Vida Blue

Page McConnell launched Vida Blue as his first project apart from Phish once that band entered hiatus in 2000. The group drew its name from the prominent major-league pitcher active during the 1970s and 1980s, and its music fused electronica with exploratory jazz, funk, and jam rock. The band sustained an intensive touring pace and delivered two albums during the opening years of the decade before entering its own hiatus in 2004. McConnell reactivated the project in 2018, leading to the release of the third album, Crossing Lines, a year later.

In 2001, nearly twelve months after Phish paused, McConnell headed to New Orleans and gathered with Oteil Burbridge, bassist for the Allman Brothers Band who would later join Dead & Company, and Russell Batiste, drummer from the Funky Meters. McConnell’s connection to Burbridge extended back more than a decade through Phish’s frequent shared bills with Burbridge’s early-’90s ensemble Aquarium Rescue Unit. First contact with Batiste occurred during work on a track for the benefit album Get You A Healin’, which also featured Phish bassist Mike Gordon and additional contributors.

The trio generated a large volume of music through improvisation while McConnell tested acoustic pianos alongside multiple synthesizers. Turntablist DJ Logic sat in on one session. The players ultimately settled on an electronic approach, after which McConnell refined selected material into songs and supplied lyrics. Following a series of early performances, Elektra issued the self-titled debut album in 2002. Over the ensuing year the group became a fixture on the jam-band circuit and cut the 2003 follow-up The Illustrated Band, which included four tracks augmented by the Afro-Cuban ensemble Spam Allstars. Before McConnell placed the project on hold in 2004, a Fillmore performance in San Francisco was recorded and released on both CD and DVD as Live at the Fillmore.

Phish resumed activity in 2008 after a brief reunion and four-year separation, but Vida Blue remained dormant until McConnell announced a return to the studio in 2018. Guitarist Adam Zimmon, previously associated with Shakira and Ziggy Marley, joined the lineup, and the resulting quartet released Crossing Lines in September 2019.