Taxim Records: Zero

---the art of roots and groove--- TAXIM RECORDS

Zero

Zero - any Bay Area music aficionado will promptly associate another name with this band: Steve Kimock. Zero's guitar player must be one of the "most unsung" guitar heroes in the history of rock and this was his band from 1984 up until the late '90s. Never mind the ongoing debate about who's a legitimate successor of Jerry Garcia. Looking back, Steve Kimock and Zero not only seem to be fascinating representatives of Bay Area rock, they even sound like precursors of today's jam rock boom.

Steve Kimock originally hails from Philadelphia and moved to the Bay Area for being part of the Goodman Brothers' band. When he arrived in California, his sound was already done - laidback, fat, extremely melodic. Kimock never stopped working on it, in fact, and he soon became a member of Keith & Donna Godchaux's short-lived Heart of Gold Band. California audiences started to take notice. Another member of the HOGB was drummer Greg Anton and in 1984 both musicians founded Zero with the intent of doing purely instumental music. The other initial band members were Mike Fierro (saxophone), Bobby Vega (bass), Pete Sears (keyboards) and ex-Quicksilver John Cipollina. The latter played rhythm guitar for the benefit of Kimock's soloing. Later on the band worked closely with Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter and with Judge Murphy as a singer.

Zero quickly became a musical insitution on the Bay Area scene. They managed to come up with a very original mixture of instrumental rock, blues, jazz, fusion and funk. They recorded half a dozen albums over the years and ranked among the select group of bands that were appreciated by the Deadhead scene. Jerry Garcia himself mentioned Kimock as one of his favorite guitar players on more that one occasion. Zero were no Grateful Dead copycats but were always legitimized to be different. They were a very individual band - maybe too much so, as they never managed to break through nationally or internationally.

In recent years the various band members gained recognition in GREGG'S EGG'S (Greg Anton), THE OTHER ONES, BOB DYLAN (Steve Kimock), PAUL BUTTERFIELD, JERRY GARCIA BAND (Martin Fierro) a.o.