NRPS: November 26, 1969, Poppycock, Palo Alto

A few years ago Corry uncovered a whole trove of previously unknown NRPS shows in 1969. Among others, these included gigs in their old Palo Alto stomping grounds, playing the Poppycock (135 University Avenue, Palo Alto, CA, 94301) on consecutive Thursdays in November (November 13, 1969 and November 20, 1969). I am still hiatus, so I don't have time to contemplate these guys playing Palo Alto in 1969 at the Poppycock --about which, of course, Corry is also authoritative-- for very long. But it sure does have a lot of intuitive appeal.

So, this new to The List is for him: a Wednesday night NRPS gig at the Poppycock. The night before Thanksgiving. November 26, 1969.

entertainment listings, Good Times vol. 2 no. 45 (November 20, 1969), p. unknown.

Recall that the NRPS reprised the night-before-Thanksgiving gig the next year, 11/25/70 at the Keystone Korner. That, of course, would be an auspicious occasion: the first booking with Freddie Herrera, who would be the second cornerstone of Garcia's non-GD professional musical life (after John Kahn, the rock of the church) until Garcia left for Bill Graham and a bigger room in 1987. But gigging with friends around Thanksgiving does seem to have been a nice little tradition. Sure wish I could have been around to hear them on this night, on well-trod ground, in 1969!

New to The List

I'll be posting some new-to-The-List dates ad seriatim.

JGMS: Wednesday, December 9, 1970, Matrix

San Francisco Chronicle, December 9, 1970, p. 62.

 JGMS: Wednesday, January 6, 1971, Matrix

Wasserman, John L. 1971. A Talent Bigger Than Her Name. San Francisco Chronicle, January 6, 1971, p. 38.

NRPS: Monday, January 11, 1971, Lion's Share
JGMS: Tuesday, January 12, 1971, Matrix
JGMS: Wednesday, January 13, 1971, Matrix

Wasserman, John L. 1971. John Lennon's Windy Candor. San Francisco Chronicle, January 11, 1971, p. 38.

"Opening Today," San Francisco Chronicle, January 12, 1971, p. 35.

Wasserman, John L. 1971. Big Names on the Peninsula. San Francisco Chronicle, January 13, 1971, p. 44.

JGMS: Monday, February 8, 1971, Matrix. Note that the Chicken's Matrix List shows a second night on Tuesday, February 9, but that is contradicted by the Chronicle listing, which tips John Lee Hooker.

Wasserman, John L. 1971. The Man Who Picks The Hits. San Francisco Chronicle, February 8, 1971, p. 42.

 JGMS: Thursday, March 25, 1971, Keystone Korner.

Wasserman, John L. 1971. On the Town: Some Travesties in the Music Biz [Something Else]. San Francisco Chronicle, March 24, 1971, p. 42.

Jam: June 4, 1968, Carousel Ballroom

Handbill for Jam at Carousel Ballroom, Tuesday, June 4, 1968.

The "Tuesday Night Jam" on May 21, 1968 [TJS ] shnid-22727] is very nearly ground zero for Garcia On The Side, representing the first time that Garcia was billed under his own name since the birth of the Dead in 1965. The 1968 Side Trips have a feeling all their own, for sure. Much, much more to say about all of it. (For a taste, see my post on 10/30/68 and Hartbeats as Tempo Études.)

Here, because I am going through some San Francisco Chronicle scans I gathered, I wanted to provide some lengthy quotes from Ralph Gleason to provide some context around the seemingly-similar Tuesday Night Jam from June 4, 1968. The handbill identifies Jerry Garcia, Elvin Bishop, Barry Melton, Tim Davis, Lonnie Turner, Steve Miller, Fred Walk, Dino, Marcus Magnificent Malone, plus others.

This was the night that Robert Kennedy was shot, of course. Ralph Gleason (1) offers a pretty good snapshot of the yin and yang of the night, which can of course be taken as capturing some essential things about the hippie dream and, darkly, life itself.

At midnight Tuesday night it was a beautiful scene at the Carousel Ballroom. People came in off the street with late election news and inside there was a long jam session going on with all kinds of guitar players and saxophones and rhythm men and on the floor there was more dancing than I've seen anywhere in months. Throughout the ballroom an outstanding feature was the peacefulness and the joy as a wondrous assortment of people relaxed. There were Hells Angels and hippies, many black people and many men long-hair youth [sic]. It seemed for a moment like the hope of the future.

And then I went outside, got into the car and punched the radio button only to hear a voice saying 'When Senator Kennedy was shot tonight ...' and the terrible real world came crashing in on me again.

And, late the next night

[a] man slowly died ... this terrible feeling came on again, the feeling of doom I had lost in the Carousel the night before, and the country seemed fated to keep spinning out of control down some grim spiral to madness.

REFERENCE:
(1) Gleason, Ralph J. 1968. Strung Between Dreams and Reality. San Francisco Chronicle, June 7, 1968, p. 49.

Gleason, Ralph J. 1968. Strung Between Dreams and Reality. San Francisco Chronicle, June 7, 1968, p. 49.

Carlos Santana and Merl Saunders - February 22, 1971, Matrix, San Francisco

Wasserman, John L. 1971. The Big Sound At Lake Tahoe ["Something Else" subhead], San Francisco Chronicle, February 22, 1971, p. 40.

The Chicken's Matrix list  doesn't show a few of these Matrix gigs, so I'll throw them out there.

Monday; February 22, 1971; Carlos Santana and Merl Saunders
Tuesday; February 23, 1971; Larry Coryell
Wednesday; February 24, 1971; Larry Coryell

I think you guys will also be interested in the Tuesday night Fillmore West rehearsals. Since there were no posters (and presumably not terribly many attendees), these have probably been a little more elusive. All of this will be entered into shared data at some point.

Don't even get me started about Hubbard and Hancock. I don't know if Herbie was into Mwandishi by this time or not. I have a sense of what Freddie was playing around this time, interpolating through a few 1970 and 1971 dates that are out and about. Red Clay and all that ... would be absolutely smokin', I am sure. I wonder what was the capacity of the Both/And?

My main thing was to point out Carlos Santana and Merl Saunders gigging at the Matrix. By this time, Jerry and Merl were a regular thing. So here's a nice little instance of where Jerry's out of town with his day job, Merl is working gigs of his own. Naturally enough. Gotta eat.

But that this was Carlos and Merl at the Matrix makes it all the more interesting. I assume there are Santana freaks out there who know about this. I should assume that it's in McNally and Jackson and probably that Corry has already blogged about this, at length. :) But I, for one, don't recall hearing about this.

2/22/71, Monday night. Carlos and Merl (and who else??) jamming at the Matrix. Yeah, I'd soak up some beer for the privilege. Must have been a good payday all around. I wonder how the music was? I wonder if it was taped? This is just a marker, have at it.

Hope you are all well. While I still need to be on hiatus from this material, one has to be opportunistic when the research opportunities present themselves. I'll probably do more of this as summer rolls around.

LN jg1982-06-23.jgb.s1s2p.aud-CC.xxxxxx.flac2448

This date interests me because Liz Stires is said to have left the JGB tour after the previous night's gig (6/22/82). So this would be a show with only one backing vocalist (presumed to be Julie Stafford), a rare JGB sextet with two keyboards (JGB #14d, I have proposed we catalogue it). Truth is, I can't hear from this tape whether there is one vocalist or whether there are two. I plan to put ears on the other partial tape (which looks to complement this tape nicely; concatenated, they should provide the complete show). Anyway, the review seems to say pretty clearly there is a single vocalist, so given the provenance [redacted] of the information that Liz left on 6/22, it's a pretty sure bet she's not here.

Oh, yeah. There's a really outrageous, ripping guitar solo about 8 minutes into Tangled Up In Blue. As I say in  my notes, I bet Garcia was sweating like a greased pig. But it's good stuff.

So, review, then listening notes.

Jerry Garcia Band
Stanley Theater
830 Liberty Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15222
June 23, 1982 (Wednesday)

Closet Call 2nd gen s1s2p cassette (81 minutes)

--Set I (6 tracks, 59:01, complete)--
s1t01. crowd and tuning [3:48]
s1t02. How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) [9:21] [1:48]
s1t03. I'll Take A Melody [14:55] [2:12]
s1t04. Valerie [7:31] [0:06]%
s1t05. (I'm A) Road Runner [8:48] [0:19]
s1t06. Tangled Up In Blue [10:13] (1) %

--Set II (3 tracks, 22:12, incomplete, start of set)--
s2t01. crowd and tuning [1:11]
s2t02. The Harder They Come [11:29] [1:53]
s2t03. Let It Rock [7:36] [0:02] %

[MISSING Russian Lullaby ->]
[MISSING Dear Prudence ->]
[MISSING Run For The Roses]
[MISSING --Encore-- Deal]

! Band: Jerry Garcia Band
! Lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, vocals;
! Lineup: John Kahn - el-bass;
! Lineup: Melvin Seals - organ;
! Lineup: Jimmy Warren - electric piano;
! Lineup: Bill Kreutzmann - drums;
! Lineup: Julie Stafford - backing vocals.

JGMF:
! Recording: symbols: % = recording discontinuity; / = clipped song; // = cut song; ... = fade in/out; # = truncated timing; [ ] = recorded event time. The recorded event time immediately after the song or item name is an attempt at getting the "real" time of the event. So, a timing of [x:xx] right after a song title is an attempt to say how long the song really was, as represented on this recording.
! TJS: http://www.thejerrysite.com/shows/show/1619
! db: http://db.etree.org/shn/90876, incomplete unlineaged audience tape.
! map: http://goo.gl/maps/oab9c
! venue: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/05/stanley-theatre-830-liberty-avenue.html
! R: this is definitely a different recording than the one embodied in shnid-90876, and on a quick listen I think this one is better. I have to check more carefully, but it looks like these tapes will fit nicely together and, hopefully, can be concatenated to provide the complete show.
! R: source tape: "2nd gen aud", 1x Maxell XLII (no Dolby)
! R: transfer: Nakamichi BX-300 playback (no Dolby) > Pyle Pro cables > WaveTerminal 2496 > Samplitude 10.1 Download Version (record @ 24 bits/48kHz) > CDWave 1.9.8 (tracking) > Adobe Audition 3.0.1 Build 8347.0 (fades) > Traders Little Helper 2.4.1 (FLAC 2448 encoding, level 8) > Foobar (tagging).
! R: This is a classic Closet Call tape. It's not great, but it's not bad. Things are a little overloaded, and there's definitely some room feel, but the (unknown) recordist was in a pretty good spot and did a pretty good job. The keyboards and backing vocals are a little washed out, while the bass sounds pretty good. The recordist just left the tape rolling, 45 minutes at a time, by the sound of things, which is really nice.
! personnel: The key historical interest of this show lies in the personnel. This is an odd, fleeting, sextet configuration with Garcia and Kahn (of course), featuring two keyboardists (Melvin Seals on organ and Jimmy Warren on electric piano). Bill Kreutzmann is on drums, which would happen periodically for reasons that are not very clear, but worth thinking through at some point. Yet this is a rare night with only a single backing vocalist (Julie Stafford, as I presently understand things). I think the last time Garcia would have played with a single backup singer (always a "girl singer", as he once referred to Dolly Parton) would probably have been late '77, with Donna Jean Godchaux but without Maria Muldaur. In this instance, there were two backing vocalists for the tour, but Liz Stires left the Garcia Band after the June 22nd show at the Richmond Mosque in Richmond, VA [TJS]. A review in the Penn State Daily Collegian (Allison 1982a) identifies the band personnel (though only Garcia and Kreutzmann by name) as including "a woman vocalist", going on to note that "the woman vocalist had few opportunities to perform, but was always a fine addition." I think this is pretty solid confirmation that there was only one singer, and that, indeed, Liz Stires left the tour a few days early. According to Corry's typology, this should be JGB #14d, which would have done three shows on 6/23/82 and 6/24/82 (early and late).
! setlist: Allison 1982a says "Let It Rock" ended the second set, but he also says that LIR is a Garcia original. This tape runs continuously from the warmup before HTC through the end of LIR, so if LIR was last (before the encore), then HTC was also the penultimate tune.
! historical: see note about personnel. The Allison review (1982a) notes that Garcia will play two shows, at 6 and 9, Sunday night (6/27) at the Tower Theatre in Philly (actually, Upper Darby), and that as of the the 24th tickets were still available. (Note that the Tower show was Garcia/Kahn.)
! R s1t03 ITAM about 7 and a half minutes in there is a real-time blank spot. You can sort of hear the music imprinted underneath it. Maybe someone forgot to pop the tabs on their tapes?
! personnel: s1t06 TUIB I can't tell if I hear two backing vocalists?
! P: s1t06 TUIB Garcia is tearing it up in this TUIB. This is some pretty outrageous guitar. Easily some of his @@ best licks of the year. Solo around 8 minutes into TUIB. Late 8-min mark and forward, just very, very lengthy phrasings, also at blowout intensity and some great raunch. I bet Garcia was sweating like a fucking hog here.
! s1t06 (1) JG: "Thanks, we're gonna take a break for a little while. See y'//".

! Disclaimer: This is part of a "Closet Call" project aimed at getting missing Garcia dates into the digital realm. These are "warts and all" ... straight transfers of the source cassettes with editing only of the most offensive tape transitions and such. If you don't like hiss, possible speed problems, etc., etc., then move along. And, to anticipate a FAQ: no, I don't plan on doing 16/44s of these. Thanks to wk for supplying these tapes!

References:
Allison, John. 1982a. Garcia band hot at the Stanley. Daily Collegian (Pennsylvania State University), June 25, 1982, p. 13.
Arnold, Corry. 2012. Jerry Garcia Band Personnel 1975-1995. Lost Live Dead, January 12, 2012, URL http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html, consulted 3/24/2013.

jgmf.blogspot.com

Matrix footage

https://diva.sfsu.edu/collections/sfbatv/bundles/210748

KRON-TV News report from February 3rd 1967 at The Matrix nightclub in San Francisco, at 3138 Fillmore Street. Features views of rock band The Only Alternative & His Other Possibillities rehearsing onstage and an interview with new singer Kay and songwriter Tor Olson. They discuss the difficulty of defining their 'sound' and the creativity of the San Francisco music scene.

Wow. h/t Yellow Shark.

LN jg1973-10-02.jgms.all.sbd-alligator.83809.flac1644

Randy Tuten poster for Legal Aid Benefit @ Winterland, October 2, 1973

I am sure Blair and McNally and all the other sources go into the obscure story of the Legal Aid Benefit. I just re-read the one source I have at hand, John Wasserman's very suspicious-sounding piece in the Chronicle a few days later (1). Sounds like some Angels, facilitated by Sam Cutler and certainly abetted by Garcia, made a lot of dough with this gig, but it's not clear who, nor is it clear that the whole thing was correctly represented to, inter alia, Bill Graham himself. It sounds like an interesting story to dig more deeply into.


Of key interest from the GOTS perspective is the large number of guests. I work with a concept of the Shared Stage, which suggests that within the social networks of musicians, playing together is a deeply important form of linkage. These are "strong ties", as opposed to the "weak ties" represented by linkages such as joint billings and joint album credits. From my Garciacentric vantage, Shared Stage events can be broken down into a few categories, the most important of which are JG-host (Jerry hosting a guest) and JG-guest (Jerry taking a guest shot with someone else). Here we have a number of linkages to Jerry through the former channel in this gig:

• Another mystery trumpeter (see also 12/28/72, 7/5/73, 8/15/74, 9/1/74). Wolfgang's Vault identifies this as Bill Atwood, but that's apparently based on a conjecture by Corry, itself based on a mistaken assumption.
• Martin Fierro guests, for the second known time after 7/19/73.
• Sarah Fulcher sings on a song.
• Roger "Jellyroll" Troy plays bass at the end, and sings a couple of blues numbers.
• Matthew Kelly on harmonica.

I want to love this show. Things are good and reasonably interesting, but it just doesn't move me as much as I thought it should.

Jerry Garcia & Merl Saunders
Winterland Arena
corner of Post and Steiner
San Francisco, CA 94115
October 2, 1973 (Tuesday)
92 min Betty Cantor-Jackson sbd

--(8 tracks, 92:00, presumed complete)--
t01. [0:18] % /It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry [5:21] [1:39]
t02. Finders Keepers [9:35] [1:34]
t03. The Harder They Come [10:42] [1:37]
t04. My Funny Valentine [18:27] [1:09]
t05. That's Alright Mama [11:30] [1:00]
t06. I Second That Emotion [10:12] (1) [1:15]
t07. Sweet Little Angel [7:09] -> I've Got News For You [1:23] [0:16]
t08. How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) [8:56] (2) [0:13] %

! Band: Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, vocals;
! lineup: Merl Saunders - keyboards;
! lineup: John Kahn - el-bass (t07-t08);
! lineup: Bill Vitt - drums;
! guest: Martin Fierro - saxophone (t02-t06, t08);
! guest: ??Bill Atwood?? - trumpet (t01-t04, t06, t08);
! guest: Matthew Kelly - harmonica (t05, t07, t08);
! guest: Roger "Jellyroll" Troy - el-bass (t07-t08), vocals (t07);
! guest: Sara Fulcher - vocals (t05).

JGMF:
! Recording: symbols: % = recording discontinuity; / = clipped song; // = cut song; ... = fade in/out; # = truncated timing; [ ] = recorded event time. The recorded event time immediately after the song or item name is an attempt at getting the "real" time of the event. So, a timing of [x:xx] right after a song title is an attempt to say how long the song really was, as represented on this recording.
! TJS: http://www.thejerrysite.com/shows/show/900
! db: http://db.etree.org/shn/83809 (this fileset).
! map: http://goo.gl/maps/hLCHp
! historical: Legal Aid Benefit. This was some sort of Hell's Angels thing.
! R: Betty Cantor Jackson's master soundboard reel ("Third Betty Batch" reel #7, 10" @ 7.5 ips ½ trk, Nagra IV-S, uncertain tape stock); preserved by Rob Eaton early 1996: Otari 50/50 reel-to-reel > Apogee 500 A/D converter > Panasonic SV3700 DAT; lossless encoding "DAT4x" > Delta DIO 2496 > Soundforge > WAV > CD Wave Editor > FLAC, via Alligator. I have the "DAT4x" in quotes because I am not sure I believe it.
! R: came into general circulation in 2007, placed there by 'alligator' via Bit Torrent at Lossless Legs (shnflac.net) with a GEMS classification. This was among the "third batch" of Betty Cantor-Jackson's tapes, which came into some light in around late 1995-early 1996. These tapes contain a great many hours of otherwise-unheard players, songs, guests, etc., and very few of the Garcia tapes have ever come into circulation. It is very, very nice to be able to hear this recording. Without it, there is a four-month gap in recording coverage of Garcia/Saunders as a live act (between 9/6/73 and 1/17/74). That's an eternity given how much this configuration was playing and how fluid things were. [update 20130218: we now also have JGMS 11/3/73 in this frame!]
! personnel: the fileset credited Saunders with keyboards and vocals, but he doesn't sing here.
! R: t01 18 seconds of recording, then clips into Train to Cry. Trumpet player is audible right away. Garcia's vocals are nearly inaudible for most of the song as the mix settles in. The mix is way off, lots of hiss, for a good long while.
! personnel: The trumpet player is good and tasteful. Wolfgang's Vault identifies him as Bill Atwood, but Corry presumes this is derived, ultimately, from him, and that the listing is possibly spurious. So we really don't know who it is.
! P: t02 Finders Keepers: half the band tries to stop around 6:54, the other half keeps playing. They pull it back together quickly enough, I guess.
! personnel: t02 Martin Fierro starts making himself audible late in the song, for example stepping forward @ 8:46. He is pushing Jerry nicely and Garcia is rockin' out.
! R: t03 HTC some monkeying around in the 3-min mark, then bad sound fluctuations in 4-min mark. More weirdness, mix fluctuations, anomalies, around 6:30ish. AFter song, around 11:45, an odd spinning sound.
! personnel: t05 I think this is the same harmonica player as 7/19/73. Gotta be Matt Kelly.
! t06 (1) JG: "We're gonna get a friend of ours named Jellyroll out here to play some bass, sing a few songs for ya, maybe."
! P: t07 Sweet Little Angel: hearing Merl play some deep, swampy blues like this is pretty phenomenal. The stuff he is doing @ 6:32 is straight Church of Jimmy Smith. It feels a lot like Sunday here. Mmm mmm mm. @ 7:10 the "Ive Got News For You" verse. @ 7:48 harmonica back in. Let's assume that's Matt Kelly. Saxophone, maybe also trumpet at end, as well.
! setlist: wk: "The 'Unknown Blues Song' starts out as B.B. King's 'Sweet Little Angel' goes into a jam then finishes as Ray Charles' 'I've Got News For You. The vocals are handled by Jelly Roll Troy."
! personnel: t08 HSIII honestly cannot tell if this is Jellyroll or John Kahn playing bass here. HSII harp @ 2:52. Horns audible @ 3:35.
! t08 (2) JG: "Thanks a lot. Jack and Jorma are gonna come out and play for awhile."
! WV: http://www.wolfgangsvault.com/jerry-garcia-and-merl-saunders/concerts/winterland-october-02-1973.html. "Following sets by Stoneground, New Riders of the Purple Sage, and Mike Bloomfield & Friends, the Garcia-Saunders Band took the stage at Winterland. They invited several friends to sit in over the course of the show, making this one of the more unique performances by the group. The recording begins with an original Saunders instrumental called "Finders Keepers." Here, Merl's dynamic keyboard playing and the punchy rhythms created by Kahn and Vitt create a funkfest that brings out a side to Garcia's playing few had heard before. Martin Fierro joins in at this point, adding freeform sax improvisations to the mix. Reggae music was just beginning to penetrate the music world in 1973 and a lengthy exploration of Jimmy Cliff's classic "The Harder They Come" follows. Garcia was one of the first American musicians to fully embrace reggae and he would absorb its exotic rhythms like a sponge. He also handles the vocals here. The highlight of the entire set is next as the ensemble tackles the jazz standard, "My Funny Valentine." This is absolutely infectious from beginning to end. Over the course of nearly 20 minutes, the ensemble floats along in a dreamy exploratory style. John Kahn's bass playing brings out lyrical magic from Garcia's guitar and Fierro's sax, neither of whom is at a loss for ideas. An unknown musician also joins in on trumpet during this number. It's an exquisite performance and the sheer joy in Garcia's playing is palpable. He rarely sounded sweeter or more comfortable than he does right here. The set continues with a rollicking romp through "That's All Right Mama." Matt Kelly, future founder of the band Kingfish, blows harmonica on this number and Garcia, with the help of local singer Sara [sic] Fulcher, handles the vocals on this rockabilly classic. A delightful rendition of Smokey Robinson's "Second That Emotion" follows, which takes the three-minute Motown hit and cooks it up for well over ten minutes. At this point, John Kahn exits and is replaced by Roger Troy, bass player and vocalist from Mike Bloomfield's band, who had performed earlier on the show. Troy leads the group into blues territory with "Sweet Little Angel," a tune he and Garcia had previously performed together during a stint in Howard Wales' band two years prior. Troy handles the vocals here, and it's obvious that all concerned are thoroughly enjoying themselves. Finally, the Marvin Gaye classic "How Sweet It Is" closes the set on another joyous note. They say goodnight and inform the audience that Jorma and Jack (aka Hot Tuna) will be taking the stage next."

REFERENCE:
Wasserman, John L. 1973. ‘Mystery’ Benefit at Winterland. San Francisco Chronicle, October 5, 1973, p. 56.

JGMS: January 11-12, 1974, Winterland, SF

Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders, Waylon Jennings, and Alice Stuart and Snake were billed at Bill Graham's Winterland on the weekend of January 11-12, 1974. Here are The Jerry Site links:

Friday, January 11, 1974
Saturday, January 12, 1974

These bookings have been on The List probably since they happened, or whenever Dennis McNally started compiling it.

Here's what puzzles me: why are there no attendee recollections anywhere, or am I just missing them? How come no poster? Why no board tape at Wolfgang's Vault? Any and all thoughts, recollections, information would be most welcomed!

cannibalized post

Is there any way to undelete a cannibalized post?

After Midnight: JGMS, November 3, 1973, Keystone, Berkeley

I just call this After Midnight. Tremendous.

Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders
Keystone
2119 University Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94704
November 3, 1973 (Saturday)
123 minute soundboard

--Set I (7 tracks, 83:05)--
s1t01. ... After Midnight [7:26] (1) [2:48]
s1t02. Expressway (To Your Heart) [10:59] ->
s1t03. collective improvisation [15:50] ->
s1t04. transition to Merl's Tune [2:13] ->
s1t05. Merl's Tune [7:58] [2:34]
s1t06. Someday Baby [16:19] [1:55]
s1t07. I Second That Emotion [14:50] (2) [0:11] %

--Set II (2 tracks, 39:51, incomplete)--
s2t01. .. Mystery Train [10:01] [0:15]
s2t02. My Funny Valentine [29:05] (3)

! Band: Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders
! Lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, vocals;
! Lineup: Merl Saunders - keyboards;
! Lineup: John Kahn - el-bass;
! Lineup: Bill Vitt - drums;
! Lineup: Martin Fierro - saxophone, flute.

JGMF:
! Recording: symbols: % = recording discontinuity; / = clipped song; // = cut song; ... = fade in/out; # = truncated timing; [ ] = recorded event time. The recorded event time immediately after the song or item name is an attempt at getting the "real" time of the event. So, a timing of [x:xx] right after a song title is an attempt to say how long the song really was, as represented on this recording.
! TJS: http://www.thejerrysite.com/shows/show/907.
! db: none as of 12/31/2012. shnid-123279 (this fileset).
! map: http://goo.gl/maps/z22BN
! metadata: The show seems originally to have been booked, and was billed, as Old And In The Way . It was listed that way in "Scenedrome," Berkeley Barb, November 2-8, 1973, p. 17 and Hayward Daily Review, October 26, 1973, p. 34, as well as on a Keystone handbill. However, the Staska-Mangrum column from 11/2 listed it as JGMS (Staska, Kathie, and George Mangrum. 1973. Rock talk from KG: Country song goes to town. Hayward Daily Review, November 2, 1973, p. 44), and the tape is, plainly, JGMS. Of course, the next night would feature the last complete OAITW show, and it only occurred as late as November 4th because of a rainout at Sonoma State on the initial date of October 7th.
! R: the recording information I report is pieced together from available information, and may not be definitive.
! R: analog source tapes 1) Betty Cantor Jackson’s 10" master soundboard reel [MSR] @ 7.5ips 1/2 trk (Nagra IV-S, uncertain tape stock) (3rd Betty Batch, tape #53, 11/3/73 reel #1, set I, 83 minutes); 2) Betty Cantor Jackson’s 10" MSR @ 7.5ips 1/2 trk (Nagra IV-S, uncertain tape stock) (3rd Betty Batch, tape #36, 11/3/73 reel #2, end of show; first part of reel blank).
! R: Analog to digital transfer by RE, winter 1996: Otari 50/50 reel to reel > Apogee 500 A/D converter > Panasonic SV3700 DAT @ 16 bits, 48 kHz. The story of these tapes was written up in the late 2012 New Yorker article (Paumgarten 2012).
! R: subsequent: uncertain DAT > WAV > CD > EAC (extraction) > CDWave (tracking) > TLH (flac8 encoding) > foobar2000 (tagging) by JGMF.
! R: This recording is nothing short of spectacular. It enters in the pocket and stays there. Betty Cantor-Jackson, thank you! Listeners: we are truly blessed to care about the music that Betty cared enough to record for us. It’s like Rudy van Gelder or something. We are truly lucky music fans. And thanks to whoever had the foresight to salvage these tapes, and to have RE, a Grammy-winning recording engineer, preserve them. Posterity thanks you.
! historical: So good to hear this show. As of this writing, the only Garcia/Saunders shows in circulation after the thoroughly-documented (and now completely officially released as Keystone Companions: The Complete 1973 Fantasy Recordings, Fantasy, 2012 [Allan | deaddisc]) July 10-11, 1973 Keystone shows are the fragment of the 9/5/73 Hell's Angels show, the complete Capitol Theatre (Passaic, NJ) show of September 6, 1973, and another Hell's Angels thing at Winterland on October 2, 1973. After that, it's all the way out to January 17-18-19, 1974. Hearing this November show is potentially really important in stitching together a musical analysis of the band's evolution.
! s1t01 (1) @ 7:58 JG: "Mr. P.A. man, turn up the monitors and the P.A. please, would ya? That is, could ya?"
! P: s1t02 The jam portion of Expressway is very, very nice.
! setlist: s1t02-s1t05: I had a real bear of a time deciding how to track the 40-minute continuous piece of music between After Midnight and Someday Baby. It's pretty extraordinary! I used to prefer more markers to fewer, then I eased off of that for some years, and now I am feeling that they have great value. One way or another, we need good metadata on what was actually performed, and the timings of the various pieces. Future musicologists will thank us, or not. And with a jam like this, it's an exercise in false precision and linearity no matter how you slice it. This is how I slice it. I feel reasonably comfortable with s1t02 as Expressway. They leave the song structure, key, tempo, etc. at that point, which is when I drop in the "jam" track (something else that I have gotten away from). The "collective improvisation" covers lots of terrain. It even contains hints of the tune to follow, the Merl Saunders original "Merl's Tune". So, obviously, I split the baby with the tracking of Merl's Tune. What I do is just logically indefensible, not least since there are hints of Merl's tune all through the "jam". Merl's Tune has a pretty distinctive three-note start. Once Merl plays that and it "takes" (i.e., he doesn't wander away from it until Merl's Tune has definitely been played), I start the transition track. Then I track the song proper, well, when I think the song proper starts. Finally, though, they bail out of Merl's Tune before the end of the track I have made for it. So, if I were being consistent, I'd probably track this out, too. I am not being consistent.
! Personnel: the personnel identified is per the tape box as noted by RE.
! setlist: the start of the second reel was blank, and we clearly have an end of show announcement (see note (3), below). So we appear to be missing the start of set II.
! R: s1t01 After Midnight very low amplitude, lots of mix and level fluctuations, first minute and a half or so.
! P: s1t03 neat little jam JG descending at 3:44, GDish ... @ 4:00 Martin jumps in with a descending, decaying run of five notes, and then a more melodic, higher, quicker five-note melody that he copped from somewhere. Garcia starts vamping a little bit, and things really swing for a nice little 90 second thing, check it out around 4:45. Martin doing some very distinctive lines @ 5:10, really smooth (quoted again @ 5:30 ... Garcia playing very structured melody. If this were the GD, this jam would have gone somewhere, I hate to say it. Then Jerry is articulating some long sentences toward the late 7- and early 8-minute range. Again, late in the 8-min mark, with some very distinctive clusters of notes, definitely saying something. Starts bending @ 9:19 .. mmmm ...
! P: s1t03 John Kahn locks in on the three-note opening bass line of "Merl's Tune" for awhile @ 9:30
! P: s1t03 @ 10:15 Martin is playing his After Midnight thing. John joins him and so does Jerry. Merl is doing the MT line at 10:44 but since he abandons it for awhile again I don't start tracking it here. For a few minutes, if you started playing this at any point here and forced me to say what song it is, I think I'd say After Midnight. Jerry is strumming his After Midnight strum. John could be repetitively doing his After Midnight bass line toward the end of this segment, too. I guess these are their Merl's Tune lines? Maybe it's just that Merl's Tune has a melodic structure that sounds (to me) a little like After Midnight.
! P s1t03 Martin some copped CTI-type line @ 10:54, 11 ish. @ 14:00-ish one could almost imagine "Eleanor Rigby" emerging, or maybe that's just an echo from the future.
! P: s1t03 this jam is @@ extraordinary. This may be one of the finest pieces of Garcia-Saunders jamming on tape.
! s1t05 “Merl's Tune” is a neat composition. It has the voodoo bite of lots of Merl Saunders's tunes, but also has a little swing break that puts me in mind of a carnival whirlicue, a spinning thing.
!P:  s1t05 MT Merl switches @ 1:59 to an electric piano or clavichord kind of sound, back to organ @ 2:14. Martin comes in on flute @ 2:13.  @ 2:42 Garcia enters a descending Grateful Dead kind of space ... descending 8-note lines ... absolutely gorgeous. Some beautiful, fragile, melodic stuff. This is a @@ beautiful jam. Then Martin comes in cheek-squealing and spitting and farting, and the moment passes. Martin hits a familiar lick @ 3:38. By about 4:45 they return do a dark space pretty well unmoored from the song. @ 5:15 JG does some mournful whale-wailing that's too brief.
! s1t07 (2) JG: "We're gonna take a break for a little while. We'll be back in a few minutes. Thank you."
! setlist: s2t01 has traditionally been listed as "That's Alright Mama", but it's actually Mystery Train.
! R: s2t01 Mystery Train enters in progress.
! s2t02 (3) JG: "Well, it's closin' time in Berkeley, everybody. Thanks a lot for comin' by and all that."
! s2t02 after the show-closing announcement, Garcia strums After Midnight. Funny. As I heard in the long set I jam, "After Midnight" permeates this show, thematically. And since the announcement probably came sometime near or after 2 a.m., that chord might just be a musical accompaniment to the announcement. "After Midnight", indeed. If I were bootlegging this, that's what I'd call it. How original.
! Thanks to all involved in making and preserving this music.
! URL: http://jgmf.blogspot.com/

LN jg1974-11-13.jgms.late.aud-seaweed.121034.flac1644

LIA just posted some really nice sources ("November 12, 1974: Garcia Plays Boston" and "November 1974: Garcia & Dead Projects") relating to the November 1974 east coast tour by the Jerry Garcia-Merl Saunders (JGMS) aggregation of Garcia, Saunders, John Kahn, Martin Fierro, and Paul Humphrey. In discussing 11/6/74 I noted that this was "Garcia’s first professional tour as a named headliner outside the Grateful Dead". From the perspective of what I do here, this is a critical step in the musical and professional (i.e., financial) balance that Garcia would eventually establish in his life, organized around the twin pillars of GD and GOTS (Garcia On The Side, a horrible acronym for a fine phrase).

Anyway, as the authors emphasize at the links above, and as I discussed a little bit around the April 1975 Legion of Mary east coast tour, these shows mostly sold out through word of mouth. Many of them were totally unadvertised. Garcia's Paul's Mall engagement "was to have been a well-kept secret ... There was no advertising, no promotion, no names on the marquee" (Howard 1974). Howard notes that word "leaked out" about a week before the shows, and LIA speculates that this was probably intentional. Not sure whose intentions were involved, but, indeed, the "leak" was hardly spread, sotto voce, among a small band of co-conspirators. No, the shows were advertised --albeit minimally!-- in the counterculture weekly Boston Phoenix:

The show under examination here, the late show from Wednesday, November 13th, is good. I have a weakness for the Thursday (11/14) late show, but there's nothing wrong with this one. The real setlist rarity is "Just Kissed My Baby", the Meters song done instrumentally by JGMS on four documented occasions, all of them during the month of November 1974 [Allan | deaddisc | TJS].  I always love "Favela" [Allan | deaddisc | TJS], credited by deaddisc to Vincius DeMoraes / Antonio Carlos Jobim / Ray Gilbert, which the band played a lot between August and December 1974. "Wondering Why" [Allan | deaddisc | TJS] is another fave, perhaps the best fit for Merl's voice of all the lead vocals he did with Jerry. It perhaps best evokes the vibe of this night and this era, described for this night by attendee George Krick:

We sat right next to the band, Fierro's head was as big as a basketball, veins exploding as he spit on us and blew his sax. His flute was adorned with multiple feathers. Jerry was sweating profusely and Merle was mumbling and groaning. Very intense.

Anyway, and as always, it's great to see new-to-circulation old material still emerging into daylight, and a pleasure to listen to this well-recorded tape from November 1974.


REFERENCE:

Howard, William. 1974. Garcia Plays Mall – Fans Crack ‘Secret’. Boston Globe, November 14, 1974, p. 41. Reposted to http://deadsources.blogspot.com/2012/12/november-12-1974-garcia-plays-boston.html.

LISTENING NOTES:

Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders
Paul's Mall
733 Boylston Street
Boston, MA 02116
November 13, 1974 (Wednesday) - Late Show
86+ min aud via seaweed, shnid 121034

(8 tracks, 86:31)
t01. The Harder They Come [15:06] [0:10]
t02. [0:34] Favela// [14:49#]
t03. Just Kissed My Baby [9:19] %
t04. Someday Baby [10:47] %
t05. Wondering Why [17:34] ->
t06. People Make The World Go Round [3:25] [0:13] %
t07. /Neighbor, Neighbor [8:25] %
t08. /The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down// [6:09#]

! Band: Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders
! Lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, vocals;
! Lineup: Merl Saunders - keyboards, vocals;
! Lineup: Martin Fierro - saxophone, flute;
! Lineup: John Kahn - el-bass;
! Lineup: Paul Humphrey - drums.

JGMF:
! Recording: symbols: % = recording discontinuity; / = clipped song; // = cut song; ... = fade in/out; # = truncated timing; [ ] = recorded event time. The recorded event time immediately after the song or item name is an attempt at getting the "real" time of the event. So, a timing of [x:xx] right after a song title is an attempt to say how long the song really was, as represented on this recording.
! TJS: http://www.thejerrysite.com/shows/show/1005
! db: shnid 121034 (this source)
! map: http://goo.gl/maps/TsQNS
! venue: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/08/pauls-mall-733-boylston-street-boston-ma.html
! R: Source: Unknown AUD cassette, kindly supplied by Seaweed1010.
! R: Transfer: XLIIS-100 > Nakamichi DR-2 > Edirol FA-66 > Wavelab 2448 > R8Brain > CD-Wave > TLH > FLAC 1644 tagged, Andrew F. July 2012.
! R: Seeder note: As noted on the Jerry Site, this is probably the entire late show of Nov 13th. The tape was labeled 4th-gen, but sounds very listenable nonetheless. Favela and Dixie both cut out on the final notes, not much missing in either case. Thanks again to Seaweed for this tape!
! metadata: seeder notes: About the Paul's Mall dates... Currently we have as follows: Nov 12th Early & Late Shows: nothing; Nov 13th Early Show: Jerrysite and ID-10128 match; Nov 13th Late Show: This tape; Nov 14th Early Show: Jerrysite and ID-16461 match; Nov 14th Late Show: Same songs listed, but out of order on ID-6383.
! R: this is quite a nice audience tape.
! personnel: We know this is Paul Humphrey drumming, and I can confirm that it's the same "fast and busy" drumming that I heard on 11/2/74. I don't mean that as a bad thing. Lots of tight snare drumming, especially.
! P: t02 Favela could be played at different tempos. This is toward the slower end of the tempo range, it seems to me.
! P: t02 Favela is flawed --they lose the thread a little a time or two, especially Mr. Humphrey-- but it's also got some really good moments. At 13 minutes or so in, Martin returns them to the theme and Garcia runs around a few times as if to say that he wanted to go another time around the bases. Oh well. Then they don't quite know how to end things and they go another time around the theme, which is less fertile terrain. Feels like a missed opportunity there.
! P: t03 JG some nice pulling in the 5-minute mark.
! P: t07 NN they lose track of each other in the 7-minute mark.
! R: t08 TNTDODD cuts out, maybe a minute or so, whatever big buildup finish they would do, is missing.
! historical: Garcia's "appearance at the Back Bay bistro was to have been a well-kept secret. ... There was no advertising, no promotion, no names on the marquee. ... The three-night engagement, which ends [11/14/74], was sold out instantly when word leaked out" (Howard 1974). Note that word "leaked out" through an ad in the Boston Phoenix (11/5/74, sec. 2, p. 27).
! eyewitness: George Krick: "These shows are etched in my mind forever. Paul's Mall is a small night club in Boston...dark, low ceiling...probably less than 100 people there. We sat right next to the band, Fierro's head was as big as a basketball, veins exploding as he spit on us and blew his sax. His flute was adorned with multiple feathers. Jerry was sweating profusely and Merle was mumbling and groaning. Very intense."

LN jg1982-10-27.jgb.s1s2p.aud-CC.xxxxxx.flac2448

Jerry Garcia Band
Rissmiller's Country Club
18415 Sherman Way
Reseda, CA 91335
October 27, 1982 (Wednesday)
83 min s1s2p Closet Call aud

--set I (7 tracks, 57:16)--
s1t01. crowd and tuning [0:28]
s1t02. How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) [8:43] %
s1t03. ... They Love Each Other [8:11] [0:08] % [0:32]
s1t04. Valerie [7:34] [0:11] % [0:19]
s1t05. I Second That Emotion [9:57] % [0:09]
s1t06. The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down [7:53] [0:03] %
s1t07. Dear Prudence [12:57] (1) [0:05] %

--set II (4 tracks, 25:41, presumed incomplete)--
s2t01. crowd and tuning [0:21]
s2t02. Sugaree [11:16] [0:16] %
s2t03. Run For The Roses [5:25] [0:04] % [0:07]
s2t04. Let It Rock [8:12] %

! Band: Jerry Garcia Band
! Lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, vocals;
! Lineup: John Kahn - el-bass;
! Lineup: Melvin Seals - organ;
! Lineup: Gregg Errico - drums;
! Lineup: DeeDee Dickerson - vocals;
! Lineup: Jaclyn LaBranch - vocals.

JGMF:
! Recording: symbols: % = recording discontinuity; / = clipped song; // = cut song; ... = fade in/out; # = truncated timing; [ ] = recorded event time. The recorded event time immediately after the song or item name is an attempt at getting the "real" time of the event. So, a timing of [x:xx] right after a song title is an attempt to say how long the song really was, as represented on this recording.
! TJS: http://www.thejerrysite.com/shows/show/2452
! db: none as of 12/9/2012
! map: http://goo.gl/maps/wR2rw
! venue: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/06/rissmillers-country-club-reseda-theatre.html
! metadata: This date has been mysterious, for such a contemporary one in such a large media market. It was not mentioned in the McNally-Arnold JG List. As far as I know as of 12/9/2012, the only hard evidence for this is the picture at TJS of the Rismiller's marquee, reading "The Jerry Garcia Band Oct 27 28". It is surprising that no ticket stubs or participant recollections have emerged. The setlist is similar to what we have from clean provenance for the show on the 28th, but it is not identical. I have compared the two performances and I conclude that this is, indeed, a distinct set of music. I have a theory about what happened: I suspect that this first show was unadvertised (beyond the marquee). Maybe Jerry's people agreed to just a percentage of the door, or something, so they could have a Wednesday-night warmup for the new girls. This is consistent with a broader pattern in the Garcia Band, of breaking in new players midweek and off-the-beaten path. They want to have them broken in before they put 'em before the Keystone regulars.
! historical: the key historical interest of this tape lies in the presence of the black backing vocalists DeeDee Dickerson and Jaclyn LaBranch, for their second show (after 10/24/82). Dickerson would serve two stints  in the JGB, from October 27, 1982 (this show) through June 5, 1983, and again from September 15, 1984 through September 28, 1985. Jaclyn LaBranch would stay with JGB through the very last show, April 23, 1995. Garcia had always liked "chick" or "girl" singers, as he put it, but had always been backed by white women. The arrival of singers from the black R&B/soul/gospel traditions nicely complemented Melvin Seals's contribution from the keys. It would only take a change of drummer (Errico would give way to David Kemper on 7/20/83) and substituting one singer (Gloria Jones for DeeDee Dickerson on 7/20/83) to complete what should properly be considered THE Jerry Garcia Band: Garcia, Kahn, Seals, Kemper, LaBranch and Jones. It's a band probably representing a higher share of "black music" than "white music". I like to focus on these kinds of shows --at the interstices of band/membership configurations-- because the speciation process is, in theory, particuarly discernible in these spaces. I do think there's a bit of that here - sounds like the arrangement of RFTR is not quite right, and doesn't have the same vocal embellishments from the ladies that it would acquire with time. But, overall, there's not that much of note here, certainly no introduction or anything like that.
! R: 4th gen audience cassette (Maxell XLII90, no Dolby) > Nakamichi BX-300 playback (no Dolby) > Pyle Pro cables > WaveTerminal 2496 > Samplitude 10.1 Download Version (record @ 24 bits/48kHz) > CDWave 1.9.8 (tracking) > Adobe Audition 3.0 (cross-fades, etc.) > Traders Little Helper 2.4.1 (FLAC encoding, level 8) (flac2448).
! R: This is fundamentally a nice tape, notwithstanding several cassette gens.
! R: s1t02 HSII badly oversaturated, brickwalled to start. Levels come down about 30 seconds in.
! P: s1t02 HSII Jerry's voice sounds a little wrecked.
! R: s1t03 TLEO fades in, a few beats missing
! P: s1t04 Valerie JG flubs the first verse vocals. Nice vocal inflection on "growled at you". Pretty nice guitar solo 4-minutes in. Doesn't completely ignite at first, but then 4:30ff, late 4-min mark, some fuzz and distortion. Good, not great.
! P: s1t05 ISTE is peppy.
! P: s1t07 DP 9-min mark Jerry's playing is very fluid. He's making perfectly symmetrical circles, which, as anyone who has ever tried to hand-draw one can attest, is not easy to do. Very airy and nice. No rush, but not ponderous. Exploratory.
! R: s1t06 TNTDODD levels way way down
! R: s1t06 splices after song, then returns to the start of "Run For the Roses". I can't tell whether this RFTR fragment is actually from in front ot the RFTR in this fileset (s2t03), and it's just a scrap of tape, but I saved it anyway. Who knows that it is.
! s1t07 (1) "We're gonna take a break. We'll be back in a little while." Good sized crowd.
! P: s2t02 Sugaree Jerry's vocals are very expressive. He sounds engaged. Melvin some nice swirls behind the action during the first verse. JG some nice fanning 8-min mark. Again, late 9-min mark, Jerry is giving the vocals his all. Not bad.
! P: s2t03 RFTR starts off a little tentative. I note that the backing vocalists aren't as present with the oohhh-ooohs and "run for the roses!" exclamations, behind the verses, as they would later become. Nothing that this is the first show with the ladies, I would suggest that they don't quite have the arrangement where Jerry wants it. The tentative instrumental and vocal start to the song almost seems to reflect this, as if Jerry needs some fill under his feet to really dig in, as the song requires. It'll be interesting to hear when this particular lineup puts the fuller vocal arrangement in. Of course, the musical execution falls apart once in the 3-min mark, as well. Melvin isn't very audible during the verses either. In some, there are some holes in the sound, especially under and around the verses, that need to be filled. Garcia can't carry it vocally, though he doesn't sound bad yet.
! Disclaimer: This is part of a "Closet Call" project aimed at making missing Garcia dates available for study. These are "warts and all" ... straight transfers of the source cassettes with editing only of the most offensive tape transitions and such. If you don't like hiss, possible speed problems, etc., etc., then move along. And, to anticipate a FAQ: no, I don't plan on doing 16/44s of these. Thanks to wk for supplying these tapes!

! URL: http://jgmf.blogspot.com