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— MusicMaker5376 04:41, 12 March 2007 (UTC)
Phish's musical ethos is a playful mix of skilled improvisation, psychedelic rock, folk, Bluegrass, funk, jazz, a capella, barbershop quartet, reggae, heavy rock, and intricate compositions. Some of their original compositions (such as "Theme from the Bottom") tend towards a psychedelic rock and bluegrass fusion, with more rock, jazz and funk elements than the Grateful Dead and other earlier so-called jam bands. Their more ambitious, epic compositions (such as "Reba" and "Guyute") resemble classical music in a rock setting, echoing the music of one of their heroes, Frank Zappa.
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[edit] Influence
Anastasio has repeatedly credited Vermont-based composer, pianist, and teacher Ernie Stires as a major source of early inspiration and instruction in musical composition and arranging. While not a household name, Stires is known in certain musical circles as a stunningly unique composer of art music. He is most distinguished, perhaps, for juxtaposing atonal melodies and harmonies against catchy swing rhythms. Stires is a cousin of well-known late-Romantic composer Samuel Barber, and has been employed as a tutor and mentor by a number of pop, rock, and jazz musicians.[1]
The importance of this influence in Phish's early trademark sound is especially noteworthy on The White Tape, The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday, Junta, Lawn Boy and Rift.
[edit] De facto leadership, community spirit
While Anastasio has never clearly affirmed or denied musical leadership of Phish, he was viewed by many fans and enthusiasts as its frontman for a number of reasons. He composed the music for the vast majority of the band's original repertoire; however, all four permanent band members have made lasting contributions to the catalog. A versatile composer across a wide spectrum of genres, Anastasio used techniques ranging from riff-based and verse-chorus songwriting to unusual chord progressions, modal, atonal, and contrapunctual textures in the tradition of neoclassical composers such as Stravinsky and Ravel.
Anastasio's de facto leadership being duly noted, the other members of Phish were far from merely supporting personnel, each playing a unique and indispensable role in the band's persona and overall sound. Jon Fishman's relentlessly inventive but rock-steady drumming was a major source of the group's solidity and cohesiveness. Bassist Mike Gordon is cited for his straight ahead, no-frills, but eminently tuneful and deeply sensitive playing. Page McConnell, aside from adding the grand piano sound to the band, was proficient on the Hammond B3 organ, the clavinet, the Rhodes piano, and various synthesizers.
[edit] Early vs. late period material
The Phish pieces written by Anastasio after the band had begun touring nationally on a full time basis, as well his compositions for his past and current touring projects outside of Phish, have tended with few exceptions to focus on simpler, more direct songwriting than many of the more involved works of earlier years. Accordingly, dynamic, large-scale improvisation became more of a driving force than detailed composition in the band's final decade. Anastasio has said that this shift was at least partially due to time constraints imposed by Phish's increasing fame, family responsibilities of the members, and other considerations. As a band of carefree college students, Phish was able to spend vastly more time writing and rehearsing challenging material. Many of the tracks on the early Junta, as well as some other material from roughly the same period (1985-1990), were notated wholly or partially in full score by Anastasio and were learned by the band in this manner; all four members are experienced at reading notation. This contrasts starkly with their later practice of making demo tapes of original compositions, some of which were later released for sale, from which the band would then aurally pick up and develop selected material.
[edit] Blending the groove
Sometimes several compositional forms and elements were blended into a single piece of music, with the end result rarely coming off as overly cerebral because of the collective musicianship of the bandsmen and because of the innate "groove" of much of the music. This aesthetic reflects Phish's taste for danceable music with intellectual and artistic depth, in a tradition that can be traced as far back as the instrumental dance music of baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach and can be followed through the hard-swinging but intricately crafted arrangements featured by many big bands of the early 20th century. Anastasio, in particular, has spoken of his lifelong attraction to music that can be richly appreciated in both the intellectual and the corporeal planes of experience. An increasingly common criticism of some modern popular music has been that, while it is often catchy and danceable, these qualities sometimes come at the expense of musical depth. Phish and other jam bands have always striven to bring the best of both worlds to their fans. This attitude was also a driving force behind bebop jazz, which characteristically featured virtuosic and harmonically complex improvisation over the choruses of well-known popular tunes (jazz standards), often taken at unusually fast speeds.
Anastasio's vibrant electric guitar was consistently the most prominent voice in Phish, and he sang more lead vocals than any other member, both onstage and in the studio. From the band's inception through the mid-1990s, Anastasio's guitar playing was recognizable by its rich, full tone and incredible sustain, a style owing much to Carlos Santana. Later Anastasio became well-known, both in and outside of Phish, for his skilled, tasteful, and often pioneering use of an extensive rig of electronic effects to enhance or otherwise alter the sound of his guitars. His extensive use of a pitch shifter, of phrase sampling devices and long "space" delay, and of multiple-stage overdrive became signatures of his sound, apart from the unique tonal qualities of his custom-built Languedoc guitars. Gordon and McConnell are also known for judicious use of electronic effects.
[edit] Songwriting
Gordon wrote a number of compositions for the Phish catalog, beginning perhaps with "Minkin" from The White Tape. His compositions are marked by humorous lyric content and a straightforward musical style. As another example, Gordon penned the music for the title track of Round Room, which is a more rhythmically and harmonically complex piece of music than exemplified by his usual songwriting style within Phish.
On many album credits, multiple members or all the members of Phish are listed as composers. This has been the cause of some confusion. While not exclusively true, it is generally the case that Anastasio was the composer of most of these numbers, with other band members thereafter making contributions to the music to varying degrees of significance. These changes were sometimes subtle and sometimes major, and ranged from more or less immediate revisions to alterations that were years in the making.
[edit] Grateful Dead comparison
Particularly in lengthy jams and in less thoroughly-composed and more lyrically-styled material, the dynamic interplay and collective improvisation between all four members was certainly as much a calling card for the band as were Anastasio's kaleidoscopic compositions and guitar work. It is in this respect that Phish has often been musically compared to the Grateful Dead, and this aesthetic is really at the heart of all jam bands by connotation. Neither Anastasio nor the Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia ever definitively acknowledged themselves as figureheads of their respective collectives, though widely perceived as such among their fans; this is indicative of the community spirit and sense of partnership evoked by much music, with each musician viewing himself as an equal part of a whole.
[edit] Songwriter Tom Marshall
Anastasio's boyhood friend and schoolmate Tom Marshall was the primary lyricist for Phish, though by no means the only one. Marshall, an accomplished biologist, has written lyrics ranging from arbitrarily assembled nonsequitur ("Stash") to the poignantly expressive ("Lifeboy"), and all points in between. Though most fans never attached the importance to Phish's lyrics that they did to the music, Marshall's lyrical style was a distinctive part of the Phish experience. Often Anastasio would pull lyrics for compositions from large notebooks of prose and poetry kept by Marshall, although the two have also directly collaborated on a number of songs. Anastasio himself is the next most prolific contributor of Phish lyrics, notably in the Gamehendge cycle. Both lyricists focused heavily on wordplay and musical language, with content taking a subordinate role to the sounds of the words and phrases. Therefore, many of the lyrics were open to interpretation, allowing fans to draw their own personal meaning from the lyrics. In essence, if a song lyric suddenly had deep meaning to the listener, it was by accident, which Phish fans insisted was part of the band's magic. Anastasio has mentioned that some Phish songs don't have a particular meaning to him personally until years later. This trend was gradually reversed beginning with Hoist and Billy Breathes. Many fans have noted that Phish's lyrics seemingly grew "deeper" and more meaningful as the artists themselves grew older and more seasoned.
[edit] References
- ^ Ernie Stires. Retrieved on March 9, 2007.
