"the world’s most recorded musician in the world’s most famous arena"

Jerrybase: https://jerrybase.com/events/19911115-01

The Red Light folks tagged GarciaLive 16 (MSG 11/15/91) with the subject line, and I have to say that it's badass. That crew does a good job, IMO. I am not kissing up. It's a hard job and they have released some amazing stuff. And that's just a good line. Tip o' the cap.

I wanted to post my review of this release from Grateful Dead Studies.

It contains some pretty good distillations about which you will read again in Fate Music.

The performance by the ... JGB at Madison Square Garden on November 15, 1991, represents the acme of Garcia’s solo career, the culmination of a nearly quarter-century name-claiming journey by which he established his identity as an individual American musician, Jerry-Garcia-full-stop, beyond and distinct from his wider fame as Jerry-Garcia-of-the-Grateful-Dead.

...

Jerry Garcia never planned a solo career; it just sort of happened as he sought more and different avenues for expression than the Dead allowed. Inchoate jams at the Carousel Ballroom became tempo études (“Mickey and the Hartbeats”) at the Matrix, which became regular but musically formless Monday night jams with Howard Wales, which morphed into ongoing and more musically grounded gigs with Merl Saunders. Even after four years, the amorphous aggregation resisted naming itself, going by “The Group” in the Bay Area, or just listing members’ names, before coalescing into “Legion of Mary” for its last eight months. The meantime saw numerous aggregations under other (and others’) names, playing diverse musics, cutting some records, running some drive-by tours, and banking an increasingly sizeable pile of accomplishments, including the country New Riders of the Purple Sage, the space-jazz Hooteroll? proj- ect with Wales, and the incandescent bluegrass all-stars Old and In The Way. Otherwise off-nights found Garcia making a singular solo record, engaging protean Dawg Music (David Grisman’s Great American Music/ String Band), renewing bluegrass ties with the Good Old Boys, vibrating electrons with Ned Lagin, and making time for a vast array of sessions, sit-ins, dalliances, and one- and few-offs.

But the Jerry Garcia Band (1975–1995) bore his name, and it played the music its eponym liked, the way he wanted to play it. Over the years the JGB, always featuring Garcia’s friend bassist John Kahn but with an evolving array of other musicians, grooved to soul, R&B, Motown, contemporary gospel, reggae, and other Black idioms that fit the band’s changing personnel, especially after the arrival of church organist Melvin Seals in 1981 and his handpicked backing vocalists starting the next year. A second tranche of cover tunes drew from the contemporary White Anglosphere, both the British Isles and North American settler colonies, heavy on the Americana. Garcia-Hunter originals, some shared with the Dead and others exclusive to the JGB, rounded out the repertoire. The six players integrate seamlessly. This is the canonical Jerry Garcia Band, a lineup that lasted 1984–1993, the core three plus steady David Kemper on drums and harmony vocals by Jackie LaBranch and Gloria Jones, Oakland church singers with day jobs who took to calling themselves the Jerryettes.

Read the whole thing as they say. I dig this show, and I dig imagining how this son of an immigrant musician might have felt seeing that family name in lights at the Garden.

Musician Children of Musician Fathers

I am identifying lots of musician children of musician fathers in the Garciaverse.

So, consider this a request: if you know someone with Spudfactor 1, who is male-identifying, and whose father was a musician, please post to comments. I will start the list here, alpha by last name but presented first-last.

• Martin Fierro
• Jerry Garcia [José or Joe Garcia]
• Zakir Hussain [Alla Rakha]
• Tony Saunders [Merl Saunders]
• Bill Vitt

I have also bracketed father's name in cases where they are otherwise in or orbiting the Garciaverse.

Have at it!

Alice Kahn Fall 1984 interview annotations

These are for my purposes, no pretense to completeness.

I find his comments about Joe Garcia to be quite revealing. There are a few other good nuggets in here. Man, even in the depths of his Rock Bottom period, he sounds engaged and articulate. What a mind!

~~~~~~~~~~~

Which Side Are You On?

I got a few hours at the San Francisco State University Labor Archives and Research Center to see if the haystack would yield any needles about ol' Joe Garcia, recalling that Jerry had said his pops had had some hassle with the musicians' union.

What we think we know

Blair narrates that in April 1937 Ruth became pregnant, and "around this time an incident occurred that forced Joe Garcia to quit playing music professionally".[i]

Jerry's aunt Leonor recalled:

He'd been out of work for a little while, and then he was offered a good job: There was a big, new nightclub being opened in San Francisco out at the beach [perhaps the Nut Club], and they asked him if he and his orchestra would like to play, and of course that was a big break, so he said sure. They told him they wanted to put him on the radio to show people what a great orchestra he had, but they told him, 'We won't pay you the first time you play; we just want to see how it turns out.' Joe was very ignorant about this kind of stuff and they did play for the radio for free and then when the club opened they played there for free the first time, too. When the musicians' union found out he'd played for free they suspended him for six months and fined him something like $1,500, which was a lot of money in those days. Joe was shocked. He didn't know he had done anything wrong. So he said, 'To hell with this,' and he quit playing.[ii]

What I found

At the meeting of the Board of Directors of the American Federation of Musicians Local 6 in San Francisco of October 17, 1933, Joe Garcia appeared "for questioning re activities before making application to join organization." The Board would "accept Garcia as member if information is without foundation" and concurred "in action of officers in permitting him to accept engagement at Dugout pending" his appearance.[iii]

A week later, the Board took up Joe's membership application. Garcia "admits answering questions on application falsely … explains his activities since in this jurisdiction and that he worked at Bagdad Ballroom while on National Unfair List … Admits membership in Los Angeles Local." The Board's "Secretary reads letter from Los Angeles Local [no. 47] advising that Garcia was dropped from their rolls for non-payment of dues, etc. Board rules Garcia must straighten his accounts with Los Angeles Local, and instructs Secretary to return down payment on admission fee, advise Los Angeles Local of his activities and that Garcia must be taken from job at Dug-Out."[iv]

At a special meeting two days later, the Board discussed Garcia's membership. It first read a telegram from local no. 47 (L.A.) indicating a $50 fee plus dues owed from his Bagdad Ballroom gigs. So the Board agreed to "accept Garcia as a new member on payment of $23 due Los Angeles Local, $50 Federation fine and $50 added $50 initiation fee, a total of $123 cash", and dropped its objection to him gigging at the Dugout.[v] As of the November 7, 1933 meeting he was recognized as a member.[vi]

The next reference I found to Joe Garcia was when he was dropped from the rolls around September 30, 1943.

Interpretation

I am not quite sure how to square these various things. I am about 99.9% sure the Joe Garcia being discussed in 1933 is Jerry's dad - he is identified as a saxophonist and clarinetist, and Blair informs us that he spent some time in LA.  Beyond that, the evidence diverges from the existing account. The troubles started in 1933, not 1937. There's no evidence around the radio, a six month suspension, or a $1,500 fine, which is an order of magnitude higher than the $123 the papers say he was made to pay. What's more, while Leonor suggests that he up and quit, the evidence suggests that he kept his union membership for a decade after the initial hassle.

Memory is a fickle thing, and we call it family lore rather than family fact for a reason. Maybe I have the wrong Joe Garcia, especially leaving the union in 1943 - he could well have decided to bag the whole thing back in FDR's first term and gotten the bar going. There is almost certainly more to find in the union archives, for those who might be inclined to look. And, since my imaginary intrepid fellow researcher is already digging back into the haystack, perhaps they might look for evidence around Tillie Olsen, Jerry's grandmother who was active in the laundry workers' union and the CIO, or the sailor's union next to the Garcia family bar at 1st and Harrison. Always more to do!

---

[i] Jackson 1999, 6.

[ii] Jackson 1999, 6.

[iii] Musical News v. 16 n. 11 (November 1933), p. 12.

[iv] Musical News v. 16 n. 12 (December 1933), p. 5.

[v] Musical News v. 16 n. 12 (December 1933), p. 7.

[vi] Musical News v. 16 n. 12 (December 1933), p. 10.

Joe and Ruth Garcia: Directory Samples

1935: no trace of Joe and Ruth Garcia

1940: Jos R (Ruth), restaurant at 399 1st street and home at 121 Amazon

1942: Jos (Ruth) liquors, same addresses

1951: Ruth (wid Jos), bartender, home at 56 Harrington

These are neat documents, sitting on shelves next to the world class microfilm scanners on the 5th floor of the S.F. Public Library. This is all I had time to get at my last visit. Maybe I'll try to get more next time. Love how they show the professions, noteworthy how the women are parenthesized afterthoughts to the men (or defined as the man's widow), etc.

Reading Notes: Henke 1991

LIA posted a quote from this, I stumbled across it amidst my materials, and I decided now was as good a time as any to annotate it.

Henke, James. 1991. The Rolling Stone Interview: Jerry Garcia. Rolling Stone, October 31, 34-40, 103, 106, 108.

Two September 1991 afternoons, hotel room overlooking Central Park.

July 1991 was release of JG DG, August 1991 was release of double live JGB. Meantime, JG was trying to kick H again.

“solo jaunts are often more entertaining than his work with the Dead, and one gets the feeling that if he felt he could easily extricate himself from the Dead and his attendant responsibilities, he might just do it. Still, when pressed, Garcia claimed the Dead take precedence. … We’ve all put so much of our lives into it by now that it’s too late to do anything drastic” (Henke 1991, 37).

Two separate interview sessions September 1991 NYC. In a family way with Manasha and Keelin.

“recent” meeting in which Garcia told the other band members that he wasn’t having fun anymore, that he wasn’t enjoying playing with the Dead. Garcia confirms this.

“The band is the board of directors, and we have regular meetings with our lawyers and our accountants. And we’ve got it done to where it only takes about three or four hours, about every three weeks. But anyway, the last couple of times, I’ve been there screaming ‘Hey, you guys!’ Because there are times when you go onstage and it’s just plain hard to do, and you start to wonder, ‘Well, why the fuck are we doing this if it’s so hard?’”

“We’ve been running on inertia for quite a long time. I mean, insofar as we have a huge overhead, and we have a lot of people that we’re responsible for, who work for us and so forth, we’re reluctant to do anything [38] to disturb that. We don’t want to take people’s livelihoods away. But it’s us out there, you know. And in order to keep doing it, it has to be fun” (Henke 1991, 37-38).

“we’re … going to have to construct new enthusiasm for ourselves, because we’re getting a little burned out. We’re a little crisp around the edges” (Henke 1991, 38).

They are trying to work up to taking a long break, a la 1974, “aiming for six months off the road” (Henke 1991, 38).

p. 38 Gar talks about how he dislikes trying to write songs. “It’s like pulling teeth.”

They saw Brent’s death coming. “About six or eight months earlier, he OD’d and had to go to the hospital, and they just saved his ass. … I think there was a situation coming up where he was going to have to go to jail. He was going to have to spend like three weeks in jail, for driving under the influence or one of those things, and it’s like he was willing to die just to avoid that. Brent was not a real happy person. And he wasn’t like a total drug person. He was the kind of guy that went out [39] occasionally and binged. And that’s probably what killed him” (Henke 1991, 38-39).

Getting older, people dying. Rick Griffin just died. “[F]or me at this point, I’m just happy if someone dies with a minimum of pain and horror” (Henke 1991, 39).

“I’m not a religious person” (Henke 1991, 39).

“The Grateful Dead is not where you’re going to find comfort. In fact, if anything, you’ll catch a lot of shit. And if you don’t get it from the band, you’ll get it from the roadies. They’re merciless. They’ll just gnaw you like a dog. They’ll tear your flesh off. They can be extremely painful” (Henke 1991, 39). Note that one word from Garcia could have put a stop to that, but he didn’t roll that way.

“Brent had a deeply self-destructive [40] streak.” (Henke 1991, 39-40). Talks about Brent lacking in culture.

“My life would be miserable if I didn’t have those little chunks of Dylan Thomas and T.S. Eliot” (Henke 1991, 40).

#drugs “I’ve been round and round with the drug thing. People are always wanting me to take a stand on drugs, and I can’t. To me, it’s so relativistic, and it’s also very personal. A person’s relationship to drugs is like their relationship to sex. … For me, in my life, all kinds of drugs have been useful to me, and they have also definitely been a hindrance to me. So, as far as I’m concerned, the results are not in. Psychedelics showed me a whole other universe, hundreds and millions of universes. So that was an incredibly positive experience” (Henke 1991, 40).

Still dabble with mushrooms: “It’s one of those things where every once in a while you want to blow out the pipes. For me, I just like to know they’re available, just because I don’t think there’s anything else in life apart from a near-death experience that shows you how extensive the mind is” (Henke 1991, 40).

“as far as the drugs that are dead-enders, like cocaine and heroin and so forth, if you could figure out how to do them without being strung out on them, or without having them completely dominate your personality … I mean, if drugs are making your decisions for you, they’re no fucking good. I can say that unequivocally. If you’re far enough into whatever your drug of choice is, then you are a slave to the drug, and the drug isn’t doing you any good” (Henke 1991, 40).

“I’m an addictive-personality kind of person. … with drugs, the danger is that they run you. Your soul isn’t your own. That’s the drug problem on a personal level” (Henke 1991, 40).

Says he was doing H on and off for 8 years.

Hard to quit H, but real problem now is smokes, that last thing left. “My friends won’t let me take drugs anymore, and I don’t want to scare people anymore. Plus, I definitely have no interest in being an addict” (Henke 1991, 40).

“I still have that desire to change my consciousness, and in the last four years I’ve gotten real seriously into scuba diving.” Also gives him some physical exertion (Henke 1991, 40).

With Keelin “I have a little more time to actually be a father. My other daughters have all been very good to me, insofar as they've never blamed me for my absentee parenting. And it was tough for them, really, because during the sixties and seventies, I was gone all the time. But they've all grown up to be pretty decent people, and they still like me. We still talk. But I never did get to spend a lot of time with them." (Henke 1991, 40).

Garcia got together with Heather (daughter of Jerry and Sara Katz) for first time 18 or 19 years ... (Henke 1991, 103).

At this point, JG and MG are in the process of getting divorced. “She’s real glad to get rid of me. We had a great time, a nice life together, but we went past it. … We haven’t really lived together since the 70s” (Henke 1991, 103).

Joe died when Gar was 5. Joe played clarinet and other woodwinds, in a big ol 40 piece jazz orchestra. “My father’s sister says he was in a movie, some early talkie.” (Henke 1991, 103).

“I remember him playing me to sleep at night. I just barely remember the sound of it” (Henke 1991, 103).

Jerry watched Joe go under and drown. “It was horrible. I was just a little kid, and I didn’t really understand what was going on, but then, of course, my life changed. “ (Henke 1991, 103).

Ruth was an RN, but after Joe died she took over his bar. “He had this little bar right next door to the Sailor’s Union of the Pacific, the merchant marine’s union, right at First and Harrison, in San Francisco. It was a daytime bar, a working guy’s bar, so I grew up with all these guys who were sailors. They went out and sailed to the Far East and the Persian Gulf, the Philippines and all that, and they would come and hang out in the bar all day long and talk to me when I was a kid. It was great fun for me. I mean, that’s my background. I grew up in a bar. And that was back in the days when the Orient was still the Orient, and it hadn’t been completely Americanized yet. They’d bring back all these weird things. Like one guy had the world’s largest collection of [106] photographs of square riggers” (Henke 1991, 103, 106).

His third grade teacher Miss Simon hipped him to the possibility of being a creative type. “’You mean you can spend all day painting pictures? Wow! What a great piece of news’.” (Henke 1991, 106).

Dwight Johnson was another teacher, “he’s the guy that turned me into a freak” (Henke 1991, 106). He was a motor cycle guy, 7th grade teacher.

Talks about liking Dylan songs: “they speak to me emotionally on some level. Sometimes, I don’t even know why. Like that song, Senor. There’s something creepy about that song, but it’s very satisfying in a weird sort of way” (Henke 1991, 106). “This is talking about a kind of desperation that everybody experiences” (Henke 1991, 108). Songs-S

More fun outside the Dead. “that’s always dangling in front of me, the thing of, well, shit, if I was on my own, God, I could … “ (Henke 1991, 108).

“Bruce, Branford, Rob Wasserman and I have talked about putting something together. I had this notion of putting together a band that had no material, that just got onstage and blew. And maybe one of these days we’ll make that happen” (Henke 1991, 108).

Garcia listens to Django, Art Tatum, Charlie Parker, Coltrane. “Michael Hedges is great. And my personal favorite lately is this guy Frank Gambale, who’s been playing with Chick Corea for the past couple of years” (Henke 1991, 108).

“Living Colour is a great band … Jane’s Addiction is another band I like” (Henke 1991, 108).

“I feel like I’m a hundred million years old” (Henke 1991, 108).

Why kids keep coming to see the Dead: “There must be a dearth of fun out there in America. Or adventure. Maybe that’s it, maybe we’re just one of the last adventures in America” (Henke 1991, 108).

LN jg1985-06-01.jgb.all.aud-corley.20921.shn2flac

There are some points I'd like to flesh out, about The Mission, Jerry's San Francisco DNA, and the rest of it. But there's just not time to do everything.

Another show with the Modulus Graphite guitar. I hear no difference.

Sets are still short in historical perspective. For the book I'll be able to make some graphs and stuff for that. As I have suggested, the night before, in L.A., was pretty much a disaster, but this night feels pretty good. I am sure I am hearing too much, but to me Garcia sounds glad to be home and playing. The voice is shredded, but the performance is quite good all around. Check out "Mission In The Rain" for that SF feel. Great stuff. As I note, in some interview (anyone remember which one? LIA?), Garcia projected a vision of himself as a "Mission Street R&B guy". This is a richly evocative characterization, truly the little corner of Americana carved out by the Garcia Band.

Note my spelling of "Reuben And Cérise". This is Hunter's title in Box of Rain (Hunter 1993, 181-183), followed by Dodd (2005, 360-362) and Allan. On Cats Garcia spelled our lady's name "Cherise" (as jerrygarcia.com continues to do). Deaddisc is inconsistent, labeling it "Rubin And Cherise" on the album page, but "Reuben And Cerise" (no accent aigu) on the song page; I believe the alternative spelling of our charming mandolinist is strictly incorrect, and hers only pedantically so. FWIW, anyway, all that. UPDATE 2021: I think I will just go with "Reuben And Cherise" like a normal person.

Jerry Garcia Band
The Stone
492 Broadway
San Francisco, CA 94133
June 1, 1985 (Saturday)
Corley shnid-20921 shn2flac

--set I (5 tracks, 41:20)--
s1t01. //Cats Under The Stars [#7:29] [0:04] % [0:04]
s1t02. Knockin' On Heaven's Door [10:54] [0:09]
s1t03. Tore Up Over You [9:24] [0:06] % [0:03]
s1t04. [0:05] Run For The Roses [5:07] ->
s1t05. /Deal [7:43] [0:10] %

--set II (5 tracks, 46:36)--
s2t01. [1:00] Mission In The Rain [11:08] [0:35]
s2t02. Love In The Afternoon [7:49] [0:25]
s2t03. Gomorrah [5:48] [0:07]
s2t04. Reuben And Cherise [7:10] [0:05] % [0:21]
s2t05. Tangled Up In Blue [11:38] [0:28]

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia Band #21b
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - guitar, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn - bass;
! lineup: Melvin Seals - keyboards;
! lineup: David Kemper - drums;
! lineup: Jacklyn Branch - vocals;
! lineup: Gloria Jones - 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.

! Jerrybase: https://jerrybase.com/events/19850601-01

! JGC: https://jerrygarcia.com/show/1985-06-01-the-stone-san-francisco-ca/

! db: http://etreedb.org/shn/20921 (this fileset).

! map: http://goo.gl/maps/L0BBt

! venue: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/07/stone-mothers-412-broadway-san.html

! band: JGB #21b, THE Jerry Garcia Band (http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html).

! R: field recordist: John Corley

! R: field recording equipment: 2x Nakamichi 700 > Sony TC-D5M

! R: transfer: MAC > DATx > CDx (Jim Powell); CD > EAC0.9b4 (offset corrected, secure mode, QPS QUE 2410) > minor level adjustments at the beginning of each set (SF6) > tracking (cdwav) > sector boundaries confirmed (shntool) > SHN (shorten 3.4) via C.Ladner, misSHN in the rain, 12/03. shn2flac JGMF.

! historical: More explorations in the darkest period of Garcia's life. That's highly contestable, of course. One might think the last 18 months were worse, and they probably are, objectively. But I think he had lost hope by that time, and he didn't feel it as acutely. This period a decade earlier, by contrast, juxtaposes how down in the deep he was with where he still had a chance to be, at 43 years old, and how much he had left to do. One other thing about this show: *very* exceptionally, Garcia is not playing his Doug Irwin guitar (which one? I had written Rosebud, but maybe Tiger? I don't know the guitars) he's playing one made by Modulus Graphite (see Golden Road, Summer 1985, p. 9).

! R: s1t01 CUTS cuts in

! P: s1t01 @ 4:40 love Jerry's guitar tone and work here. Sounds great.

! P: s1t02 KOHD Garcia bending some huge notes late 6. This is great. Long vocal extension of "door" over 9 minute mark. Garcia is feeling this song.

! P: s1t03 TUOY JG is taking a great solo, it's not very loud on the tape, but it's a great solo, and the crowd is showing him some love, in the 2- minute mark. Nice guitar work continuing over 3. Very good guitar playing.

! R: s1t05 Deal clipped, certainly a tape flip there. So that was side A.

! P: s1t05 Deal solo from 3:29 blisters, mid-83 level grunge, but with some of his longer sustain from later. Still nice soloing, nice extension 4:19, with mid-length phrases, still raging 4:30-4:40, a little extra turn, long scale, over 5 cutting them in halves or quarters, more wail 5:09. They get nice some space over 6. I would have liked to see a few more minutes of wailing here. They are pretty clean back to "don't you let that Deal go down", Jerry good energy to end even if his voice sounds shot.

! P: s2t01 MITR Jerry is giving it his all by tackling this song. He knows he sounds rough, but it's "Mission In The Rain" - he's "ready to give anything for anything" he takes. Gallops into the song's upbeat part, the ladies backing him up strongly 2:30. This tape really captures the feeling of this hometown show. Beautifully. "Ten years ago, I walked these streets, my dreams were riding tall. Tonight, I would be thankful, Lord, for any dream at all ... come again ... walkin' along in the The Mission, in the rain, come again ..." Do you know San Francisco? Jerry does. If you know someplace truly amazing, but you're not from there, and that drives you crazy - you wish you were from there, maybe only secretly you wish it, but you aren't, and the ones who are are, and they know it, and they know that you know it, and there's no denying it. It doesn't have to be actively, obnoxiously spotlighted. I am a little jealous of Jerry for having San Francisco in his bones, the salt, the portal grit, the depth of it. It seems that Mission In The Rain (#song-M), words by Robert Hunter and music by Jerry, is directly biographical, Hunter writing about Garcia's attachment to the city, their shared attachment, but Garcia's native DNA lock on it. I bet his body chemistry was off when he wasn't soaked in fog. xxx The Mission xxx. The way he sustains his N at 3:20 ish, on come agaiN, he is accenting very nicely. Now it's the same spirit with his guitar 3:40ff, not in a rush. In some interview xxx, when asked about his musical image of himself, it was as a "Mission Street R & B guy". What an amazing local pointil that is. Jose (Joe), Jerry's father, was a jazzman in the 1930s, before running into union troubles, switching over to running a bar, and then drowning before young Jerry's eyes on August 25, 1947. The song loses the thread a few times, loses a little steam, but there is something delightfully intimate about this performance, Jerry and his local fans in his local haunt in his city.

! P: s2t03 Gomorrah vocals sound fatigued.

! P: s2t04 RC Garcia's voice is shredded, but this has tons of energy. Melvin has some nice horny synth working.

! P: s2t05 TUIB no words leaving stage. Crowd seems enthused, happy.