Phil Lesh And Friends: Live At The Warfield [DVD]

For the unfamiliar: Phil Lesh was the virtuoso bass player from the Grateful Dead, the most enduring (apart from the Rolling Stones) and touring 60s rock band, which has been more or less on the shelf since the death a few years back of singer and guitarist Jerry Garcia. This is a live concert of Phil and Friends doing Grateful Dead songs.I didn't really expect much of this - Phil Lesh and jazz rockers sounded pretty uninviting - but it's really pretty good. the delightful Joan Osborne takes the vocal front spot on most of the songs and really treats them respectfully and does them justice, and John Scofield on guitar is a very good substitute for Garcia, seemingly having done his homework and tried to get a few nuances of his style- he's still more jazz than country but it works ok. The songs are lively and fun - sure the jams go on a bit, but didn't the Dead's. Any Grateful Dead fan should get some pleasure out of this and should buy it to give some encouragement to Phil to keep working, and newcomers might even find Joan Osborne's singing more appealing than Garcia's. Well worth buying.

I have to confess I bought this as I always liked Phil Lesh in the Dead, particularly Box of Rain (both original 60s version and much later return to the repertoire) rather than to hear his more recent act. But I have to admit I actually enjoyed this later outing, the whole thing. Pity the DVD is a bit of a disappointment: I thought we would at least get Box of Rain, though I did enjoy All Along the Watchtower.

This album is a really frustrating mix. On one hand some of the finest improvising musicians associated with the Grateful Dead put together some superb versions of Dead tunes and a few others. Then the singing starts. Cd 1 is not too bad, in fact there are times when the singing is so good that I wished that the Dead were as tight in concert. Then Cd 2 starts with Dark Star, all well and good until the singing starts. Wow! Even Donnas warbling puts this to shame, well OK, when she was bad she was terrible....but them again so were Bob and Jerry on accasion.So, if this had been an instrumental album it would be getting a 5 star. If it had good singing 5 star, but this ~~~~3 star at most. If I was rating the singing it would get 1/2 a star.Apologies to the Deadheads that read this, but this is how I feel about bad singing.

package and delivery top class.,Great band with one of the best female vocals

Excellent playing. A more jazzy take on some familiar Dead material!!

Obviously this is NOT a Grateful Dead concert despite the inclusion of some of the old Grateful Dead "classics". Herein lies the problem. In contrast to the originals the songs lack the energy, creativity and hippie ness of the Grateful Dead. . The improvisations by the two guitarists were uninspired and Joan Osborne, who is one of my  The String Cheese Incident: Live at the Fillmore Auditorium - Denver, March 23, 2002 [DVD] [2003] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC ]favorite vocalists, is wasted here.Having recently also bought the String Cheese Incident's Live at the Fillmore I think that had Phil Lesh got together with them, along with Bill Kreutzman, and allowed Joan Osborne so do the vocals, we could have had a real treat.Sorry Phil, I was expecting more.I Think I'll go and play Dark Star now! The String Cheese Incident: Live at the Fillmore Auditorium - Denver, March 23, 2002 [DVD] [2003] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC ]

What to say about this release?I must admit to being a little disappointed. The main plus and negative point is the inclusion of guest John Scofield, and Greg Osby. Phil & Friends has always been a very liquid line up but these 2 seem to be very unfamiliar with the material. As such, many of the songs are simply an excuse for a bit of lite-jazz jamming.If this is your thing, then all well and good, Scofield apparently played with Miles Davis and Osby is well respected in his field. I guess this is the main thing lacking, with Garcia on board with his love of folk and old, weird, Americana the Dead always remembered the songs. With this band the songs sometimes are forgotten...On the other hand Joan Osborne is on hand as the main vocalist and she is simply superb, bringing her soul-blues style to the proceedings.Overall this is very watch able and if the jamming is the main thing for you it is great. Personally I would have preferred to see a more solid line up playing some of the tighter tunes Phil has up his sleeve...***3 1/2 stars*** oh, go on then... 4 - just for Joan[it doesn't seem to be mentioned in the review but the second disk of the set features and interview with Lesh, Scofield & Osby talking about music and improvisation in particular. It also features a `Jazz Jam' with those 3 plus John Molo on drums which is fairly inconsequential to be honest.]