Crosby Collective Elevates the Fillmore

Photo: Jay Blakesberg

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Blushed by the mixed scarlet hues in the interior of San Francisco’s Fillmore, Jason Crosby stepped on stage for the debut of his self-titled Crosby Collective on Saturday, Jan. 18. With a widespread grin and palms pressed in appreciation of the sold-out house, he took a seat behind the piano and let the ethereal “Clare D’Lune” fill the historic room.

The precursor to a night of pulse-inducing rock-and-roll mashups could have easily read as the fanciful start of a piano recital had the stage not been filled with Crosby’s co-conspirators—Oteil Burbridge, Tom Guarna, Jeremy Jeffers, Johnny Kimock, Greg Leisz, Alethea Mills, Chavonne Stewart and Andre Washington, who instinctively responded to the famed piano piece fading in and out instrumentally and vocally.

It was a full-band punch into “Jack’s Dream.” A combination of the Grateful Dead’s “Jack Straw” and The Allman Brothers Band’s “Dreams” dominated the delivery, but there were additional nods—Leisz and Guarna slid into the Eagles’ “Hotel California” after the lyrics “Eagles filled the sky,” not to mention a spread of “Melissa.” Crosby’s instrumental dexterity shined with opulence with the arrival of his violin, a zealous bust of emotion that extracted a full-body response from Burbridge, who dipped his bass with glee.

“Scarlet Dog” [“Scarlet Begonias” with “Black Dog”] brought Crosby’s Dead roots into heightened focus, a theme that would persist throughout the evening and recall his 12-year tenure as a rotating member of Phil & Friends.

The Led Zeppelin combo coursed into a harder edge during the Stewart and Mills-led confluence of “Oh, yeah, oh, yeah” and “She wore scarlet begonias tucked into her curls/ I knew right away she was not like other girls.” The acapella surge initiated by Stewart and Mills, which met with the melodic thump from the band, was powerful enough to knock anyone off their feet—an effect exhilarated by Kimock’s brazen backbeat and thunderous guitar riffs a la Guarna. 

On the outro, Crosby cued up a spurt of “Elenor Rigby,” seamlessly merging Beatles’ notes into Phish’s punchy “Tweezer Reprise” for what would emerge as the newly dubbed “I Know You Reprise.” Rather than halve the pairing, Crosby Collective presented an intricate coupling of jam favorites: a sturdy “Reprise” foundation supporting traditional lyrics and interplay.

The tempo softened with the arrival of “Casey’s Eclipse.” A sensual display of Pink Floyd’s “Eclipse” veering into lines from the lyrical brainchild of Robert Hunter’s “Casey Jones.” Crosby directed his focus to the audience before the onset of the frame’s final number, stating, “I’m so thrilled you are all here. And, I’m so honored and humbled that I have this amazing band here,” after acknowledging his parents’ presence, he thanked Joe Poletto for his belief in the project, and back porch, where they derived some of the evening’s mashups. 

Mutual admiration was a palpable theme during the special occasion, manifested via side glances laden with approval darting from person to person.

For the final song of Crosby Collective’s first set, they appointed Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” and Neil Young’s “Southern Man” lyrics atop the music of Paul McCartney & The Wings’ “Band on the Run.”

Upon Crosby’s return for the latter portion of the show, he brought out Jackson Browne, a longtime maestro. The duo–Crosby at the piano and Browne on acoustic guitar–triumphed on “My Opening Farewell,” a bittersweet jumping-off point. Inflating the stage with the arrival of Leisz on accompanying acoustic and Crosby on violin, the ensemble segued into an iteration of Browne’s “Cocaine,” complete with rehab lyrics to the amusement of the audience, who let out elated yelps, climaxing at the quiver of Crosby’s bow.

The stripped-down version of Browne’s touring ensemble captured the raw and unabashed emotions baked into “These Days,” carried instrumentally by Crosby’s key work, complementing Browne’s electric riffs and Mills’ crystal harmonies.

Browne recruited Burbidge and Kimock for “Colors of the Sun” after sharing words of appreciation for the fellow artists and crew who made the night possible, feeding the aforementioned flame of mutual respect. Following Browne’s bow, the original band took their positions. At Crosby’s command, they offered a tribute to the rock torchbearer by fusing his “Take It Easy” and the Steve Miller Band’s “Rock’n Me” with a full-fledged pop into a city-dropping collaboration… “Philadelphia, Atlanta, LA.”

A tried and true rendition of The Beatles’ “A Day in the Life” then turned on the audience—the moody build caused an electrical shock and audible “Shit” from one audience member—before the song switched effortlessly to Electric Light Orchestra’s “Mr. Blue Sky.” Merging back to the McCartney/Lennon bridge, Crosby snatched the lines before seeking the company of Mills, Stewart and Washington for a heavenly exhale of “Ah, ah-ah-ah.” Per the original, crashing instrumentals provided an unexpected portal into the Allman Brothers Band’s “Blue Sky,” a tease to close the suite.

“You Really Gotta Go My Way” found Crosby at center stage with the other vocalists, taking the lead behind the mic and populating lines from The Kinks’ “You Really Got Me” over the music of Lenny Kravitz’s “Are You Gonna Go My Way” along with Washington’s seething burst of Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple Haze.”

On a night when it seemed impossible to top what had already happened, the band, poised and in position, crept into Zeppelin’s “No Quarter.” The spacey start began to bounce with the disco flair of “Shakedown Street,” meeting Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall, Pt 2,” “We don’t need no education,” and bam, back into: “You tell me this town ain’t got no heart,” followed by “Leave them kids alone.” The Dead’s lyrics flowed from Burbridge at points, Crosby during others, as the mother of all mashups found musicians and vocalists applying new meaning to the phrase firing on all cylinders.

Solos brought the return of Crosby’s violin and a tease of John Coltrane’s “Impressions.” He nodded to his friends and former collaborators, God Street Wine, by working “Hellfire” into the mix, which included a James Brown breakdown, instrumentally bolstered by Crosby, Burbridge, Kimock, and an overlay featuring a voicemail from the “Godfather of Soul.” All the while, Guarna kept “Shakedown” bobbing.

“Friend of the Luthium,” Grateful Dead’s “Friend of the Devil,” and Nirvana’s “Lithium” was of the offerings that Crosby had previously performed, having taken it for a spin with Oteil & Friends in the fall, and, most recently during the Dead Ahead Festival in early January.

Setting aside the electric guitar, Crosby then thanked the audience before roaring applause called him and his collaborators back to the fold. With another round of admiration for those in attendance, Crosby turned his reflection to time spent with Phil Lesh. He mentioned the presence of Grahame Lesh–a bandmate in the Terrapin Family Band–before eulogizing his mentor properly by performing “Unbroken Chain.”

Browne then returned for the group’s final number. And, for the first time during the event, the Grammy-award winner joined the bunch for a mashup, this time “Running on Empty” and gospel “Oh Happy Day.” Collectively, they ascended, inducing a buzz that would not let up, well after the band took their final bow.

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Until Saturday, much of Crosby’s career had positioned him in a support role, humbly assuming the place of an ace sideman for Lesh, Browne, Burbridge, and countless others. Yet, three hours yielded a seismic shift and, as a result, a newfound title for Jason Crosby, mashup conductor, and frontman.

Don’t stop.