With Stanley Jordan Co-piloting, Phil Lesh & Friends Find the Promise of Darkstarathon
Everyone except Grahame Lesh was seated when Darkstarathon episode 7 began its journey across the cosmos.
And of course drummer John Molo, keyboardist Jason Crosby and pedal-steel guitarist Dan “Lebo” Lebowitz were. And being 84, Phil Lesh can do whatever the fuck he wants.
Which brings us to Stanley Jordan, whose unconventional playing style lent a bit of jazz to the proceedings as Lebowitz, Crosby, Molo and Lesh the elder kept things misty and primordial while Lesh the younger occasionally quoted the titular song.
Before long, even he was seated on his amp as this Darkstarathon lived up to the series’ initial promise of a never-ending “Darkstar.” Episode No. 7 is 27 minutes of instrumental music in which the spirit of adventurism ruled and in-the-moment composition and improv was all that mattered.
A hint of “West L.A. Fadeaway” bubbled to the surface around the 13-minute mark before elements of “Slipknot!” emerged over Molo’s marching fills.
As this dissolved, Lebowitz switched to acoustic and the band gurgled back down to formlessness as young Lesh strummed major chords and the sextet remained on the fly.
“Cassidy?”
No.
“Scarlet Begonias?”
No.
“I Know You Rider?”
Yes. But wordless with the guitarists lightly tracing the vocal lines.
Minute 23: “Darkstar” re-re-emerges; Grahame Lesh, Lebowitz and Jordan “singing” with their respective six-strings.
Shall we go?
Indeed.
Read Sound Bites’ previous “Darkstarathon” coverage here.
8/15/24
