Grateful Dead

Week of October 23, 1989

Rex Radio excerpt: Phil Lesh, Gary Lambert, and Jerry Garcia present the 1989 Ralph J. Gleason Memorial Award to Peter Apfelbaum

Libya Blues (excerpt) - Peter Apfelbaum and the Hieroglyphics Ensemble with Don Cherry

Attics of My Life - Grateful Dead, American Beauty

Scarlet Begonias->
Touch of Grey->
Fire on the Mountain - Grateful Dead 7/13/84 Greek Theatre, Berkeley CA

This week's archival includes an excerpt from Rex Radio (later known as Eyes of Chaos/Veil of Order), a monthly program on KPFA (Berkeley CA) hosted by Phil Lesh and Gary Lambert.

Here's Phil: "The Rex Foundation is a philanthropic organization which donates money that... the Grateful Dead earns through the donation of our services. The money is distributed as we see fit, generally speaking, mostly to environmental organziations - percentage-wise I'd say environmental and health-related things get most of the money. We also support ... creative activity in music and recording of unusual music - just about anything that you can name that hippies love."

Rex gives three awards each year: the Ralph J. Gleason Award, the Jerry Garcia Award, and the Bill Graham Award. The listings on the Rex site don't go back to 1989, for some reason - but please click on that link for an explanation of the meaning of the three gifts.

The recipient of the 1989 Ralph J Gleason award was Berkeley jazz musician Peter Apfelbaum. Gary Lambert keeps in touch with Peter, so I asked him for an update:

Since receiving the Rex Foundation's Ralph J. Gleason award in 1988, Peter Apfelbaum has remained true to the musical vision that earned him Rex's highest artistic accolade. Like so many of his fellow distinguished alumni of Berkeley High School's jazz education program, Peter migrated to New York City, where he has been a vital member of that city's thriving improv music community since the late 1990s. He has recorded and/or performed live with a wide variety of musicians in various genres, including Charlie Hunter, Steven Bernstein's Millennial Territory Orchestra, the Josh Roseman Unit, Levon Helm, Cyro Baptista's Beat the Donkey, Harry Belafonte, the late Don Cherry, and many more. Fans of Trey Anastasio might remember Peter as a key member of the great 10-piece band that toured with Trey a few years back.

 

Peter currently leads an updated version of the Hieroglyphics Ensemble, the remarkable jazz/world fusion big band that he formed shortly after graduating from high school some 30 years ago. Now called the New York Hieroglyphics, the group brings together some of Peter's oldest musical friends from the Berkeley days who now reside on the East Coast, as well as some stalwarts of the New York scene. The 2005 New York Hieroglyphics album It Is Written reveals that Peter Apfelbaum's creative light burns as bright as ever.

Your requests are requested! Browse and/or search the Grateful Dead Hour program logs on the GD Hour web site. Let me know if there's a particular program you'd like to hear, and feel free to post requests and comments here or by email to gdhour [at] dead.net

Thanks for listening! David Gans
gdhour [at] dead.net

Every Wednesday, we post a program from the Grateful Dead Hour archives for your enjoyment and enlightenment.

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