Odes to Joy: Aunt Monk at the Generosity, May 9, 1975

LN jg1975-05-09.aunt-monk.84mins.aud-castelli-motb-0144.107829.flac1644

For a couple of years, the good people at Mouth of the Beast (MOTB) were
dropping some ridiculously great and important listening material on the
masses. Most important, from the perspective of Garcia on the Side (GOTS) were
the Robert Castelli tapes, a handful of recordings made by the gentleman of
that name who seemed to find his way into, and record, especially rare and
special shows. The most important of these, for me, were a couple of recordings
from The Generosity, traveling with dates of February 14, 1975 and May 9, 1975.

The
Generosity

My notes tell me that The Generosity was located at 1981
Union St, San Francisco, CA 94123 (street view). I frankly do not know much about it beyond
that. It is not discussed in Selvin’s San Francisco: The Musical History
Tour (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1996). I don’t recall ever having
seen ads or calendar listings for it, nor posters nor anything else, quite
frankly, except these tapes. Maybe we can get the maestro behind Jerry’s
Brokendown Palaces to dig up more information!

Aunt
Monk

Though the tapes travel with the band name Legion of Mary, I believe it was
probably actually Aunt Monk. This is almost certainly true of the Generosity
gig dated 2/14/75, since that predates what I reckon to have been the first local usage of the Legion of Mary moniker on March 1-2, 1975. When
that tape first emerged, Merl Jr. indicated that Aunt Monk (i.e., Merl Sr.) had
a standing gig at the Generosity around that time. The 2/14/75 and 5/9/75 tapes
are most definitely of a piece – all instrumental, less oriented toward songs
(especially Jerry-centric ones) and more oriented toward long workouts of funk,
soul and R&B numbers than even LOM would typically be. As I note below,
there are some bass slides that sound utterly unlike John Kahn to my
ears, and I have to think that’s Aunt Monk bassist Tony Saunders funking things
up.

I have discussed Aunt Monk a few different times. To reiterate, the written
record (“Rap-Up’s Wrap Up,” Oakland
Tribune, August 25, 1974, p. 2-RAP) suggests that this band name emerged
around August 1974, as I discussed in a post about the Garcia/Saunders/Fierro
material that circulates dated “July 21, 1974” and “July 22, 1974” from the
Keystone in Berkeley. The first billings I presently show are from the
Tuckett Inn in September 1974, continuing well (if sporadically) into 1977.  As indicated in the Trib and my post, it seems that the band (name) replaced The Merl
Saunders Band, which had been featured at least in ca. summer 1974 at the Sand
Dunes down in the Sunset District, and with which Jerry apparently played
with some regularity. I have also recently discovered a June
1, 1975 Aunt Monk w/ Jerry Garcia gig at the Inn of the Beginning in Cotati,
which nicely brackets the May 9^th date I am contemplating.

GOTS
Context

In a recent interview on the Jake Feinberg Show (promoting his
new album, “Romancing
the Bass“), Tony Saunders has discussed this time period a little bit.
The relevant bit starts around 34:35 of the hourlong interview. I transcribe
some of it here.

[Garcia] would show up at my Dad and my gigs with Aunt Monk. He was playing
little places. He played on Union Street in San Francisco at this place called
The Generosity. It was tiny. And he would just show up with his amp in his car,
show up, come in and play. He never wanted any money. He just wanted to play.
And when you talk about him learning … we played a Stanley Clarke song one
night … but the song just went all over the place. And he came up to me and he
shook my hand and he said ‘Tony, that was a good one, because I couldn’t just
do what I thought that I could do. I couldn’t just play along and every time I
went to go, when I felt comfortable, I really liked that. That was a great
song.’ And a lot of the songs that they played in Legion of Mary, we played
them at first with the Aunt Monk group. And Jerry … he would play them first
there, and then he would transpose them over to the groups with my Dad.

When Feinberg asks (@ 35:35) who was in the group, Tony says “At first it
was E.W. Wainwright, myself, my Dad and … most of the times Jerry would come
sit in and be the guitar player. Another young guitar player, Chris Hayes, who
went on to play with Huey Lewis and the News for twenty years.” (As an aside,
Tony had earlier said that his first gig with his Dad and Jerry, when he was 18
(ca. 1974) was at the Inn
of the Beginning, about which I have written a fair bit [see also the IOTB
handbill collection at Chicken on a Unicycle]. I have a speculation about that,
but it’ll have to wait for another post.)

Anyway, I love Tony’s description of Garcia’s involvement. “He just wanted
to play”, indeed. And what we have on this tape, if not the precise Stanley
Clarke song Tony was talking about, is Garcia waaaaayyyyy out on the edge of
what he knew and could play. This ain’t “My Funny Valentine”, friends. The
final two songs here, are
one-offs of the Horace Silver’s “Nica’s Dream” and Stevie Wonder’s “Love Having You Around”.
Wow! These stealth gigs with Merl would be among the last Jerry would ever do. I
wouldn’t say this is Jerry’s best playing, but I would say it’s among his most
interesting, and certainly among the last times he’d perform publicly utterly
without a net.

Well worth a listen. Thank you Robert Castelli, Bob Menke and MOTB crew for getting this stuff out for everyone to hear. Pretty amazing documents of a fleeting phenomenon.

Listening notes …

MOTB Release: 0144 16/44.1
Release Date: 2010-05-19
Band: Legion Of Mary
Date: 1975-05-09 (Friday)
Venue: The Generosity
Location: San Francisco, CA
Analog Audience Source: Aud Master Cassettes (MAC)
Medium Stock Brands: MAC = 2 x Maxell UD C90’S
Analog Lineage: Sony ECM 270’s => Sony TC 152 >> MAC
Analog Sound Preservation: MAC >> Nakamichi CR7a => Korg MR-1000
>> DSF [1-bit 5.6448 MHz Stereo] >> Korg MR-1000 => Korg
AudioGate >> WAV [24/96]
Taped By: Robert Castelli
Transfer By: Bob Menke
Mastering By: Derek McCabe

(6 tracks, 83:51)
t01: … When I Die [11:59] [0:18] %
t02: noodling [0:34], Little Bit Of Righteousness [15:07] %
t03: Little Sunflower … [18:53] %
t04: … Wondering Why [2:29] [0:10] %
t05: noodling [0:38], Nica’s Dream [18:38] [0:16] %
t06: Love Having You Around/ [14:45]

! Band: Aunt Monk
! lineup: Merl Saunders – keyboards;
! lineup: Martin Fierro – saxophone, flute;
! lineup: Tony Saunders – el-bass [confirmed];
! lineup: Bob Stellar – drums;