Dead keyboardist Grateful to be here

Keyboard player Jeff Chimenti came off the stage at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre and walked directly into the Virginia Beach rain.

He had spent part of Tuesday morning going through final rehearsals before the "official" start of The Dead's Summer Getaway 2003 tour.

After a pair of mid-week performances in Virginia Beach and Maryland, the band heads north for tonight's appearance at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, with support from Steve Winwood.

The rehearsals have been extensive, Chimenti says, "A lot of hours, a number of weeks. But I think things have been going real well. This is a great bunch of people, and there is a real good vibration, a great energy."

The band's most recent incarnation includes the seven-member ensemble that performed at the Pepsi Arena in November 2002 as The Other Ones.

Led by the four surviving core members of the Grateful Dead - Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, Phil Lesh and Bob Weir - the current Dead includes Chimenti, along with newer members Rob Barraco and Jimmy Herring.

Singer Joan Osborne - perhaps best known for performing the catchy 1995 hit "(What if God Was) One of Us" - has joined the band for its summer tour.

The group has also undergone a name change recently. In February - 71/2 years after the passing of Jerry Garcia - the band announced it was returning to more familiar territory.

"We have decided to keep the name 'Grateful Dead' retired in honor of Jerry's memory," the announcement read, in part. "(We will now) call ourselves: The Dead," the group stated before celebrating their rededication with a Valentine's Day concert in San Francisco.

Following months of rehearsals, The Dead performed at the Bonnaroo Music Festival in Tennessee earlier this week. They opened with the song "Touch of Grey," and performed fan favorites "Friend of the Devil," "Dark Star" and "Sugar Magnolia." And while an extensive repertoire and long jam sessions might be part of the band's reputation, it's not all as spontaneous and fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants as it appears on the surface.

By the time the band walks onstage tonight at SPAC, they will be familiar with a running order of songs to be performed.

"There is a set list made up on the day of the show," Chimenti says. "Although there's always the chance of an occasional audible being called during the show. It's fun. It keeps you on your toes."

As keyboard players, Chimenti and Barraco will alternate instruments throughout the band's performance, switching between piano and organ, synthesizer and clavinet.

"Me and Robert (Barraco) have been playing together, working on stuff and feeling each other out," Chimenti says of their collaboration, even though the pair hail from different musical backgrounds.

A Grateful Dead fan, Barraco grew up on Long Island in the 1970s. Chimenti is a relative newcomer to the band's music, having spent time around the Bay Area as a jazz musician.

"I didn't grow up with the Grateful Dead, although it|wasn't that I chose not to," Chimenti says.

"I knew OF them, of course, but I was just involved in a different realm of music.
I was playing a lot of jazz and (involved) with people like Ernie Watts and Art Farmer and Pharoah Sanders. Now of course, I wish that I had known more about them back then and got to experience some of what was going on at the time."

While the adjustment from the jazz circuit to the land of The Dead was a smooth musical transition for Chimenti, the cultural phenomenon and loyalist fan base that has surrounded the band for more than 30 years is something that he has been happily adjusting to.

"My first experience was playing with (Bob Weir's band) Rat Dog in '97," Chimenti says. "From that point to today, in going all over the country and all around the world, the way people have appreciated the band through the years, and in their dedication, is pretty amazing."

With the rehearsals done, The Dead is looking forward to getting back onstage and in front of the fans again.

"The sound is real good. We're ready to just go out there and have some fun," Chimenti says.

by Thomas Dimopoulos
The Saratogian, June 20, 2003