Zero’s 30th Anniversary & Vinyl Release Tour

Zero is the foundation stone of jazz-rock fusion psychedelic jam bands, using improvisation to explore new possibilities in music. After more than a decade as a purely instrumental ensemble, they partnered with the Grateful Dead’s lyricist Robert Hunter and developed a vocal side as well. Steve Kimock, Greg Anton, Pete Sears, Spencer Burrows & Hadi Al-Saadoon are touring in support of their latest album ’Naught Again’, a super-high-fidelity recording of previously unreleased tracks from an epic three-night-run at the Great American Music Hall in 1992. They’re the real deal. 

Early in 1980, Steve Kimock joined former Grateful Dead members Keith and Donna Jean Godchaux’s Heart of Gold Band, which already happened to have Greg Anton as its drummer. Keith fell victim to a car accident and the Heart of Gold Band went away, but the connection that Greg and Steve shared has endured. The duo immediately recorded an album of new music which would be released decades later,then started a band. Having gone through many, many names, Greg asked Steve how many were left on the list to consider: “Zero” was the answer, and Zero became the quintessential jazz/rock psychedelic band, a pioneer of the “jam” band scene. They went years without vocals, creating such instrumental-only gems as Here Goes Nothin (1987) and Nothin’ Goes Here (1990), albums so good that Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab re-released them, and then Go Hear Nothin’(1991). Along the way they played with some of the Bay Area’s greatest talent: John Cipollina, John Kahn, Banana,Martin Fierro, Hadi Al Saadoon, Bobby Vega, Nicky Hopkins, John Farey, Vince Welnick, Merl Saunders, Tony Saunders, Liam Hanrahan, Chip Roland, and Steve Wolf. A casual conversation with Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter in the early ‘90s sent the band in a new direction, and they added vocalist Judge Murphy. In 1992, when Zero gathered for three nights at the Great American Music Hall to perform their new songs with Hunter lyrics, they had Grateful Dead sound director Dan Healy on board to record them, and the result was the brilliant and beloved Chance in a Million. As bands will, Zero came and went—and always came back, to the extent of 1,300 shows and eight albums...and number nine, titled Naught Again, drops on May 20, 2022. Magic is hard to catch but impossible to forget, so Zero flies again in 2022 as they celebrate a record release of more material from those 1992 shows with a tour. Nothing beats Zero