Hard Bop Messengers - Hard Bop Messengers Jazz Interpretations of G D (2023)

Hard Bop Messengers’ latest creative project focuses on jazz interpretations of the Grateful Dead.

John Covelli, a 38-year veteran of the St. Louis music scene, leads his Messengers into new territory, captured in this live performance at the Kirkwood performing Arts Ccenter in St. Louis, MO. The group shared a preview of this new creative endeavor with audiences at their “Live at The Last Hotel” performances in St. Louis and Chicago in 2022. A medley of “New Speedway Boogie” with an improvised segue into “Cumberland Blues” was a big hit with listeners and left the crowd asking for more.

Noting the Dead’s 1970 release, “Workingman’s Dead”, those two songs appear back-to-back on the album but had rarely or never been combined into an extended jam, says Covelli. The Hard Bop Messengers’ performance in Chicago exhibits this mashup of musical styles.

Expect some re-imagined arrangements of classic Grateful Dead songs delivered by top notch St. Louis musicians with a hard bop flare. This album will be sure to delight Dead fans as well as jazz afficionados.