… by Lee Johnson, based on ten Grateful Dead songs, will be performed at UC Santa Cruz on Sunday, the fourteenth anniversary of Jerry Garcia’s death.
Last year, the university announced the acquisition of the Dead’s own archives — a sprawling collection of memorabilia featuring correspondence, photographs, fliers, posters, televised interviews, stage backdrops and concert props. The university, which offers well-attended Grateful Dead courses taught by music professor Fred Lieberman (who has also collaborated on two books with Grateful Dead percussionist Mickey Hart) as well as a weekly campus radio show dedicated to the band’s music, will house the collection in a purpose-built room of its new library.
The samples sound great to old UD, though she knows little Grateful Dead music. A touch of Copland, some Bernstein, some Gershwin. But its own thing. Very nice.