Originally Performed By | Phish |
Appears On | |
Music | Anastasio |
Vocals | Instrumental |
Phish Debut | 1987-08-09 |
Last Played | 1991-07-27 |
Current Gap | 1593 |
Historian | Mark Toscano, Tim Wade |
Last Update | 2016-02-28 |
Trey wrote this piece as part of his work with Ernie Stires, the influential Burlington-area jazz and classical composer who served as a mentor for the musically starved Trey during his Goddard years. Ernie helped Trey realize his desire to write music that was compositionally challenging, yet fun, entertaining, and danceable. “Flat Fee” represents an early accomplishment for Trey in this vein, but also reflects his first successful attempt at composing horn charts for one of his own songs. The most notable story about this song deals with precisely this event, and Ernie’s reaction when Trey showed him the arrangement. Trey had spent weeks on the song, and it elicited a historical comment from Ernie about “Flat Fee” representing a breakthrough for Trey’s music writing. Ernie likened the event to Trey finally poking his head out of the ground in order to find himself at the base of this huge mountain that still lies before him. These words resonated big-time for Trey, who has always been driven by a desire to experiment in composition and performance.
”Flat Fee” – 7/20/91, Parkville, NY“Flat Fee” made a handful of live appearances in 1987 and 1988, although Trey, proud of the horn arrangement he had written for the piece, was not satisfied with its sans-horn incarnation. Check out 8/21/87, 8/29/87, 5/15/88, or 6/21/88 for these hornless versions. After a two-year hiatus, the tune made its comeback during the July 1991 tour with the Giant Country Horns, making appearances at eight of these shows, from 7/11/91 through 7/26/91. Principally due to the lack of another horn tour, “Flat Fee” has faded from the Phish repertoire. However the song isn't completely forgotten, as Trey briefly teased the tune prior to opening the second set of 6/5/09 at Jones Beach.
Phish.net is a non-commercial project run by Phish fans and for Phish fans under the auspices of the all-volunteer, non-profit Mockingbird Foundation.
This project serves to compile, preserve, and protect encyclopedic information about Phish and their music.
Credits | Terms Of Use | Legal | DMCA
The Mockingbird Foundation is a non-profit organization founded by Phish fans in 1996 to generate charitable proceeds from the Phish community.
And since we're entirely volunteer – with no office, salaries, or paid staff – administrative costs are less than 2% of revenues! So far, we've distributed over $2 million to support music education for children – hundreds of grants in all 50 states, with more on the way.