Anastasio brings Midlands-bred keyboardist home
May 2, 2005 - The State (SC)
By Mark Pantsari
Things have gotten ³Phishy² for Les Hall.
The Lexington High School graduate was a fixture of the Columbia music scene in the mid- ¹90s, playing keyboards, guitar and bass for local bands most notably Sourwood Honey. Now he¹s playing keyboards for Trey Anastasio.
Hall will back Anastasio when the former Phish frontman plays the Township at 7 tonight.Hall pursued a career in film scoring and composition in Los Angeles six years ago. Things didn¹t work out the way he¹d hoped, but through his older brother, Steven, Hall was introduced to Vance McNabb, road manager for singer/songwriter Howie Day.
Hall joined Day¹s touring band, which ³did about five laps around America and a few weeks over in Europe² and appeared on the ³Late Show With David Letterman.²
Through McNabb, Hall met Atlanta producer Rick Beato. That led to jobs playing on albums by Charleston-based bands Owen Beverly (³The Drunk Lover²) and Jump (formerly Jump, Little Children, on the album ³Between the Dim and the Dark²). Around the same time, Beato scored a job producing, in its very early stages, an album for Anastasio.
The Phish rumor mill has been churning with speculation about what Anastasio¹s next project would be after the jam band called it quits last summer.
On Beato¹s recommendation, Hall was flown to Anastasio¹s Vermont studio in December for an impromptu rehearsal with the rhythm section of Peter Chwazik (bass) and Skeeto Valdez (drums).
From there the band went back to Atlanta¹s Tree Sound Studios, where Anastasio brought in an additional keyboardist, Ray Paczkowski, to fill out the sound. Having just met, the quintet played a show before a handful of attendees in the studio.
³It was very unrehearsed,² Hall said of the first performance. ³We just went up there and it was like one, two, three, GO.¹ The chemistry was very obvious over the first couple of days that we got together to play.²
One of the more-talked-about new faces in the jam-band scene, Hall will be on the road nearly full time this spring and summer with Anastasio. Besides keyboards, he occasionally plays guitar alongside Anastasio, one of Rolling Stone magazine¹s Top 100 Guitarists of All Time.
The group¹s three-week spring tour included a stop at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, before tonight¹s show.
³It¹s really cool and I¹m super pumped about it,² Hall said.
Article Copyright © 2005 The State
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