35 Minute Jam - Phish
12.19.02 - Victor Disc Sessions, NY, NY

The Victor Disc was recorded while the band was in the city preparing for an appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman.  After midnight in a downtown Manhattan recording studio Trey and Page called Gordo and Fish to join them for an improv session.

Occurring shortly before the return of Phish 2.0, the session produced a very jazzy, light, and atmospheric portrait of four guys on no particular musical mission that night other than to produce something fun that provided them with rich opportunities to interact musically.  Titled on the recently released Victor Disc as “35 Minute Jam,” this is really a series of jams strung together.  Anastasio revs up the jam with a bluesy tone that invites Page to dig into the Baby Grand while Fishman and Gordon maintain a pulsing backbeat to all of it.  However, Cactus leads the band back down a more introspective path until near silence.  What emerges is a slow, sublime Mike-led jam into some very melodic areas.

It becomes apparent around the 25 minute mark that you’re actually eavesdropping on a very intimate conversation between four old friends just reconnecting and catching up.  There are many of these moments on the Victor Disc, ones which relay the secret behind Phish’s success: their improvised musical conversations are mesmerizing.