t lavitz

Keyboard player T Lavitz joined the Dixie Dregs (aka <a href="spotify:artist:36liNkiMl34UvrU1MIMta4">the Dregs</a>) in 1979, just after Night of the Living Dregs. He played with the band until it broke up in 1982. Lavitz issued a number of independent label releases in a jazz-rock vein during the remainder of the ‘80s and into the ‘90s, including Extended Play (1984), Story Time (1986), From the West (1987), T Lavitz and the Bad Habitz (1989), Mood Swing (1991), and Gossip (1996). During the ‘90s he also toured and recorded with a re-formed <a href="spotify:artist:33MM9GE3xkoG9IL9IePpdu">Dixie Dregs</a>, appearing on the band’s 1992 live effort Bring ‘Em Back Alive and the studio album Full Circle, released two years later. The ‘90s also saw Lavitz playing with <a href="spotify:artist:54SHZF2YS3W87xuJKSvOVf">Widespread Panic</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:3HC7NcxQx2Yk0fWoRKJ0xF">Jefferson Starship</a>, and forming <a href="spotify:artist:7qqL3kICsoW4wlCYY7A9Ln">Jazz Is Dead</a>, a fusion-oriented quartet that put its own spin on <a href="spotify:artist:4TMHGUX5WI7OOm53PqSDAT">Grateful Dead</a> material, with guitarist <a href="spotify:artist:37Qr6mXz6NvVaVvDpWXNak">Jimmy Herring</a>, bassist <a href="spotify:artist:2rNtnZArzMAimcRCnFrwUU">Alphonso Johnson</a>, and drummer <a href="spotify:artist:0IwfuIL3gUJxjzUqY3wJ3j">Billy Cobham</a>. During the new millennium Lavitz participated in some additional notable collaborative projects, as can be heard on 2001’s Endangered Species (featuring guitarist <a href="spotify:artist:37Qr6mXz6NvVaVvDpWXNak">Herring</a> and the <a href="spotify:artist:0ZIwOAzDuGPspzK7yiTc4S">Little Feat</a> rhythm section of Richie Hayward on drums and Kenny Gradney on bass) and 2006’s Boston T Party (with drummer <a href="spotify:artist:5tdGXBxRVers4lWxUqRMzn">Dennis Chambers</a>, bassist <a href="spotify:artist:4S6LWQMlfbLPNrXLY7RxI1">Jeff Berlin</a>, and guitarist <a href="spotify:artist:3G0YsucT1VomRUB44ZV4gz">Dave Fiuczynski</a>), the latter featuring Lavitz not only as keyboardist but also as composer of most of the disc’s material. In the latter half of the 2000s Lavitz served as a faculty member of the Berklee College of Music and issued a new solo recording, Electric (2009). T Lavitz died unexpectedly in his sleep on October 7, 2010. ~ John Bush & Dave Lynch, Rovi