Latest News

• Thursday, March 8, 8pm: Henflings Tavern, 9450 Hwy 9, Ben Lomond CA. No cover! 831-336-9318
• Saturday, March 10, 9:30pm: Honky Tonk Hippies at the Connecticut Yankee, 100 Connecticut Street, San Francisco. Mario DeSio opens. 415-552-4440
• Saturday, March 17, 8:30 pm: The Venue, 1020 Broad Street Camden SC. Naked Eye Productions
• Sunday, March 18, 9:00 pm: DG w/ David McCracken (keyboards) at The Blind Tiger, 2115 Walker Avenue Greensboro NC. $5. 336-272-9888
• Monday, March 19, 6:45 pm EST: DG appears on Michael Johnathon’s Woodsongs Old-Time Radio Hour. Webcast live, and broadcast later on various radio stations.
• Tuesday, March 20, around 3:00 pm: DG will appear on WNCW to play music and talk and all that.
• Tuesday, March 20: Barley’s Taproom, 115 W. Main Street, Spindale NC. 828-288-8388. No cover!
• March 22-25: Suwannee Springfest, at the Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park, Live Oak FL. Donna the Buffalo, the Duhks, Peter Rowan & Tony Rice, Jim Lauderdale, Jorma Kaukonen, Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks, and many more!
• Monday, March 26, 9 pm: Tim and Terry’s, 1417 NW 1st Ave, Gainesville FL. DG plays a full set, then joins in the regular weekly bluegrass jam.
• Saturday, April 28:Lake Tahoe Earth Day at The Village At Squaw Valley USA (north of Lake Tahoe)
• June 29-July 1: American Roots Music Festival at Potomac Pavilion, Falling Waters WV. Melvin Seals/JGB, Donna Jean and the Zen Tricksters, Juggling Suns, etc. DG plays Sat & Sun.
• September 28-October 1, 2007: DG teaches looping at Jorma Kaukonen’s Fur Peace Ranch Guitar Camp

Gala Benefit Concert for Young People’s Symphony Orchestra & the Jazzschool Set for Sunday, March 18

Grateful Dead Bassist & YPSO Alumnus Phil Lesh to Guest-Conduct

Two unique Berkeley music institutions — Young People’s Symphony Orchestra and the Jazzschool — will benefit from a fund-raiser concert to be held Sunday, March 18 at 7:30 pm at the First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh, who once played violin and trumpet with YPSO and credits the organization with starting his career, is the evening’s guest conductor. Composer Jake Heggie is the Master of Ceremonies.

The concert, Classical Meets Jazz Meets Phil Lesh, will open with the  Young People’s Symphony Orchestra performing Berlioz, Mussorgsky, Ellington, and Mancini. The Jazzschool Advanced High School Jazz Workshop, under the direction of Jazzschool faculty member Michael Zilber, will play a set, and the concert’s grand finale (“Trane of Thought” by Jack Perla, and an arrangement of Jerry Garcia’s “Shakedown Street”) will be performed by all. A dessert reception to meet the artists follows the concert.

“One of the biggest reasons I’m so excited about the collaboration with YPSO,” says Jazzschool Director Susan Muscarella, “is that I feel it’s a wonderful opportunity for students in these two stylistically diverse groups to be exposed to each other’s music.”

Tickets are $75 general admission and $25 for ages 21 and under. They may be purchased by check or credit card; online, by phone (510-845-5373), or by fax (510-841-5373). Tax-deductible contributions enable YPSO and the Jazzschool to maintain and expand their commitment to excellence in music education and community outreach programs.

https://jazzschool.inhousetickets.com/evinfo.php?eventid=14136

Hello, friends –

I just got back from a delightful tour of my favorite part of the world: Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, and Colorado!   I’ve posted a number of photos from my travels:  https://flickr.com/photos/dgans/tags/feb07tour/

Here is the latest gig update.  More summer dates will be confirmed soon.  More info at https://www.dgans.com/gigs.html

BAY AREA this week and next:

* Friday, March 2, 7:30 pm:  Moon News Bookstore, 315 Main Street, Half Moon Bay CA. Free! 650-726-8610

* Saturday, March 3, 9:30 am to 1:30 pm:  Grand Lake Farmers’ Market, at Grand and Lake Park Avenues in Oakland CA (across from the Grand Lake Theater). FREE! Great produce, bread, baked goods, prepared food, and crafts.

* Thursday, March 8, 8pm:  Henflings Tavern, 9450 Hwy 9, Ben Lomond CA. No cover! 831-336-9318

* Saturday, March 10, 9:30pm:  Honky Tonk Hippies at the Connecticut Yankee, 100 Connecticut Street, San Francisco. Mario DeSio opens. 415-552-4440

SOUTHEAST:

* Saturday, March 17, 8:30 pm:  The Venue, 1020 Broad Street Camden SC. Naked Eye Productions

* Sunday, March 18, 9:00 pm:  DG w/ David McCracken (keyboards) at The Blind Tiger, 2115 Walker Avenue Greensboro NC. $5. 336-272-9888

* Monday, March 19, 6:45 pm EST:  DG appears on Michael Johnathon’s Woodsongs Old-Time Radio Hour. Webcast live, and broadcast later on various radio stations.  www.woodsongs.com

* Tuesday, March 20, around 3:00 pm EST:  DG will appear on WNCW to play music and talk and all that.  www.wncw.org

* Tuesday, March 20:  Barley’s Taproom, 115 W. Main Street, Spindale NC. 828-288-8388. No cover!

* March 22-25:  Suwannee Springfest, at the Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park, Live Oak FL. Donna the Buffalo, the Duhks, Peter Rowan & Tony Rice, Jim Lauderdale, Jorma Kaukonen, Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks, and many more!

* Monday, March 26, 9 pm:  Tim and Terry’s, 1417 NW 1st Ave, Gainesville FL. DG plays a full set, then joins in the regular weekly bluegrass jam.

LONG-RANGE PLANNING:

* Saturday, April 28:  Lake Tahoe Earth Day at The Village At Squaw Valley USA (north of Lake Tahoe).

* June 29-July 1:  American Roots Music Festival at Potomac Pavilion, Falling Waters WV.  Melvin Seals/JGB, Donna Jean and the Tricksters, Juggling Suns, etc al. DG plays Sat & Sun.

* September 28-October 1:  DG teaches looping at Jorma Kaukonen’s Fur Peace Ranch Guitar Camp

This review appeared in the June 1983 issue of Record magazine:

Zappa Wields Heavy Baton; Varèse Weeps
The San Francisco Contemporary Music Players;
Frank Zappa, conductor
War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco CA
February 9, 1983

By Phil Lesh with David Gans

“How many of you are having trouble with the silence between the notes?” asked emcee Grace Slick midway through the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players’ program of works by avant-garde composers Edgard Varèse and Anton Webern. “Maybe some of you are waiting for something familiar instead of warming to the unfamiliar.”

It’s a safe assumption that this music was unfamiliar, to the majority of the 2000 or so who came to San Francisco’s War Memorial Opera House to see a tuxedo-clad Frank Zappa conducting two compositions by Varèse, one of the heroes of Zappa’s musical youth. And judging from the way Zappa conducted himself on the podium, it’s also a safe assumption that his presence was more a matter of drawing power than was his conducting prowess.

As a fundraising event, it was probably a success. The largest segment of the audience clearly came to see Zappa and Slick first, the SFCMP second – but if Zappa hoped to turn his fans on to Varèse, he should have given them a more spirited, accessible performance. He and the orchestra were underrehearsed; Zappa never looked up from his score during his two pieces (which, in true Ed Sullivan Show style, were the first and last of the evening – ensuring that the audience remained for the non-celebrity portions) and swung his baton in a wooden, metronomic fashion.

Aside from their common birth year – l883 – there isn’t much linking Varèse and Webern. Both were composers whose work challenged established principles of tonality, rhythm and musical structure. Varèse’s Ionisation (the first of the two pieces conducted by Zappa), for instance, is performed by a 13-piece percussion ensemble consisting mostly of sirens, gongs and drums. The play of dynamics and tone colors is what it’s all about; its climax is the brief appearance of pitch – in the form of piano and bells – late in the piece. It’s a hard concept for rock- or classical-oriented audiences to grasp even when it’s played well, and whatever dynamics this rendition had were swallowed up in the poor acoustics of the Opera House.

The most successful piece of the evening, interestingly, wasn’t performed live. Varèse’s Poeme Electronique, a taped creation first presented in 1958, is almost totally free of conventional rhythm, pitch and timbre, but it tells a story, elicits chuckles and chills – in short, does all that music is supposed to do – while ignoring its rules and traditions. As Zappa wrote in a 1971 article reprinted in the program notes, “If. . . you think (Varèse’s) music might make groovy sound effects, listen again.”