Ever wonder what “Playing In The Band” might sound like as an extended instrumental free-jazz-space-rock suite? Well, I did.

Inspired by Save Your Face and their various Grateful Dead mixes, I edited six different performances of “Playing In The Band” into an instrumental suite.

I’m not entirely happy with a couple of the transitions, but I dig how it turned out overall, seeing as how I am not a professional, I didn’t actually spend that much time on this, and I really only made this for myself to listen to either while I work or commuting. Enjoy.

Here are the deets for the six pieces making up the Suite:

• 00:00 - 11:39 :: 09.21.72 at the The Spectrum in Philadelphia, PA (released as Dicks’s Picks 36)

• 11:39-25:45 :: 03.24.73 at the The Spectrum in Philadelphia, PA

• 25:245 - 34:47 :: 11.10.73 at Winterland Arena in San Francisco, CA (released as part of Winterland 1973: The Complete Recordings)

• 34:47 - 44:09 :: 05.17.77 at Memorial Coliseum, U of Alabama, MS (released as part of May 1977)

• 44:09: 52:31 :: 05.28.77 at at Hartford Civic Center, Hartford, CT (released as To Terrapin: Hartford '77)

• 52:31 - 56:27 :: 05.28.77 at at Hartford Civic Center, Hartford, CT (released as To Terrapin: Hartford '77)

I chose these performances for no real reason other than that this is the time-period of the Dead that I listen to most and these shows happened to be on my laptop when I decided to try out this idea.

And if all that weren’t enough goodness, here’s an instrumental edit of the mammoth “Playing In The Band” from the Pacific Northwest '73-'74: Believe it If You Need It (Live) set (Live at Hec Edmundson Pavillion, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 5/21/74).

Enjoy.

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