Back in April of 1996 coming off the heels of the legendary Madison Square Garden New Years run, Trey Anastasio dove deep into the world of improv enlisting a who’s who of jamband musicians as well as members of Sun Ra’s Arkestra. The project was called Surrender to the Air. The group only played two shows on April 1 and April 2 at The Academy of Music in New York City. All of the music was improvised and allowed to go anywhere. Trey describes the project:
It was very loose. Everybody was just set up in the room, and you’d just come and go as you please. Sometimes it broke down to just two people. Most of the session was spent doing free stuff. [But, he adds,] The sound I wanted was free form and the structure I wanted was structure. It was basically a matter of figuring how to get both of those things. The problem that I don’t like about most free-form things is that it meanders. And to my ear, this doesn’t meander; it has direction all the time. It keeps going down a course.
The most interesting musician in these sessions is the incredible Marshall Allen. He is now the leader of Sun Ra’s Arkestra and has been in the band since 1958. Trumpeter Michael Ray and vibraphonist Damon Choice are also featured prominently in these sessions. The Arkestra of course are absolute masters of their craft performing art for art’s sake. Trey modeled this project after the Arkestra. Around this time Trey said of Sun Ra: “I think he was the pinnacle, he was as good as it got. His values remained pure for his entire life, and there's something to be said for that.”
This occasion wasn’t the first collaboration between Arkestra members. On December 2 1994 at UC Davis Michael Ray sat in amongst the Giant Country horns for the better part of the 2nd set. Gumbo, from A Live One is from this show. Marshall Allen sat in with Trey on August 2, 2001 on the tune Push On Til the Day. Caravan from the UC Davis show and Allen’s portion from the Trey show are enclosed on this podcast.
Also featured on this show is Phish’s only ever Sun Ra cover of Carefree from Purple Dragon studios in Atlanta on April 26, 1994. I also put a really weird Sun Ra version of Carefree. The Arkestra was always good at randomly playing weird versions of songs, which in the true jamband spirit makes the shows that circulate truly interesting.
The rest of the audience recordings are excerpts from the two nights. Don’t think Trey jams enough anymore? Check this out, it’s all they do. But of course there’s no ego and no one person dominating the improv, it is truly group improv and goes off in some really cool places. Listen for the space chords where it goes to group chaos and then on to the next idea. That was a common Arkestra tool.
0:00:00 Intro
0:06:42 Caravan 12-2-94 UC Davis CA Phish
0:13:25 Carefree 4-26-94 Purple Dragon Studios Phish
0:23:47 Nuclear War>Carefree 7-2-83 Knittelfeld Austria Sun Ra Omniverse Arkestra
0:34:45 Push on Till the Day 8-2-01 Mann Center Philadelphia Trey Anastasio Band
0:40:43 Surrender to the Air 4-2-96 Academy of Music NYC
1:26:43 Surrender to the Air 4-1-96 Academy of Music NYC
Surrender to the Air musicians:
Trey Anastasio - guitar
Jon Fishman - drums
Bob Gullotti - drums
Oteil Burbridge - bass
John Medeski - organ
Michael Ray - trumpet
Marshall Allen - saxophone
Marc Ribot - guitar
Damon Choice - vibraphone/keyboards
James Harvey - trombone
Kofi Burbridge - flute
The 2nd set of the 2nd night has Page McConnell on keys.
Check out this episode!
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