I don’t think I have blogged much about Reconstruction, the jazz-R&B-soul-funk-rock-disco outfit formed by John Kahn that performed in 1979 and that regularly “featured” Jerry Garcia on guitar. This is one of Garcia’s most unusual side trips. It features lots of tunes that he had never done before and would never do again, with my favorites being instrumental numbers such as “Welcome to the Basement” (Saunders/Moore), “The Mohican and the Great Spirit” (Horace Silver), “Fast Tone” (Tony Saunders/Ed Neumeister), “Nessa” (?composer?), “Linda Chicana” (Mark Levine), “Sama Layuca” (McCoy Tyner) and “Another Star” (Stevie Wonder). It is also unusual in that this was Jerry’s only relatively regular post-1975 excursion that didn’t have his name on it. I have a lot to say on that general issue, but I’ll save it for another time.
This particular show, on August 10, 1979 at the Temple Beautiful in San Francisco is one of my favorites. Lost Live Dead has reported in characteristically informative fashion on the venue itself. It’s a fascinating story. This show holds a special place in my heart, though, both because my friends Julie and John Anzaldo hooked up for good on this occasion and, especially, because the band ends the show with one of my favorite half-hours of Garcia music ever. Starting with McCoy Tyner’s “Sama Layuca”, they drift into a very spare space for a couple of minutes before Garcia starts picking some beautiful melodic stuff that morphs into one of the early Jerry versions of Dear Prudence. I used to say that the melodic passage contained Jerry’s most beautiful stuff since the 2/18/71 “beautiful jam” between Dark Star and Wharf Rat, but I eschew such hyperbole here.
Bob Menke’s tape is the best of the two circulating, though as I understand it a new transfer of the Phil Jaret tape may be in the offing, which is good news.
But I digress. My real purpose for posting was to seek identification of the unknown song that appears toward the end of the song. I confess that I can’t recall whether it’s Ron Stallings or Gaylord Birch singing, but whoever it is it’s the same guy who handles Reconstruction vocals besides Jerry. Anyway, it sounds kind of like an R&B standard, so I am hoping it’ll be easy to identify.
Here’s a link to a 25-second mp3 from the start of the song: Unknown song link.
I have just been compiling a list of tunes that are represented among circulating Garcia on the Side recordings but that remain unidentified. So I expect that this will be a series of sorts.
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