Ask classically trained pianist Kristina Marinova what inspired her to make an album of Grateful Dead songs, and you’ll get a deep answer.
“There is something really special about the band,” says Marinova, who released “The Bus Came By and I Got On” in June. “And I always ask the question, why is there so many people following the band? There is this transformative power about their music, and it’s this connection with something that is greater than us and this connection between everything in the universe, and they have a very unique sound that I think comes from each player having their individual voice.”
From Plovdiv, Bulgaria, Marinova earned a master’s in piano performance from the University of Michigan and has performed all over the world, including at Carnegie Hall and major festivals. Critics have called her album “4 Rhapsodies” “a feast for the ears” and cited her “unparalleled” talent. But the musician who has played the works of composers such as Rachmaninoff, Liszt and Bach speaks about the members of the Dead with the same reverence.
“[Jerry] Garcia was like a banjo prodigy, and his style of picking on the guitar, these really long, beautiful lines and relaxed tone and melodious phrasing, and then you have Phil Lesh’s innovative melodic basslines. He pretty much reinvented playing the bass. He has his own unique style that is influenced by the contemporary composers, classical composers like Ives and Stockhausen and Steve Reich, the music of chance. The 12-tone style composing.
“And then you have Bob Weir. His rhythm is so unconventional. And he uses also the chord inversions, that’s a very progressive way of using the chords. And all of this comes together into this incredible sound of the Grateful Dead, and I think that that’s something that really inspired me to start playing the music.”
Marinova focused on the band’s music from 1966 to 1972, when she says Lesh operated more like a composer than a songwriter. She listened to the studio versions and multiple live takes of each song she decided to interpret. Her 11-track album runs the gamut from the psychedelic “Cryptical Envelopment”>”The Other One” pairing to more standard fare like Pigpen’s “Hurts Me Too” and Bob Weir’s “El Paso,” by Marty Robbins. She found a personal connection with “Uncle John’s Band.”
“I don’t know if you know the story, but Garcia was influenced by a female Bulgarian choir when he wrote the piece, the very close harmonies and also the irregular rhythms. I’m from Bulgaria, so this music is the folk music close to my heart. I call it ‘the Bulgarian anthem song.'”
Despite the sometimes rigid structures in classical music, Marinova said she does not see the Dead’s improvisational approach as an opposing force.
“I wrote down the pieces. ‘The Other One,’ it’s over 500 measures. I think I wrote it eight times just because for me, it was important. I needed to capture that flavor of the Grateful Dead. … However, there are parts in the songs where it allows for improvisation, where the performer can be free.”
Marinova will perform her Dead interpretations at Jimmy’s Jazz and Blues Club in Portsmouth, NH (Oct. 26), Sweetwater Music Hall in Mill Valley, Calif. (Nov. 9) and Carnegie Hall (Nov. 28).
“The songs are going to change. My program is 75 minutes on the album, and the Grateful Dead were running three-hour, four-hour marathons. I’m working at the ’73 to ’77 period now, but I’m also playing the rest of the repertoire of from ’66 to ’72. And I’m going to be releasing those as singles on YouTube and Spotify. … The time limit did not allow me to just put everything that I wanted to put on the album.”
She calls the Carnegie Hall booking “an honor.” “I performed there two years ago. I presented my debut album ‘4 Rhapsodies’ and I really, really enjoyed the space. And it was like a really positive response. I look at this performance as a milestone, and also it’s an opportunity to show my classical training, but also my ongoing exploration of music and kind of bridge the worlds between the cultural, historical and stylistic.
“I really hoped to open a space for the classical world to really appreciate the Grateful Dead music. So I have been trying to talk a lot about the classical analysis of the pieces, and just to inspire the classical musicians to really look at the different angle of the music of the Grateful Dead. I’ve received extremely positive response. The Grateful Dead crowd has been extremely supportive by sharing my work.”
For information on Kristina Marinova, “The Bus Came By and I Got On” and her live performances, visit https://www.kristinamarinova.com/.
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