T Lavitz

[johnchop]

I wore out the "T Lavitz and the Bad Habitz" cassette as a young lad, and committed myself one week to nailing the Keyboard mag transcriptions of his solos. Inspiring stuff.

 

FWIW, wishing peace to his family and friends.

[JohnH]

Steve Morse has now posted his thoughts:

 

http://www.stevemorse.com/tour_blog.html

 

I haven't known how to write this for several days. T Lavitz is dead. He died peacefully in his sleep, I heard. We don't know much since we haven't heard from his family.

 

T was the keyboard player with the Dregs since the late 70's. His life has been up, down, and all around, the last few decades not easy for him by any stretch of the imagination. He and I wrote together for his "Storytime" album, and we all got together every year or two to do a Dregs/SMB tour in America.

 

T and I always rode in the same car on tour, usually with Rod. T and I, (mostly T), would talk the entire drive, every day. We always did a sort of a group therapy session on ourselves, discussing the stresses of life, the hopes for our kids, and lots of funny stories from him. He would exaggerate every frustrating or negative thing for our amusement........at least, I hope he did. We rode in that car initially because we were the non smokers, but I came to feel like he and I had a lot more in common than we thought.

 

Despite all the ups and downs of his life, he always talked of having a happy family and loved his daughter Dylan very much. He also loved playing music, and hanging out with the band on tour.

 

People close to me keep dying, as I'm sure has happened to everyone reading this. Once again, the lesson is to share as much good as you can with those around you, they won't be there forever.

 

 

[Legatoboy]

This is a sad day, I had more than a few personal conversations with him at gigs and Sam Ash gear shows here in NY. He recommended the Dynachord CLS 222 to me, I remember it well! He was always eager to talk and share knowledge. I will miss him and his playing and his brightness! Fly high T.!

[Joe Muscara]

This is a pretty cool interview with T about some of the bands he put together and some of the players in them.

 

http://www.jambands.com/features/2010/10/12/t-lavitz-forms-the-justice-league-from-the-archives

[Magpel]

This is a pretty cool interview with T about some of the bands he put together and some of the players in them.

 

http://www.jambands.com/features/2010/10/12/t-lavitz-forms-the-justice-league-from-the-archives

 

Sad and poignant that he sings the praises of Richie Hayward in this interview. Feat and Dregs were two enormous favorites of mine in my youth.

 

You get the feeling with the Dregs guys that they really enjoyed the chance to play less exacting material and just go by feel a bit, outside of the Dregs. You can call the Dregs fusion or whatever, but what it really is is electric chamber music with a tremendous emphasis on execution and accuracy and not an awful lot of latitude for the players (they controlled their own solos, as I understood it, but even those were confined spots and the solos didn't vary much from night to night as I recall. I must have seent hem a dozen times back in the day). Heck, I loved it 'cause I think Morse is an excellent composer, but I still think it must have been a breath of fresh air for T., et. al., to play some more organic and groove-oriented stuff after the kind of "on your toes" playing the Dregs required. I know for sure Andy West felt that way.

[Joe Muscara]

Both Richie and T were sadly under appreciated in their lifetimes, as amazingly talented they both were.

[C.J. Lewis]

I briefly talked with T in the alley behind the Fillmore auditorium in Denver. The Dregs were opening for Dream Theater, and I was still doing Kurzweil AR. Even after working in that position for a while, it is always cool to meet new artists - especially ones who influenced / changed your musical life!

 

It had been raining off and on all day, and there were a bunch of guys out behind the club in raincoats. As I approached, one of the guys I know from the Fillmore sees me and and we chat for a minute. When we start to head in, I ask 'Hey, do you know what time the Dregs go on?' The guy right next to the door in the raincoat smoking a cigar takes his hood off and looks right at me from about 3 feet:

 

'Yeah, we go on at 8.'

 

Yep. T Lavitz in the flesh. The shock came from more surprise than anything else, and we didn't really talk about anything life-changing...but what an incredible show...!

 

That was also, by the way, the best DT show I've ever seen (Metropolis: 2000 - Jordan's first show with them)

 

RIP, Mr. Lavitz - you were an incredible force for great music here in this world.