Spirit - California Blues

Spirit was an American jazz/hard rock/psychedelic band founded in 1967, based in Los Angeles, California.

The original lineup of the group evolved from an earlier Los Angeles band, The Red Roosters, which included Randy California (guitars, vocals), Mark Andes (bass) and Jay Ferguson (vocals, percussion). With the addition of Ed Cassidy (drums) and keyboard player John Locke the new band was originally named the Spirits Rebellious (after a book by Khalil Gibran) but was soon shortened simply to Spirit.

California had his own home recording studio since the early 1980s, though he had been making home recordings for years prior to that. Sadly, this renewed vigor came to an end on January 2, 1997, when California drowned off the coast of Hawaii. He had been surfing with his son, who got caught in a riptide. He managed to push his son to safety, but ended up losing his own life.