated Band," a collaborative album between Vida Blue
and the DJ Spam All-stars, was the inspiration behind this tour.
On stage were the original members of Vida Blue including McConnell,
bassist Oteil Burbridge (the Allman Brothers Band), and drummer
Russell Batiste (the Meters), as well as the DJ Spam All-stars
which include DJ Le Spam on the turntables, two percussionists,
a guitarist, and a lively horn section. When you add all these
pieces together, the final product is a 10-member fusion band
with songs ranging from Latin funk to what seems like an African
tribal jam. Although this is Page's solo act, he is hardly the
center of attention throughout the show. Burbridge frequently
sang along with the melody of his solos, the horn section was
dancing along with every rhythmic groove, and DJ Le Spam was
chillin' in back with his turntables, ready to scratch at a
moment's notice. This band dips into a wide variety of musical
genres, all of which will incite head-nodding at the very least.
It's effectively a mixture of jam, jazz, funk, latin, tribal,
hip-hop and everything in between. The band played one song
from their new album (which only has four songs totaling over
an hour of music), but Page dipped into the Phish songbook to
end the set with "Cars, Trucks, Buses." The encore began with
Page by himself playing a few Phish classics including "Strange
Design," "Army of One," and "Lawn Boy," a particular favorite.
The crowd was excited to sing along, and even more excited when
the musicians began to trickle back on stage. Then, out came
the Jazz Mandolin Project to jam with Vida Blue. JMP put on
a great performance both opening up and in the encore. When
Jon Fishman made his way to the stage, every Vida Blue fan,
every JMP fan, and every Phish fan could feel the energy that
had developed between these musicians- especially because the
Jan. 10th Roseland show was JMP's final showing on the tour,
and Vida Blue only had one more show left in Vermont. More of
a classy jazz-jam band, JMP was founded by mandolin player Jamie
Masefield, who acquired a number of musicians over the past
few years, including an upright bassist, a keyboardist/trumpet
player, and a drummer (who happened to be Jon Fishman for this
tour). In essence, JMP replaces the common guitar with a mandolin,
which adds to the shape and originality of their sound. Having
a band like JMP open for Vida Blue really set an upbeat, fun
tone to the evening, but their performance during the encore
resulted in collaborative craziness. There were 14 musicians
on the stage for the last song, "No Quarter," Fishman was banging
on the drums with Russell Batiste, and it seemed like all these
musicians were at the peak of enjoyment on this tour. Page McConnell
has really created something unique and special apart from his
contribution to the now-20-year-old Phish. Both the Vida Blue
live show and the new album are something very different from
the common improv session. He's fused music from all different
aspects of culture into one continuous, bouncing jam, and the
Spam All-stars continue to push Vida Blue into a whole new playing
field. |
Setlist:
Most Events Aren't Planned
Cars
Who`s Laughing Now
Ochimini
CJ3
Just Kissed My Baby
Little Miami (Reputation)
Subterranean Homesick Alien
Russell's Tune
Cars Trucks Buses*
E: Strange Design**
Army of One**
Lawn Boy***
No Quarter****
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Vida
Blue: Vida Blue |
Vida
Blue: Illustrated Band |
*w/
Steve Welch on sax
**Page solo
*** Page w/ Jon Fishman
**** w/ Jazz Mandolin Project
and Steve Welch
on sax. |
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The
Jazz Mandolin Project:
Jungle Tango |
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