Blue Light Rain

Jazz isn’t really dead, it’s just looking back at the songbook and spirit of America’s favorite jam band, the Grateful Dead. Featuring an all-star cast of instrumentalists including drummer Billy Cobham, bassist Alfonso Johnson, guitarist Jimmy Herring, and keyboardist T Lavitz, Jazz Is Dead reconstructs the Dead’s songbook into a showcase for jazz-rock-fusion virtuosos. Interpreting classic tunes like “Scarlet Begonias” as well as a “Blues for Allah Medley,” Jazz Is Dead employ a surprisingly light and empathic touch on these compositions. The band really shows off its collective talents on the Dead’s infamous improv-centerpiece, “Dark Star,” which blossoms into nine full minutes of a psychedelic-jazz jamfest. While not exactly a musical love-in, Herring and Lavitz solo passionately over the rock-steady rhythms of Cobham and Johnson. –Mitch Myers