Category: JGMS
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When did Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders first play together?
One of Garcia’s most enduring, important and original musical partnerships outside the Grateful Dead was with Merl Saunders. From about Fall of 1970 through mid-1975, Merl and Jerry played steadily in various configurations that began as loose jam sessions with fluid personnel at the Matrix to the more institutionalized (named! east coast touring!) 1975 outfit…
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Cat in the Limelight: RN Grosswald and Blavat 1978
Grosswald, Mike and Glen Blavat. 1978. Jerry Garcia’s Band Under the Stars. Happytimes (Philadelphia), March 31, 1978, p. 15. Grosswald-Bavat 1978: This is a really nicely done piece from what I assume was a Philly underground paper, Happytimes, around the time of the JGB’s visit to that town in mid-March (3/16/78 at the Spectrum Theatre).…
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JGMS: November 2, 1974, Keystone, Berkeley, CA
Almost-certainly-almost-never heard Garcia/Saunders show: November 2, 1974. I don’t usually link to recordings this way, but I am salivating at the chance to hear this bad boy. Thank you Robert Castelli, Bob Menke, Derek McCabe, and the MOTB crew for serving this puppy to your hungry, waiting fans! I will post on the show after…
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JGMS: “July 21-22,” 1974, Keystone, Berkeley, CA
**updated 20111216 2057 GMT** Tony Saunders is the bassist on these two tapes. The Jerry Site has listings for Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders at Keystone, Berkeley, on July 21 and July 22, 1974. I doubt both date/venue combinations, for reasons I’ll lay out below. A) “JGMS 7/21/74, Keystone, Berkeley” This first date is so…
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JGMS: October 3, 1971, Frost Ampitheater, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA
Garcia and Saunders played the Pamoja Jazz Concert on October 3, 1971 at Frost Ampitheater, sharing a bill with Big Black and the Bobby Hutcherson – Harold Land Quintet. Love that jazz billing. Anyway, for a long time I have been aware of a show review by Paul Grushkin from the Stanford Daily a few…
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Jerry with Merl and/or Martin, ca. 1974, The Sand Dunes
We know that Jerry Garcia was playing around outside the GD to a varying, but always non-zero, extent throughout the career of his most famous band. We have a sense that this was happening more, and more loosely, in the early days (at least pre-1976) and less, and in a more routinized/institutionalized way after that.…
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The 1974 Garcia/Saunders instrumental previously listed as “Bags’ Groove”
UPDATE 1/24/2015: Commenter Nick has determined that this is actually “Darben The Redd Foxx“. For fans of Jerry Garcia’s pre-1975 excursions beyond the Grateful Dead, one of the great fun things is to hear Jerry trying on really unusual material, seemingly without much preparation. I think of the instrumental versions of “Day By Day” (from…
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Jerry Garcia at the Matrix, 1970-1971
As I noted a little bit ago, Ross Hannan sent some wonderful info on Matrix gigs. In this post I respond to some of his listings with questions, additional or different information, etc. I was just going to email this, but one never knows when someone else might see this and be able to weigh-in.…
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JGMS: July 11, 1973, Keystone, Berkeley, CA
A while back I did a little miniseries linking the July 1973 Jerry Garcia/Merl Saunders shows at Keystone Berkeley to the official releases. I did it from the show perspective and from the album perspective. I.e., July 10, 1973: what goes on which albums; Live at Keystone, vol. 1 (CD): which songs come from which…
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JGMS: January 15, 1972, Keystone Korner, San Francisco, CA
I have been needing to revisit recordings of the very early Jerry Garcia/Merl Saunders stuff, and with a bit of time I thought I’d give this show, from a Saturday in mid-January 1972 at the Keystone Korner in San Francisco, some attention on its birthday. I am not sure who’s drumming … could have been…