Dose Hermanos

Dose Hermanos is the improvisational piano duo of Tom Constanten and Bob Bralove, both musicians associated with the Grateful Dead. Constanten (born March 19, 1944, in Long Branch, NJ) met Phil Lesh while studying at the University of California at Berkeley in 1961. The two became roommates, attracted by their mutual love of avant-garde music. Constanten moved to West Germany to study with various classical composers, while Lesh went on to become a member of the Grateful Dead. When Constanten returned to the Bay Area, he joined the band, playing keyboards on several of its albums in the late '60s before leaving in 1970. He continued to write and perform music thereafter and by the early '90s was releasing solo albums. Bralove joined the Grateful Dead's support team in 1987 after serving eight years as a sound designer and keyboard player with Stevie Wonder and meeting them on the set of the television series The Twilight Zone. With the Dead, he participated in the "Drums" and "Space" improvisational interludes from backstage and eventually earned songwriting and production credits on their albums. Constanten sat in with Bralove's side group, Second Sight, in the spring of 1995, and when the two met again at Jerry Garcia's funeral later in the year, they decided to team up. Dose Hermanos made its formal debut in San Francisco in November 1995. They began selling their debut CD, Sonic Roar Shock, at their gigs until it was picked up for distribution by Grateful Dead Merchandising. Live From California followed in 1997, and the duo issued the video Shadow of the Invisible Man in 1999 before releasing their third album, Search for Intelligent Life, on Relix Records in 2000. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide