Vida Blue, the side project of keyboardist Page McConnell, brings its fusion of Latin and African sounds to Jannus Landing on Sunday.
By PHILIP BOOTH
Published January 1, 2004
[Publicity photo by Danny Clinch]
From left are Vida Blue members Oteil Burbridge, Page McConnell and Russell Batiste. The band was organized in September 2001, a year after Phish went on hiatus.
Last March, Phish keyboardist Page McConnell took a vacation to Miami. It was kind of a busman's holiday: While he was there, he sat in with Afro-Cuban sensations the Spam Allstars at nightclubs in South Beach and Little Havana. D.J. Le Spam (Andrew Yeomanson) had such a great time, he later sat in with Vida Blue, McConnell's side project, at shows in Philadelphia and Providence, R.I.
"A couple of weeks after that, the entire band was in the studio recording with us at Middle Ear (the Bee Gees' studio) in Miami," McConnell said from his home in Burlington, Vt. "It was quite a fast track."
The result is The Illustrated Band, Vida Blue's second album. It's a collection of jams, ranging from the brief You Don't Know to the sprawling Little Miami (Reputation), which clocks in at nearly 21 minutes. The tracks reportedly were edited down from much longer pieces.
The collaboration seemed like a natural, McConnell said. "I had been drawn to it (Afro-Cuban rhythms), but it wasn't necessarily like, "I've got to put together a Latin-Afro jazz band,' " McConnell said. "They don't have a rhythm section. We don't have horns."
"This was more or less a jam session, in a lot of ways," he said. "I felt like that the stuff that was most compelling was the improvisations, and that there was some good stuff there. This album is more of a party. That one (the debut) was a bit more introspective, perhaps."
The keyboardist and his bandmates, bassist Oteil Burbridge (the Allman Brothers, Aquarium Rescue Unit) and drummer Russell Batiste (the Funky Meters, Papa Grows Funk), will be joined onstage by the Spam Allstars (Yeomanson, flutist Mercedes Abal, percussionists Lazaro Alfonso and Tomas Diaz, saxophonist A.J Hill and trombonist John Speck) on Sunday at Jannus Landing.
Vida Blue was organized in September 2001, a year after Phish went on hiatus. McConnell, the last of his Phish bandmates to embark on a side project, named his new group for the ace Oakland A's southpaw pitcher.
"I was kind of relaxing and unwinding from 17 years on the road," he said. "I began to feel like, one, I definitely wanted to get back together with Phish, and also that I wanted to have done something concrete during the hiatus."
"I'd never been a bandleader before," he said. "Even in Phish, it's a very democratic process, where anybody can be leading the fray at any given moment, or any two people can be leading the fray at any given moment. It's its own thing. Everything about this (Vida Blue) I had to do: write the songs, produce the album, design the T-shirts. It was both fun and educational."
Phish, who just wrapped up a four-show run in Miami, concluding with a New Year's Eve concert, remains as exciting for McConnell as it did two decades ago. Sunday's show is likely to attract a large contingent of the group's fans, as Phish drummer Jon Fishman is touring with opening act the Jazz Mandolin Project.
"It may even be a bigger thrill, with some perspective and being able to relax about it a little bit and not having to feel like I'm constantly climbing. It's pure joy. It's fun. I can't say that it has ever been more fun.
"So much has happened over the years, and now there's a jam-band scene. But we're still kind of doing our own thing. If anything, that's been our biggest contribution - to show people, hey, do your own thing and don't worry about the (music) scene."
PREVIEW: Vida Blue with the Spam Allstars and Jazz Mandolin Project, 7 p.m. Sunday, Jannus Landing, 16 Second St. N, St. Petersburg. $25 advance, $30 day of show. (727) 898-2100.
