Album Review: SPAGA - SPAGA Plays Dead
SPAGA brings Grateful music back to life on SPAGA Plays Dead.
Self-explanatory though the title may be, this is not simply a covers album, nor does it consist exclusively of Grateful Dead songs. With the Disco Biscuit/Billy’s Kid pianist Aron Magner as primary soloist, SPD is an instrumental LP that taps the solo songbooks of Jerry Garcia on “Eep Hour” and Bob Weir on “Heaven Help the Fool,” which, alongside “Cumberland Blues,” is the closet to original of Plays Dead’s six cuts.
But even “Heaven” is deeply interpretive - jazzy with a touch of Vince Guaraldi woven into the tapestry before Magner, drummer Matt Scarano and bassist Jason Fraticelli cross the reggae-styled bridge.
Former RatDog/The Other Ones sax man Dave Ellis drops in for “Estimated Prophet,” which continues down the path of jazzy syncopation as the temporary quartet splices pieces of the arrangement into something new but entirely recognizable as first Fraticelli’s bass, then Ellis’ brass trace the vocal melody over trance-like backing.
“Friend of the Devil,” on the contrary, owes less to its titular antecedent than to “It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)” and “Cosmic Charlie” - essentially a fresh composition with a quadruple-time take of the “Friend” motif leading to the coda.
As for “Loser,” it’s more “Space” than anything. Ethereal and the weakest of the lot, it sounds like something one might expect in to hear in the elevator at a Dead-friendly office tower.
Grade card: SPAGA - SPAGA Plays Dead - B-
2/12/26
