Grateful Dead music goes classical in new symphony

By Randall Mikkelsen

WASHINGTON (Reuters Life!) - The Grateful Dead made their name playing improvisational music born anew with every performance, and now an American composer has sought to capture their psychedelic spirit in a classical symphony.

"Dead Symphony No. 6," by Lee Johnson, encompasses some of the band's most familiar melodies and its most otherworldly jams in a work in 12 movements.

The symphony is "a musical embrace of American culture" and a natural outgrowth of the band's spirit, Johnson said. "The Grateful Dead lived in the musical moment. Theirs was a world of perpetual exploration and endless possibility."

A studio recording by the Grammy-winning Russian National Orchestra has been released online and a CD release is scheduled for late May. Discussions are also underway for a live U.S orchestral premiere, possibly in the San Francisco.

Rock songs have long been arranged for orchestral "pops" concerts, but Johnson said the Dead symphony is more ambitious.

Highlights include movements based on the Dead's psychedelic classic "St. Stephen" and the rarely played "Mountains of the Moon." There is even an improvised portion, in the lament "Stella Blue."

Atlanta producer Mike Adams, a "Deadhead" fan of the band, got the idea of a symphony after frontman Jerry Garcia died in 1995. He wanted someone who could cast the music in a classical form.

"He thought that what he was hearing was way beyond what a band should be able to do. It could have symphonic possibilities," said Johnson, who was recruited by Adams.