Redd and Blues

! R: Eaton: “06/04/74 The Lion Share, San Anselmo Ca – complete; 4.8, 144min, Sbd, A0D1, Reel M->PCM 0->Dat 0, 44k; 10inch Master [email protected] 1/2trk->PCM x 0->3700 x 1”.

! R: Source: MSR > PCM > DAT; Transfer: Panasonic SV-3700 > Edirol UA-5 > USB > WaveLab 5.01a; Mastering with: iZotope Ozone 3 > CD Wave > TLH > FLAC; Transfer and Mastered by Bill Koucky. Green Mountain Bros. February 13, 2008.”

! R: seeder notes: “Glitches removed from [Darben The Redd Foxx], Harder They Come and The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.”

! Historical/personnel/setlist: The shows on June 4-5–6, 1974 (first two at Lion’s Share, last at Keystone) hold a lot of historical interest. Most obviously, there are a number of setlist rarities and one-offs (on this night: Darben The Redd Foxx; All Blues; New York City) and some personnel fluidity (on this night: guest Alice Stuart on guitar and vocals, Tony Saunders on bass).

! R: s1t01 some bad static in the first few minutes of DTRF. A little staticky in 6-min mark, with glitch @ 6:18.

! R: this recording is absolutely gorgeous.

! setlist: s1t01 This is the first of two known versions of what is currently thought to be the Alice Coltrane composition “Ptah, The El Daoud” we now know is “Darben The Redd Foxx”. The next occurs two nights later, and they are reasonably different from each other in tempo and such. This used to be identified as “Bag’s Groove”, which is manifestly not what it is. This one swings really hard, and Jerry’s playing is free and inventive. All through the 7-8 min mark he is soloing vigorously. Merl is soloing absolutely gloriously in the 9-minute mark. Really high up the register, while Jerry vamps behind him, Tony clicks some strings, and Bill the drummer is practically building handrailings around the whole thing, so everyone can *groove*. @@ This is really quite a wonderful performance. Martin really sweet lead around 10:35ff … very, very clean stuff.

! P: s1t02 Expressway: not sure the little bass run @ 0:40 sounds like John. [edit: right – It’s Tony Saunders!]  This is big, fat fucking bass here. Ow! Another little run @ 1:08. @ 2:10 they stumble on a clam, but this bass player is a sick motherfucker, ’cause he just fills in some runs whenever he needs to. @ 2:40 as part of the recovery process from the hole they fell into, Garcia is bending and twisting like mad … Merl comes up nice and loud in 3-minute mark, Martin solo @ 3:18, nice. Still rolling around 4:15, and doing well. He’s not really squonking on this night. @ 9:30 it’s Garcia who quotes Red Clay … that’s usually Martin’s territory! He picks it up @ 9:49, gettin’ his CTI on. But y’know, he doesn’t overdo it. This jam is very tasteful, everyone playing within themselves. @ 10:20 I start listening to the bass player and I think that Tony is great. Listen @ 11:15, Tony again making himself heard and bouncing buzzy twang against a Moto Moto-sized bottom (“name so nice, ya got to say it twice”). Big and thick and funky and everywhere it should be. Tony has seriously got this song down.

! P: s1t03 ISTE is a remarkably, anomalously upbeat version. Garcia is giving extra care to his vocals, and everything just sounds a little tighter. He does some interesting pulls @ 3:42-3:53 that are quite distinctive, then he stacks it up higher, loses the one, and then starts doing like a 9 for 8 tempo thing to get back on with everyone else. Highly expressive, exploratory playing here. And I am almost always bored to tears by Second That Emotion.

! Q: I wonder if they were recording this for a possible release? I see from Eaton’s list that this is only 7.5ips, while the next night is 15ips, which really makes you think they had something special in mind. Maybe Jerry is just feeling frisky, but he’s really trying to get the singing right.

! random: The third Betty batch –of which this may *not* be one, given the PCM gen– is like Betty’s private fucking reserve. I am coming to think that these tapes were recovered separately because they were kept separate, and that they were kept separate for professional and/or personal reasons. Specifically, I think these are tapes that Betty thought were the prime goods … interesting songlists, unusual guest sit-ins, tight performances. I think they were being collected for an early Garcia live bands compilation … Jerry in all of his genres. How many square feet of tape for 133 minutes’ worth of 10″ tape running at 7.5ips (less still 15ips, natch)? Someone or something has gotta pay for that shit, man. As it turns out, it was Betty paying out of her own pocket.

! personnel: s1t03 ISTE @ 10:25 Tony again doing his thang

! R: s1t04 WW horrific warble/phasing … not sure if it’s master tape or PCM tape or DAT tracking problems or something else. I guess I hear it associated with the flute … maybe it’s a blown tweeter or something? In the 11-min mark it becomes associated with Garcia’s guitar, and now I am wondering if it’s digital. I dunno.

! R: s1t04 WW splice/drop @ 6:50. Doesn’t sound like there’s much missing, but there’s some.

! P: s1t04 WW @ 15:26 Jerry starts doing some really glassy plucking and bending, through around 16:07 … absolutely gorgeous. His following work, including some brief fanning interludes around 16:20, continues to soar, great tone, power, clarity all the way through to the end. @@ These last few minutes of guitar work are absolutely outstanding.

! P: s1t05 @ 3:44 Martin hits a swingin’ thing that I can’t put my finger on, almost like “Help Me Rhonda”. I wonder if he was preparing for the arrival of the Beach Boys (who would play a Day on the Green four days thence, June 8th at the Coliseum).

! s1t05 (1) JG: “We’re gonna take a break for a little while, as usual, and we’ll be back a little bit later.”

! setlist: s2t01 is the only known Garcia version of “All Blues”. It comes in with a big, thick, fat bass.  @ 7:30 Merl blows some ear drums out with a massive Hammond blast, his very best Jimmy Smith, for sure.

! s2t01 All Blues in the 12-minute mark Martin is trying to bring it to a close and he gets Merl to join him. But Garcia is oblivious. Things unravel for a bit around 12:30 or so, and Garcia just has his head down and ploughs right through it. Merl’s organ tone is really high, and/or up in the mix. Things almost fall apart again @ 13:38 … they are lost. @ 13:42 Jerry wandering around with just the drummer. Jerry letting himself get spaced out, totally oblivious. Merl is still on the theme, but Jerry is completely ignoring him (and it). By the 18-minute mark Jerry is back on earth, and Merl is, again, really doing the Jimmy Smith thing here. It’s nice. Late 19-min mark we get a little bass-drum interlude, the others really quietening down for 15-30 seconds. In the 21-minute mark Martin and Jerry are caught up in a nice little theme, totally swinging. It almost comes to a close late in 21-min mark, but then it drops into Jerry doing some nice jumping lead work, Martin coming back to their shared theme @ 22:35 and Merl is with it … then draw it to a close. Fascinating.

! s2t01 (2) @ 24:19 Martin Fierro: “Can you send some water to the mariachis, please?”

! s2t02 NYC I had always assumed that Alice Stuart played guitar as well as singing, but I don’t think I hear a second guitar, and I think this has always been noted as only a vocal performance. The next night she’d play guitar and sing (on “Kansas City Blues”). Her singing is terrific, by the way. She does these blues really well. Hate to say she sounds like a young Bonnie Raitt, but that’s how I hear it.

! s2t02 (3) Alice Stuart: “Thank you. Thank you, thank you.” Crowd member: “All right Alice!”

! R: I love how loud up in the mix Merl’s organ is on this recording. Great tone.

! s2t03 HTC splice/drop  @ 0:17

! P: s2t03 HTC is kind of a trainwreck in the 15-16 minute mark. Jerry doesn’t seem to be hearing Merl and Martin very well as they very reasonably suggest a wind-down.

! R: s2t04 TNTDODD drop/skip @ 5:01, 5:17

! s2t04 (4) JG: “Thanks a lot. We’ll see y’all later.”