Notes

PERSONNEL:
Phil Lesh - processed bass, synthesized sounds and electronics, percussion, whistles, vocal sounds, unidentified noisemakers and instruments

James. K. Randall - synthesized sounds and electronics, percussion, vocal sounds, unidentified noisemakers and instruments

Marjorie Tichenor - piano, synthesized sounds and electronics, percussion, vocal sounds, footsteps, unidentified noisemakers and instruments



NOTES:
Hopefully somebody out there knows a lot more about these sessions than I do, and can possibly clue us in once I get them circulating. But first, some context, and what I do know.

At the tail end of the Dead’s east coast tour in April of 1982, Phil Lesh contributed a memorable “Barbary Coast” recitation (AKA Earthquake Space) to the April 18th show here in Hartford, CT. At the April 19th Baltimore show on the following night, he recited the opening line of the poem "Paul Clifford" and fragments of Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven” during the space sequence following drums, right before the band took a month off from touring. Highly unusual to have vocals at all during this part of the Dead's performances and a wonderfully weird way to end that tour - with Lesh clearly leading the way.

Immediately after those shows, Lesh headed to the home of J.K. Randall in Princeton, New Jersey. For those unfamiliar with him, Randall was an American composer, music theorist, and early adopter of electronic music. He joined the faculty of Princeton in 1957 and at the time of his death (and Lesh’s visit) was Professor of Music Emeritus. At Princeton, he became a pioneer in electronic music during the embryonic computer days of punch cards. Later, he did a great deal of improvisation, then late in life came back to composing for piano and MIDI. His music was primarily heard in academic circles by music scholars and theorists, but occasionally reached a wider audience.

Over the course of several days, Lesh ventured into experimental “new music” with Randall and two of his cohorts, electronic music composer/music theorist Ben Boretz and pianist/writer/music theorist Marjorie Tichenor. They recorded in various configurations during the course of this visit.

These recordings are very good quality, but they’ll only appeal to the most avid Lesh collectors or fans of experimental music - and maybe the small contingency of Deadheads that appreciated Lesh & Ned Lagin’s “Seastones” album, although they bear few similarities to that project. They are primarily much longer totally improvised pieces, ranging from half an hour to well over an hour each.

The transfers were unproblematic, but because these tapes were in deep storage and unplayed for nearly 35 years, they do suffer from minor bleed-through, which is audible during sparse quieter sequences. The instrumentation ranges from synthesized electronic sounds and familiar instruments (like piano, wind instruments and percussion), to an extremely unusual all-vocal sequence (with Marjorie Tichenor leading the way) that may be one of the weirdest and most unselfconscious improvisations ever committed to tape. Think Zappa's brief vocal interludes of snorts, grunts and the like, on steroids…

As far as I know, these recordings have never circulated beyond a handful of friends and I cannot for the life of me remember who gave them to me - beyond that it must have been in the early to mid 1980s, not too long after they happened. I did check the J.K. Randall tape archive inventory at Princeton, and they are not to be found there. Also not listed among any of the recordings that Randall or Boretz ever issued.

The track titles are simply descriptive of the order in which they were recorded and are not according to any official notation. The actual tapes had very little information beyond the dates and personnel. Likewise, the instrumentation attributed to each of the musicians are just my educated guesses and not definitive.

Because I'm currently swamped with client projects between now and the holidays, it will likely be awhile before I can get to transferring the remaining tapes from April 22nd and 23rd. I'll do my best to get these additional recordings circulating before the end of the year, but it may have to wait until January. In the meantime, here are the recordings from day one of these unusual sessions to get the ball rolling.

If anyone is better educated about these sessions, please clue us in! -Alan Bershaw (October 2020)