From: ST402836@brownvm.brown.edu (st. stephen)
Newsgroups: rec.music.gdead
Subject: Re: Philosophical and Academic discussions of the Dead's
Date: 12 Aug 92 18:21:37 GMT
Reply-To: ST402836@brownvm.brown.edu
Organization: The Internet

Howdy,
    I'd like to chip in my congrats to Curtis for his insightful post.
I think he hit the nail on the head when he points out the improvisational
nature of the Dead.  For me this is the aspect that sets the Dead apart,
what makes them unique and special.  I mean if they just played Rock'n'roll
they'd be just another burnt out band from the sixties.  What I find
continually interesting, what captures my intellect as well as my feelings
when I listen to them are those moments when they create something new
out of the music.  In this regards I think they are one of the best
ensembles I've heard.  What strikes me is that this aspect of the dead,
jamming, improv. etc, is due to their skills as musicians.  So the more
one can understand what they're doing from a musical point of view the
more you discover there.  Although I agree with and find interesting Curtis'
comment that the modal work they do is more difficult to do/think up/create
than it seems just listening to.  That is, that you don't have to
intellectually understand what they're doing to be grabbed by the music.  It
just opens other dimensions.
   Another aspect of the Dead that contributes to their greatness (for lack
of a better adjective) is their ability to convey a broad spectrum of
emotions and to do this effectively.  A Dead concert pulls you through
all sorts of emotions, high's and lows, peaks and valleys, and they're
able to do this very effectively.  People always comment on the effect of
a well sung/played Morning Dew, for example, or a Looks Like Rain.
This ability to evoke a range of emotions, and to do it well certainly
sets the Dead apart from your average band.  Being able to do this well may
be related to their skill at improving, since musically the same skills
are utilized.

   Thanks to Bruce for his comments on modal jamming.  I found them
very interesting.   I've been thinking about discussing the dead's jams
in modal terms and all this discussion helps understand a little.  Plus,
we get to learn a little about jazz too!

quaglia@seas.smu.edu (Bruce Quaglia)

  > jazz myself. I think of it as being a way to take the "harmonic
  > maze" of running chord changes down, out of the way in the solo.
  > Of course, that's more of like modal jazz vs. Be-bop kinda-thing.
  > But I think that there is some corelation with how the Dead use it.
  > hen Miles Davis started playing "cool" instead of "Bop", he did it
  > <at least in part> to be able to play simple melodies and take them to
  >a longer sustained place in his solos that wouldn't get anihilated by

      So, what you're saying is that from an historical point of view
 modal playing was in part a response to the dense chordal structure of
 Bop?  In the sense that the thing Miles was trying to do was to
 concentrate on the soloist's ability to creat new and interesting
 melody lines without a lot of chordal structure around to give
 her pointers.
      This seems to make alot of sense connected to the Dead.  It seems
 to me that Jerry is a very melodic player, that is he has a fine
 ability to construct solos that stand on their own as interesting melodies.


 >  but still the idea is similar. Most of the standard tunes that they
 >  play whether they're Rock n' Roll standards, or Cowboy Bob or even
 >  the Funky stuff are all harmonically derivative of the 12- bar
  > blues...at least in that there are principally two harmonic areas
 >  that dictate the form etc. The modal jams still contrast the same

     What are these two harmonic areas that dictate the form?


  Hey!  We're finally learning something :^)

-steve
Newsgroups: rec.music.gdead