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Review of Grateful Dead and the Art of Rock Improvisation, by David

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Review of Grateful Dead and the Art of Rock Improvisation, by David 486 Notes, March 2015 folk legacy of white Americans. Considered ers, and the political, social, and musical as- in this light, the Trio’s popularity with pects of the Trio’s legacy. young, white, privileged college students Jim Alberts becomes perhaps more explicable than Library of Congress Bush would like to admit. The issue of race is perhaps most explicit in the song “The Tijuana Jail,” in which white Californians Grateful Dead and the Art of Rock are oppressed by evil Mexicans, an issue Improvisation. By David Malvinni. that resonates in right-wing politics to this Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2013. day. Other songs, however, illustrate this [xvii, 277 p. ISBN 9780810882553 with far more musical subtlety. “Coplas,” (hardcover), $45; ISBN 9780810883482 from the Trio’s first album, is a case in (e-book), $44.99.] Music examples, il- point. Guard delivers the Spanish lyrics lustrations, tables, appendix, bibliogra- with a driving, visceral intensity; his perfor- phy, index. mance is thoroughly convincing and pulls the listener along with a vigorous energy. Over the past fifteen years, scholarship In the bridge, Reynolds and Shane then de- on the Grateful Dead has blossomed, with liver insinuating comments in a pseudo- vibrant and illuminating articles filling the Spanish accent (à la “The Tijuana Jail”) pages of a peer-reviewed journal (Dead and pseudo-Mariachi whoops and hollers. Studies) and multiple volumes of interdisci- It’s an odd mix, in that Guard provides a plinary essays (Jim Tuedio and Stan compelling argument for the style (in his Spector, eds., The Grateful Dead in Concert: performance), but the rest of the arrange- Essays on Live Improvisation [Jefferson, NC: ment makes its underlying racism abun- McFarland, 2010], to name just one). Due dantly clear, a kind of “Mariachi min- to the perception that one must use techni- strelsy,” as a colleague of mine put it. cal musical language to discuss music, Of course, their stroking of the sensibili- much of this fine work has centered on ties of their white collegiate audience was sociological, philosophical, economic, reli- hardly the only component of the Trio’s gious, historical, and communicative as- success. The entire folk revival was, in a cer- pects of the Grateful Dead and their fer- tain sense, an illusion, but the Trio had the vent fan base, the Deadheads. The main power, for generations of fans, to make that exceptions to this rule include analytical es- illusion vitally real and powerful. From a says on Dead compositions and improvisa- personal standpoint, I suspect that many of tions by musicologists and music theorists my musical interests were sparked, to some such as Michael Kaler, Graeme M. Boone, extent, by my childhood exposure to my and Shaugn O’Donnell (Michael John parents’ collection of albums by the Kaler, “Jamming the Blues: The Grateful Kingston Trio, Chad Mitchell Trio, Peter, Dead’s Development of Models for Rock Paul and Mary, and the New Christy Improvisation,” Critical Studies in Improvisa- Minstrels, among other such groups. There tion 9, no. 1 [2013]; Graeme M. Boone, also seems to be little question that the cur- “Tonal and Expressive Ambiguity in ‘Dark rent preoccupation with acoustic “roots Star’ ” in Understanding Rock: Essays in music” (again, among young, white per- Musical Analysis, eds. John Covach and formers and audiences) would not be as Graeme M. Boone [New York: Oxford Uni- prevalent as it is, were it not for the bands versity Press, 1997], 171–210; and Shaugn of the folk revival. O’Donnell, “Bobby, Béla, and Borrowing This book is an important contribution in ‘Victim or the Crime’ ” in All Graceful to the history of the folk revival, and de- Instruments: The Contexts of the Grateful Dead serves a place in any comprehensive music Phenomenon, ed. Nicholas G. Meriwether collection. As a history, however, it is a [Newcastle, Eng.: Cambridge Scholars starting point that will provide a strong, if Press, 2007], 38–51.) sometimes flawed, foundation for future re- David Malvinni’s Grateful Dead and the Art search into the social context of the Trio, of Rock Improvisation is therefore a necessary the copious primary literature surrounding addition to the growing secondary litera- the group and other folk revival perform- ture on the music of the Grateful Dead. Book Reviews 487 Malvinni aims for a comprehensive survey His most extensive treatment of a jam is of the Dead’s entire career, attempting to reserved for “Dark Star,” a song that he elucidate the secrets behind “the transfor- rightly maintains “signals the richest, riski- mative effect of music that does not seem est, and most complex of the band’s impro- to apply to other bands in the rock tradi- visations” (p. xvii). The mammoth version tion” (p. 5). Part of Malvinni’s agenda is to from 24 April 1972 forms the centerpiece correct what he perceives as a musicologi- of chapter 4, “ ‘Dark Star’: Theorizing cal bias against the band (pp. 9–10). There- Improvisation.” In table 4.2 (pp. 118–20) fore, he situates Grateful Dead jamming and in the lengthy exposition that follows, within the historical and social contexts of Malvinni explicates the mechanics of this improvisation. He plumbs a variety of im- particular “Dark Star.” Alone, the table for- provisational theories germane to the mat does not always work; for example, the Dead’s eclectic, countercultural interests: ambiguous entry at 5:07 reads “Garcia E-F he finds a model for the band/audience en- oscillation, settling on E, while piano on B ergy interaction in Karlheinz Stockhausen’s (above); Weir complementing” (p. 118). concept of “intuitive music” (pp. 107–9), he The context for these pitches is unclear; we compares the synergy between fixed and do not know whether guitarist Jerry Garcia improvised elements in a Grateful Dead is referring to an E-Phrygian collection or jam to Indian ragas (pp. 104–5), and he merely a chromatic upper neighbor, and spends considerable time exploring the whether these pitches operate within a lo- complex relationship between the Dead calized E-minor tonality or against the and blues (pp. 27–34) and both modal and A-major key of the composition. Equally fusion jazz styles (pp. 112–15, 158–60). vague is the nature of rhythm guitarist Bob Following the introductory chapter, in Weir’s “complementing.” which Malvinni considers issues of authen- Malvinni clarifies the matter in his writ- ticity, band historiography, and philosophy ten episodic analysis, noting that Garcia set- (both Heidegger and Deleuze loom large tles into “the Phrygian note set, E, F, D,” in Malvinni’s thinking), he proceeds and that his invocation of this particular chronologically through the band’s career, modal collection “functions as an alter- choosing one representative performance ation, a quasi blue note in this context, of selected songs for analysis; however, rather than a full-blown modal shift” there is no systematic approach to improvi- (p. 125). His play-by-play description of sational analysis. Malvinni lists some jams in salient moments in the “Dark Star” jam is meticulous tables, in which melodic, har- taut, effective, and highlights the mix of monic, rhythmic, and other sonic events modal melodic sets, polyphony, harmonic are noted alongside track timings, allowing ambiguity, and avant-garde noise that is the for the reader to follow along (e.g., the crux of the best Dead improvisations. analysis of “Viola Lee Blues” from 26 April In addition to the close readings of spe- 1969, p. 53). More often, he chronicles a cific performances, Malvinni identifies a jam in narrative prose with track timings, number of important general theories of describing selected musical events such as Grateful Dead improvisational practice that significant note choices, rhythmic displace- are crucial for a holistic understanding of ments, or changes of mode (e.g., the analy- their musical style. For instance, he writes sis of “Sugaree” from 19 May 1977, pp. 210– that “Garcia’s contrast between various 11). Other times he mentions a significant scalar patterns . over a strong indepen- version of a song but then treats it to only dent bass counterpoint accounts for much one or two inadequate paragraphs (e.g., of the richness of the Dead’s early improvi- “Playing in the Band” from 6 August 1974, sations” (p. 64), and then immediately pp. 154–55). This lack of consistency results identifies the jamming practice of “That’s It in an unevenness in the quality of the for the Other One” as a juxtaposition of E- analyses. A visual, non-tabular aid might minor-pentatonic and E-Dorian collections have complemented some of these long (p. 65). Elsewhere, a comment made in prose passages; however, the only musical passing helps to explain global tendencies figures provided are transcriptions of cer- in the Dead’s improvisation, such as “ac- tain melodies. companiment in the Dead is best thought 488 Notes, March 2015 as an independent, polyphonic part” Music,” Music Theory Spectrum 32, no. 2 [Fall (p. 117). 2010]: 95–110). Despite this, rock scholars Like all Deadheads, Malvinni loves this will find that portions of the book can be music, a sentiment clear from his passion- used to effectively teach lessons about the ate prose. Yet he seems to lose sight of his Grateful Dead, as well as principles of audience, or perhaps tries to cast too wide group improvisation and modality in rock a net of inclusion. The preface claims that music. the book will rely on traditional elements There are a number of minor but frus- of pitch-based musicological analysis such trating shortcomings. Overall, the prose as Roman-numeral harmonic designations. suffers from a lack of careful proofreading, Yet in the introduction, he acknowledges including not only typographical errors but that his use of musical jargon might “be a incomplete sentences, omitted words, and stumbling block to those not versed in mu- other usage errors that frequently mar the sic theory” (p.
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