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Featuring its usual heady mix of jam-band music, classic rock, blues, jazz and hip-hop, the 7th Jammy Awards at
the WaMu Theatre at Madison Square Garden on May 7 peaked with a tribute to
Phish. An all-star group comprising members of Disco
Biscuits, String Cheese Incident and Umphrey's McGee did their best Phish
impersonation, banging out covers of "Wilson," "Run Like
an Antelope," "2001: A Space Odyssey" and "Maze" before the last Jammys show
quietly ended just minutes before midnight.
In accepting their Lifetime Achievement Award, the four members of Phish - Trey Anastasio, Page McConnell, Mike Gordon and Jon Fishman - reunited for the first time publicly since their last concert in Coventry, Vermont in 2004.
"I feel like as a musician we're servants, and musicians from the
beginning of time have been there to express the mood and the musical
feelings in the air for whatever's going on in that particular
culture," Anastasio said. "It's the greatest joy as a musician to be able to
translate that, be part of something and watch the scenery around you.
That's what it felt like to be in Phish all those years.... Thanks for letting us be a part of your life."
The four and a half hour show had many highlights, including:
• Co-hosts Warren Haynes and Grace Potter, who performed with groups throughout the night.
• Anatastio joining the Fab Faux on rousing versions of Beatles classics, "My Guitar Gently Weeps" and "Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey."
• A terrific jazz jam on Phish's "Cars Trucks Buses" with McConnell, James Carter, Nicholas Payton, Christian McBride and Roy Haynes.
• "Mississippi Queen" by Mountain's Leslie West with Rose Hill Drive.
• "The Show" by Doug E. Fresh and Galactic
• Chevy Chase, who accepted Keller Williams' Song of the Year award and played piano and sung along with Williams on Carole King's "(You Make Me Feel Like A) Natural Woman" and Steve Miller's "Take the Money and Run."
• Several Squeeze songs - "Tempted" and "Pulling Mussels (from the Shell)" - with Squeeze's Glen Tilbrook, Big Head Todd's Todd Mohr and Tea Leaf Green.
• POT CULTURE authors - Shirley Halperin and CelebStoner's Steve Bloom - presenting the award for Best Archival Album to the Grateful Dead for Three from the Vault.
Even bigger news is that this was the last Jammy Awards as we know it. Jammys founder Pete Shapiro says: "We accomplished what we set out to do, Now it's time to go in a new direction. It will be more of a celebration in general of live music."
About Phish, he notes: "It was enough to get them all in the same room. To me this was the best Jammys ever. No one watching the show could have been disappointed."
So after seven sprawling concerts - some lasted seven hours - the Jammys are no more. Thanks to Shapiro, Dean Budnick and Relix for all the unique live music they've provided over the years.
Pics: Phish and Grace Potter (by Jason DeCrow/AP)
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