The Jigsaw Seen

The roots of Jigsaw Seen stretch back to 1986, when Dennis Davison—formerly of United States of Existence—placed a classified advertisement in a local paper seeking a lead guitarist for Playground, the band whose members had relocated from Maryland to Los Angeles. Jonathan Lea, previously with Revolver, responded to that notice, and the resulting introduction between the two musicians evolved into an enduring creative alliance. By 1989 the pair had dissolved Playground in favor of launching Jigsaw Seen. Teddy Freese, whose résumé included Yipes!—the act that scored a Top 100 hit with its rendition of the Beach Boys’ “Darlin’”—and Spanic Boys, came aboard on drums in 1993; three years later bassist David Nolte, late of the Last, completed the lineup.

Local performances throughout Los Angeles soon drew the interest of New Jersey’s Skyclad Records, which put out the group’s first album, Shortcut Through Clown Alley, in 1990 and followed it the next year with the five-song EP My Name Is Tom. The band subsequently crisscrossed the United States, once even headlining over the Smashing Pumpkins. Skyclad ceased operations in 1993, just as Davison and Lea were assembling the Bee Gees tribute collection Melody Fair; their version of the title track appeared on the project, which Eggbert Records of Los Angeles issued in 1994, paving the way for additional tribute ventures.

Throughout the middle and later 1990s Jigsaw Seen supplied tracks to numerous multi-artist tribute albums. Eggbert’s 1995 Hollies retrospective Sing Hollies in Reverse included the band’s interpretation of “On a Carousel.” For Del-Fi’s 1996 Henry Mancini salute Shots in the Dark, the group contributed a CMJ-charting take on “Baby Elephant Walk.” Two years afterward their cover of “Luci Baines”—originally recorded by American Four, Arthur Lee’s pre-Love outfit—surfaced on the Del-Fi artist homage Delphonic Sounds Today!. In 1999 the Left Banke’s “Desiree” served as the opening cut on A Tribute to the Left Banke: Shadows Breaking Over Our Heads.

While these side projects accumulated, Jigsaw Seen kept stockpiling material for a sophomore album. Five years elapsed before the well-received Zenith emerged on the band’s own Vibro-Phonic imprint; the preceding year the label had issued the various-artists sampler Listen and Learn With Vibro-Phonic to widespread acclaim. Zenith earned a Grammy nomination for Best Packaging and secured distribution deals in the United Kingdom and Japan. An acoustic tour of Great Britain undertaken by Davison and Lea in April 2001 yielded the limited-edition six-song live set Perfformiad I Mewn Cymru (Performance in Wales), which Vibro-Phonic released that August.

Beyond his Jigsaw Seen commitments, Lea has performed with Los Angeles pop figure Kristian Hoffman and with ex-Bongwater singer-actress Ann Magnuson; he also supplied guitar to unfinished Pete Ham studio recordings later compiled on 1997’s 7 Park Avenue and 1999’s Golders Green. David Nolte, for his part, has produced and co-written albums by David Gray and Maria McKee. Both Lea and Nolte have toured with Rufus Wainwright and with Dave Davies of the Kinks. Songs Mama Used to Sing appeared in 2002.