Vida Blue

Vida Blue is a trio fronted by Page McConnell of Phish which includes Oteil Burbridge of The Allman Brothers Band and Russell Batiste of The Meters.

Vida Blue got its name from the 1970's Major League Baseball pitcher Vida Blue.

The band originated in 2001 when McConnell attended shows by both the Allmans and The Meters, and approached both Burbridge and Batiste about the Vida Blue project, which they were interested in. McConnell then booked time to record in New Orleans's Piety Street Recording Studio. The band spent a week jamming and cutting tracks until McConnell added vocals and instrumental overdubs in Vermont. He wanted to focus on a synthesiser and an electric piano rather than the grand piano that made up a large part of his work with Phish. In the summer of 2002, the band's self-titled album, Vida Blue, was released.

Their second album, The Illustrated Band, released a year after the first, is backed by the Spam Allstars, a Latin Grammy-nominated, Afro-Cuban sextet.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vida_Blue_%28band%29