Pennies From Heaven: Listening to the Tape Known as JGMS 7/21/74

**updated**

Here are the reference posts for this set of listening notes:

1. JGMF, “JGMS: "July 21-22," 1974, Keystone, Berkeley, CA”, 7/25/2010, updated 12/16/2011.
2. JGMF, “Jerry with Merl and/or Martin, ca. 1974, The Sand Dunes”, 5/16/2010.

In brief, I am walking back from my speculation that this material is from the Sand Dunes. It’s not. It sounds like the Keystone. This only raises more questions about the date. But I am going to listen to 7/22/74, and on its face it looks like these two tapes may be close companions. I will leave some notes when I can.

LN jg1974-07-21.jgms.93mins.sbd-Betty.117653.flac1644

Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders
Keystone

2119 University Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94704

"July 21, 1974 (Sunday)"

Disc One (3 tracks, 47:22)
--end set I--
d1t01. The Harder They Come [18:09] (1) [0:14] %
--set II--
d1t02. //When I Die [12:33#] (2) [0:28]
d1t03. Pennies From Heaven// [15:41#] % dead air [0:14]

Disc Two (4 tracks, 46:02)
--set II (con't)--
d2t01. //After Midnight [#10:33] (3) [1:59]
d2t02. When I Die [17:10] [1:29]
d2t03. You Can Leave Your Hat On// [11:28#] % dead air [0:04]
d2t04. //How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) [#2:56] (4) [0:17] % dead air [0:04]

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, vocals;
! lineup: Merl Saunders - keyboards, vocals;
! lineup: Martin Fierro - saxophone;
! lineup: Tony Saunders - el-bass;
! lineup: Gaylord Birch - 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/1074

! db: none.

! FYI: http://dead.net/show/july-21-1974

! R: given lineage: "MSR > PCM > DAT > ZA2 > CDR (xx) > EAC > flac1644". At Lossless Legs, user JerryRocks has identified the digital history of this recording, passing from Dougal Donaldson (PCM) to Ryan Shriver (DAT) to Andy Lemieux (DAT) to jjoops (CD) and thereafter out and about.

! This recording may not be what it purports to be. The Grateful Dead were at Hollywood Bowl on 7/21/74, though Garcia could have flown up for a late Bay Area set with Merl after that show ended ca. 9 pm. All available sources also point to Earthquake and Moby Grape playing the Keystone Berkely this night (Berkeley Barb, July 12-18, 1974, p. 28; Hayward Daily Review, July 19, 1974, p. 36). Tony Saunders is playing bass here, which works well with the 7/21 dating since John Kahn was down in Hollywood, having opened for the GD as part of Maria Muldaur's band, and he may not have wanted to fly north right away. The room sounds too big to be a tiny place like the Sand Dunes, which I had earlier conjectured. I also think it goes along well with the material dated 7/22/74 (also featuring Tony S. on bass). My working argument is that we might as well call it 7/21/74, Keystone Berkeley. update: nope.

! We cannot know how much of a show, or how many pieces of shows, this represents. I have conjectured before that this represents bits and pieces of tape. It's so cut up, we really can't tell what might go with what except for the ca. 40-minute piece of continuous tape from After Midnight to Leave Your Hat On. HTC is definitely the end of a first set, and HSII is definitely the end of a show, but beyond that we don't have much to go on.

! Personnel: Tony Saunders is on bass, which only really happened when Kahn was unavailable or when the gig was more of a Merl gig than a Jerry-and-Merl gig. As noted just above, this lends some credence to a 7/21/74 dating. I do not know who is drumming. The guy is really good. Possibilities include Bill Kreutzmann, Paul Humphrey or Gaylord Birch, all of whom Tony Saunders remembers playing with in the Saunders-Garcia band. E.W. Wainwright apparently played with Aunt Monk at the Generosity (timeframe uncertain) and also sat in at least once with Garcia-Saunders (3/14/74, Keystone Berkeley). Larry Vann and Bob Stellar both also drummed with Aunt Monk and could be possible here. update: it's Gaylord.

! R: this is a really sweet sounding recording. First fucking rate. It's maybe a little bright, as if maybe the PCM gen put some pre-emphasis in that never got decoded out. But Betty Cantor-Jackson is a true genius. This recording came from "Batch One" of the Betty tapes, which explains the PCM gen.

 P: d1t01 HTC the drummer is really hot. Now, of course, Betty knows how to mic him perfectly. The snap is fantastic. But that's also because the dude is *hitting. Merl also sounds really nice. Jerry gets a nice metallic sound for his solo in the 12-minute mark, extremely electric.

! d1t01 HTC In the 8-min mark is that alto sax? Martin is keeping it nice and tight here.

! venue: crowd sounds too big to be the Sand Dunes. Maybe 7/21 and 7/22 go together, and are actually from the Keystone.

! (1) JG: "We're gonna take a break for a little while. We'll be back a little bit later."

! P: d1t02 WID when they drop into the jam around 2:30, it's really nice, with Tony Saunders supplying the big bottom end and Merl cooking around and through him. Tony does some nice ascending runs at the start of the 3-min mark. Martin misses the return to the '1' about 11 minutes in, but treats discretion as the better part of valor, stops, andjoins the rest of the band.

! R: d1t02 When I Die cuts in, not much missing;

! d1t02 (2) Tony Saunders can be heard talking to Jerry from 12:41 to the end of the track.

! setlist: d1t03 Pennies From Heaven is the Arthur Johnston/Johnny Burke composition (1936). Thanks to Tony Saunders for identifying it.

! R: d1t03 Pennies From Heaven cuts out;

! R: d2t01 After Midnight cuts in, substantially underway in the middle of a loud Martin solo.

! P: d2t01 AM Tony picks some really big notes about 5-minutes in. Merl is doing his tasteful Jimmy Smith thing as we approach the 6-minute mark, his son thumping along underneath. @ 6:12 the drummer makes himself heard with some nice cymbal work. It's grooving now.

! d2t01 (3) @ 11:52 someone asks "Jerry, you want a hit, man?" Folks on and near stage laugh, Garcia asks back "'Do, I want a hit, man?' I just had one." And it's true that just previous to this, Jerry can be heard asking Tony or someone for a match.

! P: d2t02 WID is much faster than the version that appears earlier in this fileset. The drummer is a monster at the start of this version (though, again, there's always the fact of Betty's amazing tapes to factor in).

! P: d2t03 YCLYHO Merl is a little confused about the vocals at the start.

! R: d2t03 YCLYHO Vocals are very low in the mix, come in better after about a minute and a half.

! P: d2t03 YCLYHO Martin does some ear-splitting stuff @ 5:55.

! R: d2t03 YCLYHO cuts out, unknown amount missing.

! R: d2t04 How Sweet It Is cuts in, almost entirely missing

! d2t04 (4) JG: "See y'all later."

The Tutt Rule: JGMS at the Keystone, June 22, 1975

LN jg1975-06-22.jgms.all.aud-menke-falanga-motb-0048.87236.flac1644

Update: 4/20/2020: I now refer to this as JGMS, because Ron Tutt is not drumming, and Greg Errico is. Less importantly, but not unimportantly, while all of the external materials refer to the group as Legion of Mary, Rex Jackson labeled his tape boxes Jerry & Merl.

Sometimes I have a modest tendency to read too much into too little. Ya think? So you’ll discount appropriately if I say that the above calendar is a gift from the data gods, not to mention whoever had it printed on that attractive blue paper. Working from the edges in toward the center, at least a local center, of my chosen topic of Garcia On The Side, we can begin with some of the obscure Bay Area bands, vintage summer 1975. I’ll let you determine for themselves which those are. Then we can look at some of the not-too-obscure ones … hello, Freddie King! Yes, I do feel the blues, thank you for asking.

Kingfish, with Garcia’s once and future bandmates Bob Weir and Dave Torbert, play a Thursday-Friday (19-20), while Keith and Donna Band played the previous weekend, Friday, June 13 and Saturday, June 14, 1975. We know Jerry was out of town on that Saturday (Legion of Mary, 6/14/75, Fox Theatre, Venice, CA), but we are given to wonder whether he tried his luck Friday with Keith, Donna, Billy K. and the gang.

Anyway, the most striking feature about this calendar as it relates directly to my engagement with GOTS is the duplicity of billings for Garcia’s June 1975 gigs with Merl. On Tuesday-Wednesday June 3-4, 1975, and again on Wednesday June 11, they are billed as “Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders”, or “Garcia and Saunders”. I will refer to this, as usual, as JGMS. On Saturday-Sunday, June 21-22, 1975, they are billed as Legion of Mary, LOM. June 1975 in general (beyond the Keystone) features a more or less even split between the two billings. (update: actually, June was 10-3 in favor of JGMS, by my count as of 4/20/2020.) Since we know of many, many LOM-billed gigs between the name’s ca. March 1, 1975 “official” debut and June, the old idea that there was a linear progression from JGMS to LOM, with a clean, speciating break between them, is untenable.

So, what’s going on? First is the “Tutt Rule”, which comes to us via recollections by Bob Menke and others: “If Ron Tutt was there, it was Legion of Mary.” Tutt was necessary and sufficient to the LOM designation (insofar as Jerry-Merl bands go). For example, a note in the MOTB 0045 seed of the June 3, 1975 show [16 bit: shnid 87198; 24 bit: shnid 87217] explains that “This is listed as Garcia and Saunders since it has been confirmed Ron Tutt did not play drums at this show” (see also the June 4, 1975 MOTB 0046 seeds [16 bit: shnid 87204; 24 bit: shnid 87234]). Cryptdev, who was also around and attending shows, shares this understanding of arrangements (i.e., that Tutt=LOM).

The Tutt Rule holds up well, on its face, against the evidence of the June 1975 Keystone billings. Ron Tutt was drumming with Elvis at the start of the month (helpfully extracted by Corry from the quite extraordinary site http://www.elvisconcerts.com): every night from May 30-June 10, inclusive. Those shows are billed as JGMS. We also know that Tutt was not drumming at El Camino Park on June 8, 1975, as established in cryptdev’s comments to Corry’s Paul Humphrey post (note cryptdev mistakenly calls it June 7). So far, so good.

There is also a second rule of thumb, slightly more elaborate, which I’ll call the alternation rule. According to received understandings, the Garcia/Saunders/Kahn/Fierro outfit used Paul Humphrey on the weeknights (because of his weekend obligations filming Lawrence Welk) and Tutt on the weekends (because he played with Elvis during the week). This one also helps to make sense of the June 1975 billings: all three JGMS listings fall on weeknights, and both LOM listings fall on weekend nights (if Sunday counts that way). Over at Hooterollin’ Around, for example, commenter Keats relays a conversation with Merl in which he recalls that “Humphrey would show up to play in his monochromatic leisure suits from the Welk show.” While Corry’s courageous research into the Lawrence Welk TV show suggests that Humphrey didn’t start that until 1976, the year after JGMS/LOM ended, he notes that it could well have been some other show filmed in Burbank or wherever. So we might imagine that the June 3-4 and 11 shows feature Paul Humphrey on drums.

But we just don’t know. Leaving aside the question of the overall contours of Humphrey’s playing with JGMS, it remains unknown whether he played at these June ’75 shows. I will be revisiting June 3-4 as soon as I can. We know that the El Camino Park drummer (June 8) was black, but cryptdev doubts it was Mr. Humphrey. What we really need is someone with great ears to check this stuff out and make stylistic notes on the drummers – while I will give it a go, it’s really beyond what my ears can detect.

Whatever the case, the show at Keystone Berkeley, 2119 University Avenue, Berkeley, CA, 94107 on Sunday, June 22, 1975 falls foul of the Tutt rule and belies any assumption we might make about Humphrey being there when Tutt was not. An unimpeachable but unnameable source identifies the drummer at this show as “Gregg Ricero”, a misspelled first name and anagrammatic rearrangement of the last name of Greg Errico. And, as is so often the case, the tape gives us a confirmatory piece of evidence when, after the first song, a crowd member yells “That drummer’s outta site!” Errico is not identified by name, but I am constantly amazed by how knowledgeable Garcia audiences were, even at this relatively early date. The attendee just sounds like he’s making special note of a drummer he hasn’t seen before. When I put these two facts together, I can only conclude that, notwithstanding the Legion of Mary billing, the drummer this night is Greg Errico. This further makes me wonder about the rest of the month, and whether we might not have an opportunity to scrutinize the alternation rule more closely, e.g., by comparing Errico’s drumming here with the drumming on June 3, 4 and 21, among others.

The show is a little sluggish to my ears, but I love it. No one song or passage really stood out for me as particularly great or particularly off. Within about two weeks, Legion of Mary would be no more.

Listening notes follow …

Legion of Mary

Keystone

2119 University Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94704

June 22, 1975 (Sunday)

--Set I (6 tracks, 80:10)--

d1t01. //Think [#8:14] (1) [0:19] % [0:16]

d1t02. Favela [17:07] [0:14] % [0:33]

d1t03. Last Train From Poor Valley [12:12] [0:54]

d1t04. [0:25] I Feel Like Dynamite [12:25] [0:21]

d1t05. I Second That Emotion [14:52] [0:17] %

d1t06. That's Alright, Mama [11:55] (1) [0:15]

--Set II (5 tracks, 72:20)--

d2t01. After Midnight [15:40] [0:25] % [0:27]

d2t02. Wondering Why [23:10] [0:26]

d2t03. Tough Mama [8:16] [0:17] % [1:34]

d2t04. My Problems Got Problems [12:54] [0:27]

d2t05. How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) [8:38] (2) [0:03]

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders
! lineup: ! lineup: Jerry Garcia – el-guitar, vocals;

! lineup: Merl Saunders - keyboards, vocals;

! lineup: John Kahn – el-bass;

! lineup: Martin Fierro - saxophone, flute;

! lineup: Greg Errico - drums.

MOTB:

MOTB: MOTB Release: 0048 16/44.1

Release Date: 09/14/2007

Band: Legion Of Mary

Date: 06/22/1975. Sunday

Venue: Keystone

Location: Berkeley, CA

Source: Audience FOB Recording

Media: Maxell UD90

Lineage: Sony ECM-270 and ECM-250 [Positioned Onstage] > Sony TC-152 > MAC

Transfer: MAC > Nak Dragon > LynxTWO-B > WaveLab 5.0 > HD 24/96 WAV

Taper: Bob Menke and Louis Falanga

Transfer: Bob Menke

Mastering: Derek McCabe

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/1178

! db: http://db.etree.org/shn/87236 (this fileset); http://db.etree.org/shn/87237 (same tape and transfer, preserve at 24bit/96kHz); http://db.etree.org/shn/12558 (deprecated copy of same master); http://db.etree.org/shn/103435 (deprecated copy of same master, misidentified as a soundboard).

! R: this is one of the great set of audience recordings ever made, the 1974-1976 recordings made by Louis Falanga and Bob Menke of Bay Area Jerry Garcia shows. These guys came into the bar, went to the front, grabbed the table at Jerry's feet (right of center from the audience perspective) as soon as the doors opened. As the evening progressed, they would prepare cassette decks (e.g., this Sony TC-152), presumably complete with fresh batteries. Cassettes would be opened, maybe labeled, made ready (e.g., these Maxell UD90s). Two separate microphones, a Sony ECM-250 and (I presume) a newer Sony ECM-270, probably discrete while the lights are up, I figure? Lights go down, mics come out and are, apparently, placed onstage right in front of Garcia, one of them pointing into his stage monitor and the rest angled stage-center to catch the other players. You can hear the clinking of glasses, the low talk of the players onstage, the beautiful fuzz around the monitored guitar … so very much. Wonderful.

! R: The vocals are low ... persistent buzzing, especially set II?

! R: d1t01 Think enters in progress, maybe 30 seconds missing.

! P: d1t01 Martin does a Lonely Avenue quote about 5-minutes in.

! d1t01 (1) @ 8:23 crowd guy yells "That drummer's outta site." Someone on stage: "Really?"

! P d1t01-d1t02 both of these opening numbers are a little sluggish.

! P: d1t06 TAM they don't quite know how to start, consistent with this being a less acclimated drummer.

! d1t06 (1) JG: "We're gonna take a break for a little while. We'll be back a little bit later."

! P: I find the performance sluggish. Nothing really takes off in Set I.

! P: d2t01 After Midnight is plodding

! d2t01 @ 16:01 chick asks for "Sing Me A Rainbow" ... odd. Wasn't that a NRPS tune?

! R: d2t02 the buzzing is really bad in WW. It's a monitor buzz. Really bad in Tough Mama, down @ 0:27, back up.

! d2t05 (2) JG: "Thank you."

Jerry Garcia Band Electric

**update 1: final paragraph, 8:47 Eastern 20111212**

Jerry Site administrator slipnut just updated the venue name for a show given as Jerry Garcia Band, California Theatre, San Diego, CA, on Friday May 23, 1986. Handbill follows:

Handbill for Jerry Garcia Band Electric, California Theatre, San Diego, CA, 5/23/86. Possibly courtesy of Iver McLeod.

The venue appears to be an old movie palace originally known as the New California Theatre, and while the handbill says “4^th and C Street”, neither the Google Street view for that location, nor for the one given by the San Diego History Center webpage (1122 4th Avenue, San Diego, CA 92101 – am I violating their terms of use by reproducing that address?) makes it obvious to me where the theater is/was. A Save Our Heritage Organisation (SOHO) site (a San Diego-area British expat, I presume) entry for the California Theatre does not give an address. The fact that this show took place in a fabulous old movie house is awesome and I am sure the venuologists would have a field day with this one. Perhaps I can egg Jerry Garcia’s Brokendown Palaces to do an entry on what looks to be a groovy, funky old place. ;-)

I am more interested in the billing, as “Jerry Garcia Band Electric”. Some small number of people knows the importance I place on institutional formalities, such as the names of bands. Many would dismiss these as mere trivia, and for certain purposes they might be right. But not for my purposes. My purpose is to understand Garcia on the Side as an institution, or a set of them. From that perspective, band names are really important. Names in recollections; on tape boxes; in newspaper listings; on handbills, fliers, posters, tickets; in published reviews, etc. etc. are some of the key data. To take one macro view on how I can use them, consider the following very simple descriptive statistic: variance across the names listed in those eight kinds of sources (recollections, tape boxes, newspaper listings, handbills, fliers, posters, tickets and published reviews). Hypothesis: cross-source band name variance reduces over time. Now I know that time is not a cause. I’d say that what this simple descriptive actually provides is one measure of the degree of institutionalization. Time is just the simplest proxy, for expository purposes. But if the data could be gathered—and I am not saying they can, to my satisfaction—I think you could show a much wider standard deviation in early years, closing almost monotonically over time. Just a hunch.

But I digress. For two out of town (Southern California) shows in May 1986, the one I am discussing and one on Saturday, May 24, 1986 at the Wiltern Theatre, 3790 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA, 90010 –Jerry’s first at the Wiltern, I think—Garcia’s outfit was billed as “The Band Electric” by Bill Graham. I think this has always stuck in my mind a little bit because of the clever bit of headlining over a negative review of the May 23^rd show: “Band Electric Plays at Pace Languid” (Toombs, 1986). Toombs goes on at some length about how dull the Band Electric is, how tedious the Band Electric’s languid pacing, how pedestrian the Band Electric's song selection, and so forth. Heh heh. It's clever, and I don't doubt it's a totally reasonable evaluation of the show. A review in the L.A. Times of the next night’s show is only slightly more positive (Strauss 1986), and doesn’t mention the billing, although the handbill (below) shows it was the same.

What’s strange about this, of course, is that it prefigures a distinction that would come about over a year later, with the acoustic-electric shows of August-December 1987. Those would feature, first, the Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band (JGAB), called by some (e.g., Jimbo Juanis of Relix) the Black Mountain Boys, comprised of Garcia on acoustic guitar, David Nelson on guitar, Sandy Nelson on dobro and mandolin, John Kahn on string bass, Kenny Kosek on the little fiddle and David Kemper on the snare drums. Second, the acoustic-electric shows featured the Jerry Garcia Band (JGB), i.e., the electric band comprised of Garcia, Kahn, Kemper, Melvin Seals on organ, and Gloria Jones and Jacklyn LaBranch on backing vocals.

I don’t doubt the canonical history of the JGAB, told by inter alia Sandy Rothman, that the thing started (quasi-publicly) with the GD’s Thanksgiving Party at the Log Cabin in San Anselmo on 11/23/86, when Sandy, David and a newly-hungry-to-play, post-coma Garcia sat around and regaled the gathered party goers with some old favorites. When Garcia, Nelson and Rothman got back together for the Artists’ Rights Today benefit at the Fillmore on 3/18/87, the story goes, Bill Graham came in raving about taking he show to Broadway, which is, of course, precisely what he did. Hence, the acoustic-electric shows. For more on this, see Silberman 2010.

But Graham’s May ’86 branding of the JGB as the Band Electric strikes me as foreshadowing this later distinction. I am not saying he was planning the acoustic-electric thing, per se, though in the limit it’s possible. But I had heard that some kind of product differentiation was important to John Scher out on the east coast, which is what brought us the famous (or infamous) solo acoustic shows on April10, 1982 in Passaic and, eventually, the Jerry Garcia/John Kahn acoustic duo. In short, after many years of touring as the JGB out in Scher’s territory, mixing it up with some different product would make it easier to sell tickets. At least that’s one thing I was told by somebody.

I wonder if Graham was after the same thing, i.e., some product differentiation, so he could sell separate acoustic and electric Garcia experiences to the SoCal audience? It would put a slightly different context on the canonical history of the JGAB, if so, making it seem a less spontaneous and a more cultivated Bill Graham strategy. There’s nothing wrong with that, of course, but I have always had the notion that these “Band Electric” billings earlier in ’86 were anachronistic unless we viewed them in this way, as trial balloons around a Graham marketing strategy that had to be put on hold a few months later when Jerry got sick, and really only took shape with the inspiration of the March 18 ART benefit. Again, I want to be clear: I don’t think this sullies the wonderful little history of the JGAB one bit, just puts it into a slightly longer causal chain.

The rival (really, probably complementary) hypothesis is that Wolfgang was after some product differentiation, but only because of the clusterfuck from Garcia’s previous (non-GD) visit to SoCal, with John Kahn at the Beverly Theatre, 9404 Wilshire Blvd, Beverly Hills, CA, 90212, on May 31, 1985. As related at the JB's entry for the early show, Graham et al. sold this night’s entertainment as two separately-ticketed (i.e., early and late) shows, rather than the two-set single show that Garcia would typically put on. Folks felt ripped off. According to Ben Kamelich (cited at TJS), one attendee brought a sign reading "Jerry Sells Out L.A. Deadheads". Erik VanO recounts that the crowd started up with a “Bullshit! Bullshit!” chant when Jerry announced that the show was over. And why not, after only six songs running a paltry 35 minutes? Apparently Angry Jerry came out for a three-song “second set” just to prevent a riot (or, knowing Deadheads, some hooting, jeering and reproachful looks).

Leaving aside the big question of how such a talented, usually professional (really!) and prideful man could act this way –and, while big, it’s easily answered with a word that starts with ‘d’ and ends with ‘rugs’, I think—it might have been simple good business sense for Graham to signal to the ticket-buying crowd that this was not going to be a Garcia-Kahn acoustic nodfest, but rather the Band Electric. The Toombs review of May 23 and the Strauss review of the LA show on May 24 suggest that the musical results were far from electrifying, but that has to be the subject of some listening notes. The commercial results, by contrast, seemed to have worked out just fine – not a sellout, but not a bad day at the office, either:

The fact that there were newspaper reviews (including, not trivially, the Los Angeles Times), the fact that it grossed pretty well and got this mention in Billboard ... the notion that Bill was also courting Jerry on his home turf, getting him to switch his local playing allegiance from Freddie Herrera and the Stone to Bill Graham and the Warfield (which would be accomplished by June 1, 1987) ... the new billing (what we'd now call an attempt to "rebrand" or maybe "reposition", right?) .... it all seems to suggest to me that the JGAB didn't emerge fully formed from Bill Graham's head, like Athena from Zeus's, on March 18, 1987. And the acoustic-electric structure would seem, at least, to have been a gleam in Bill Graham's eye before the coma ... much for me to chew on.

One last proposition: The JGAB contains the arc of Garcia On The Side (GOTS) in very concentrated dosage, something I hope further to unpack moving forward.

REFERENCES:

Silberman, Steve. 2010. The Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band, The Definitive History: It’s a Long, Long Way to the Top of the World. Essay accompanying Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band, Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band [Almost Acoustic and Ragged But Right] (Rhino, JGCD-1004), 11 pp.

Strauss, Duncan. 1986. Garcia Shorts Out. Los Angeles Times, May 26, 1986, p. SD_D2.

Toombs, Mikel. 1986. Band Electric Plays at a Pace Languid. San Diego Union, May 24, 1986, p. D11.

Third Night Out with Tony Saunders: JGMS, Keystone Berkeley, June 6, 1974

**updated 21:18 Eastern 20111213, mostly up front with some more historical context**
LN jg1974-06-06.jgms.all.aud-falanga.6375.shn2flac

A wonderful tape and a wonderful performance. Tony Saunders on bass, Billy K on the drums.

We get to hear what I presume to be Freddie Herrera a time or two, interesting given how central was the Herrera-Garcia partnership over the years.

Get it for the rarity "Darben The Redd Foxx" (formerly known as "Ptah, The El Daoud", FKA "Bag's Groove"). Love it for most every note.

This three-night, midweek run of shows (Tues., June 4 and Wed., June 5, 1974 at the Lion's Share in San Anselmo, then Thursday at Keystone Berkeley) is part of a jam-packed week of shows.

I have written about the Inn of the Beginning shows on May 31-June 1, 1974, which may have had a quite different set of players (Tony Saunders on bass, whoever was drumming for Merl On The Side [MOTS] on the drums). Shows at the Great American Music Hall always seemed to be special, and I'd bet that 5/30/74 show (which exists on tape in the Third Betty Batch) is interesting. On the other end is the huge GD show in the Oakland Athletics' centerfield at the Oakland Coliseum, about which Corry has an important post that I have barely had time to engage. Mix in a little studio work, and you've got Jerry Garcia, vintage May 30-June 8, 1974, the slacker who only works nine out of these eleven nights.

Midweek runs are always worth looking at, it seems like. Just not the modal gig, and interesting things are often involved, including better paydays for club owners than they'd normally get on a [fill in midweek day here] night. Things maybe a little looser, guests are called up, etc. On my view, the three night run at hand got better as it went along, so that 6/6/74 P 6/5/74 P 6/4/74. Where on 6/4 it sounded like Jerry wasn't listening (or hearing) very well, by this night everyone is together and they're all bringing their A game. Maybe the Berkeley juice is different than the San Anselmo juice ... either way, a top-notch show. Listening notes follow.

Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders
Keystone
2119 University Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94704
June 6, 1974 (Thursday)
Falanga aud shnid-6375 shn2flac

--set I (7 tracks, 90:43-2:22, ca. 88 mins)--
s1t01. talk (1) and tuning [0:24]
s1t02. Someday Baby [12:10] (2) [2:15]
s1t03. Expressway (To Your Heart) [20:15] [1:49]
s1t04. He Ain't Give You None [13:28] [0:36]
s1t05. My Funny % // Valentine [21:#12] [0:17] %
s1t06. tuning [1:34]
s1t07. I Second That Emotion [14:09] (3) [0:09] % pre-set II tuning, talk [2:22]

--set II (3 tracks, 2:22+53:23, ca. 56 mins)--
s2t01. My Problems Got Problems [20:58] [0:18] %  (4) [1:15]
s2t02. Darben The Redd Foxx [19:52] [0:10] % (5) [0:25]
s2t03. How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) [10:15] (6) [0:10] %

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, vocals;
! lineup: Merl Saunders - keyboards;
! lineup: Martin Fierro - saxophone;
! lineup: Tony Saunders - el-bass;
! lineup: Bill Kreutzmann - 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.

! Jerrybase: https://jerrybase.com/events/19740606-01

! db: http://etreedb.org/shn/6375 (this fileset). There are no other known recordings.

! R: Field Recordist: Louis Falanga [possibly with Bob Menke]

! R: Field Recording Equipment: Sony ECM-270 + Sony ECM-250 microphones > Sony TC-152 cassette deck; [JGMF note: I think this is two early for that setup. I think that setup was probably for ca. May-June 1975 Falanga/Menke tapes, or maybe even later (e.g., 1976). I am really just speculating. Might have been a TC-110.]

! R: Field Recording Location: from front tables, microphone onstage, one mic directly in front of Jerry's amp, the other pointed stage center to catch the rest of the band;

! R: Subsequent lineage: unknown transfer to DAT x1 > CD > EAC > CD > EAC > SHN. Probable chain of Bob Menke to Jim Powell to Jack Warner to jjoops. Extraction and compression using EAC and mkwACT by jupillej@mediaone.net. shn2flac conversion by jgmf 9/13/2009.

! R: What a breathtaking recording. It's hard to imagine that Louis (and maybe Bob) set up at the table in front of Jerry (R of center) and put their mic(s) onstage, one near his feet pointing into his monitor and the other aimed to center-stage. The sound quality is breathtaking, and the vocals aren't even as low on this tape as on other onstage recordings. This is one of the best, to be sure. Puts you right there.

! P: Overall, I think this is an outstanding show, combining the tightness and upbeat temps of the '73 band with the more exploratory band of August 1974 and the increasingly sluggish unit of thereafter. For example, I note that Expressway [Allan | Scofield]  is very long, but it never drags. Over and over throughout this show, I find myself marveling at how coherent, energetic and expressive Garcia is. Hell, the whole band is on. I am not sure if the bass player is John Kahn or Tony Saunders. There's no reason to assume it's anyone but John, but if it is him then his playing is exceptionally inventive, his bottom thicker and fatter than just about any other time. If this is John Kahn, he's positively on fire. Merl also has a lot going on this night, as he did the two nights' prior. He's got a really nice tone working and mixes up the brighter, more carnivalesque Jimmy Smith stuff (which I hear more in these June shows than in your typical show), with the slightly darker and more downmarket sounds characteristic of Merl's own compositions. He's doing it all. Martin Fierro plays with exceptional tastefulness, maybe really in the sweet spot of his time with Garcia and Saunders. In '73 and early '74 he's feeling his way around. By August 1974 he's doing more honking and squawking as things really stretch and lengthen out. Here, he's right there with everyone, dropping some straight jazz and lots of his original licks that are delivered with some restraint. Very nice. Finally, I have no idea who the drummer is. I guess we'd traditionally say it's Bill Kreutzmann. I can't tell. But whoever it is, the guys is a freaking monster. This tape really captures the drumming crisply, but I think it's also that this guy, is really hitting and always right where he should be. Overall, an A+ show from my perspective. @@

! personnel: upshot: I can only confirm Garcia, Merl Saunders and Fierro. I am about 99% sure this is Tony Saunders on bass.

! s1t01 (1) JG: "Whoever's got control of the light dimmer ... it's the light dimmer that's making that buzzing sound. It increases the intensity of this stuff. It's nice."

! s1t01 @ 12:58 (2) Freddie Herrera: "You guys need some kind of help up there, man? What's happening?" @ 13:15 Garcia: "What are we doin'?", strums Expressway @ 13:31.

! P: s1t03 Expressway The bassist and drummer are both in the pocket. The bassist does some nice fat funky stuff, including that distinctive little run @ 0:46, 1:18, a little six-note descent that I heard on the 6/4/74 version (s1t02 of that tape, about 40 seconds in). Is this Tony? This version is a little slower and more elaborated than earlier versions, over three minutes longer than the one from two nights before. Merl nice solo in the 8-9 min mark, very tasteful, while Garcia strums rhythm underneath. Martin gets his CTI on @ 10:40ff with a little bit of Red Clay. This is a long version of Expressway, but it doesn't feel like it meanders. By 16-minutes in I am telling myself that this is one of the hottest versions of @@ Expressway they ever did. I think the Soul Survivors would dig it.
! R: s1t03 ETYH a little muffling @ 1:35ish. Digi-chirp @ 16:22.

! personnel: s1t04 Is there a second guitarist audible @ 3:56 of HAGYN? Sometimes the more closely I listen, the less I hear.

! s1t04 @ 13:38 almost sounds like we can hear a cash register - cha-ching! Nice contextual color from the tape.

! s1t05 MFV Garcia calls the tune.

! R: s1t05 My Funny Valentine gap @ 8:53-8:58

! R: s1t05 My Funny Valentine skip/pop/click @ 10:10-10:11

! s1t05 MFV @ late 19-min mark, the drummer starts doing some nice march stuff. He's great!

! P: s1t07 ISTE @ 9:20 ish Jerry is doing some very tasteful picking, very expressive all the way through the 9-min mark, and into early 10-min mark.

! s1t07 (3) JG: "We're gonna take a break for a little while, we'll be back a little later."

! R: s2t01 Problems Got Problems drop @ 19:40

! s2t01 MPGP Garcia doing some fantastic twangy soloing in the 10-11-12 minute mark ... Steely and glassy at the same time. In the 12:30 mark he does some inventive syncopated upwards progressions that I really like.

! s2t01 (4) Garcia calls the tune, "Oh hey, let's do that [inaudible, but strumming the chords]".

! s2t02 Darben The Redd Foxx: As of 1/24/2015, that's how we know it. These old notes pertain to the notion that it was "Ptah, the el Daoud": It's amazing how well they perform this relative obscurity. Alice Coltrane's album of the same name [wiki | discogs] was released on Impulse in 1971 (AS-9196; my CD version is Impulse IMPD-201, 1996). I am sure I am copping from some of the reviews I just eyeballed (see Stacia Proefrock's Allmusic entry), but the titular composition and the whole record are indeed rich and lush. Garcia and Saunders are only known to have performed this song twice, on June 4th and June 6th, 1974, and both performances are quite memorable.

! s2t02 @ 20:17 (5) ?Freddie Herrera?, over the PA, but to the band: "We're startin' to run in to the after hours [inaudible]", at which Garcia starts strumming How Sweet It Is, right on cue.

! s2t03 (6) JG "Thanks a lot. See y'all ... later."

Is Jimmy Here? JGB, Keystone Palo Alto, January 23, 1981

LN jg1981-01-23.jgb.all.aud-latvala.97205.flac1644

Well, I hear some electric piano here (see notes), but I think it's Melvin. So, as Corry indicated, this (along with 1/22/81) might be a hitherto unknown quartet configuration of Garcia, Kahn, Seals and Shaw -- no Jimmy Warren on second keys, as traditionally believed.

Otherwise, nothing to write home about, to my ears.

Jerry Garcia Band
Keystone Palo Alto
260 South California Avenue
Palo Alto, CA 94306
January 23, 1981 (Friday)

--Set I (5 tracks, 53:57)--
s1t01. Sugaree [12:36] [0:07] %
s1t02. They Love Each Other [8:03] [0:07] % [0:05]
s1t03. That's What Love Will Make You Do [11:57] [0:09] % [0:05]
s1t04. /Mississippi Moon [10:56] [0:04] % [0:06]
s1t05. Deal [9:30] (1) [0:09] %

--Set II (5 tracks, 57:19)--
s2t01. The Harder They Come [12:35] [0:02] % [0:12]
s2t02. When I Paint My Masterpiece [10:10] [0:05] %
s2t03. Russian Lullaby [14:03] [0:05] %
s2t04. Dear Prudence [12:06] [0:04] ->
s2t05. Midnight Moonlight [7:47] [0:09] %

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia Band #12a
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn - el-bass;
! lineup: Melvin Seals - keyboards;
! lineup: Daoud Shaw - 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.

! Jerrybase: https://jerrybase.com/events/19810123-01

! db: http://etreedb.org/shn/97205 (this fileset). There are no other known recordings.

! band: JGB #12a (http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-
1995.html). This is a quartet, very rare. Only these two shows (1/22-23) in this configuration. Then Jimmy Warren comes in, and later they add backing vocalists to turn it into a septet.

! R: Field Recordist: Dick Latvala;

! R: Field Recording Equipment: Nakamichi CM-300 microphone(s) > Technics 686 cassette
recorder;

! R: Field Recording Location: front tables;

! R: Post-Master Lineage: 1st generation cassette played back on Tascam 112mkII > Manley SLAM! > Anagram ADC (16/44.1) > HHB CDR 850 >  CD > EAC > WAV > tracking (CDWave) > flac encoding (FLAC Frontend, level 8). All transfers and edits by df.

! Notes: “- A huge thanks to Jeffrey Knudsen for supplying the analog tapes”

! Notes: “- Time between songs was either edited out by Latvala or recorder was off between songs"

! R: Recording is fine.

! P: not much to write home about.

! Q: s1t01 Do I hear piano @ 3:52 of Sugaree?

! P: s1t01 Sugaree Jerry's solo @ 6:59 is uninspired

! s1t03 TWLWMYD there's an electric piano solo @ 9:05-9:38 ... can I hear the organ behind it? I am not sure. I think I can.

! R: s1t04 MM clips in

! R: s1t05 Deal pop at track marker

! s1t05 (1) JG: "We're gonna take a break for a little while. We'll be right back."

! s2t01 @ 1:00ish, crowd guy gives a big ol "Yay Jerry!" Do y'thing, mang.

! s2t01 @ 7:31 Jerry starts in with the really round wah that would characterize his playing for the rest of his life. Think of his style on the GD's "Fire On The Mountain", big, fat, round and reggae. HTC did not used to sound like this (I say having just spent some time with June 1974). When did that round wah pedal really come in? Melvin is stepping up around 12:20 ish, but Jerry thinks discretion is the better part of valor and he shuts it down. I think Melvin was ready to tear it up. Before too long, I'd be this song has another several minutes on it, the delta comprised by Melvin Seals-lead interludes. Dude was born to play organ on "Harder They Come".

! personnel: I hear no electric piano in set II.

Redd and Blues

LN jg1974-06-04.jgms.all.sbd-gmb.90003.flac1644

Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders
Lion's Share
60 Red Hill Avenue
San Anselmo, CA, 94960
June 4, 1974 (Tuesday)
133 min Betty Cantor-Jackson soundboard shnid-90003

--set I (5 tracks, 75:29)--
s1t01. Darben The Redd Foxx [17:24] [0:16] % [0:02] {17:42}
s1t02. Expressway (To Your Heart) [16:50] [0:07] % [0:10] {17:07}
s1t03. I Second That Emotion [13:59] [0:13] {14:12}
s1t04. Wondering % // Why [17:#31] [0:30] {18:01}
s1t05. Soul Roach [8:17] (1) {8:27}

--set II (4 tracks, 57:30)--
s2t01. All Blues [23:03] (2) [2:25] {25:28}
s2t02. New York City [7:13] (3) [0:14] % [0:28] {7:55}
s2t03. The % // Harder They Come [17:#06] [0:32] {17:38}
s2t04. The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down [6:20] (4) [0:09] {6:29}

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-guitar, vocals;
! lineup: Merl Saunders - keyboards, vocals (Wondering Why);
! lineup: Tony Saunders - el-bass;
! lineup: Martin Fierro - saxophone, flute;
! lineup: Bill Kreutzmann - drums;
! guest: Alice Stuart - vocals (s2t02 New York City only)

JGMF:

! Recording: symbols: % = recording discontinuity; / = clipped song; // = cut song; ... = fade in/out; # = truncated timing; [x:xx] = 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/19740604-01

! db: http://etreedb.org/shn/90003 (this fileset); http://etreedb.org/shn/6379 (older version, same source tape).

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/uTCwRCdomAUSS1zC6

! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/06/lions-share-60-red-hill-avenue-san.html

! 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 Reels@7.5ips 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."

Where Was Paul Humphrey on June 5-6, 1974?

Ad for Lawrence Welk and his Champagne Music, Oakland Coliseum, June 4, 1974. Hayward Daily Review, May 24, 1974, p. 38.

Lawrence Welk and His Champagne Music, "With All 40 T.V. Stars!", appeared On Stage! In Person! at the Oakland Coliseum on June 4, 1974.

I wonder if Paul Humphrey was with them? By October, for sure, Paul Humphrey is in the JGMS drummer's chair, which he occupies for these guys' first-ever east coast tour in November. Exactly who is drumming on which dates throughout 1974 seems quite arbitrary. Who knows, maybe he drummed the next night or the night after his Welk gig with Jerry and Merl? (I can't get enough of these shifts, from Champagne Music to whatever the hell you'd call JGMS of the June 1974 vintage.) I.e., titularly, Where Was Paul Humphrey on June 5-6, 1974?

These June 4-5-6, 1974 shows are out of pattern in a lot of ways. First, that's Tuesday-Thursday, which is really unusual at this point. Second, these (4th and 5th; 6th was at Keystone, Berkeley) are among the last times that Garcia would play the Lion's Share, I think. He spent a lot of time there from about 1971-1974. Third, there are several setlist oddities from this three day period: Alice Coltrane's "Ptah, the El Daoud" (4th and 6th, only two known versions), a loping "All Blues" from the 4th (singleton), "New York City Blues" on the 4th (singleton) and "Kansas City Blues" on the 5th (singleton). Fourth, probably not unrelated, there is personnel fluidity: Alice Stuart guests on the 4th and 5th, while a pretty credible source puts Tony Saunders on bass on at least the 5th.

I don't know if there's any connection, but this particular moment is a fluid one, as my discussion of the Aunt Monk listings from a week earlier engages at a little greater length. In many ways, this window feels like a last hurrah for the loose, I-can-play-any-club-any-night-of-the-week period of Garcia's life. I'll add June 4 and 6 to the To Listen To Pile to see if I can hear about who is drumming, though my ears for drummers are bad. What a grind, anyway. :)

Go Ask Alice: JGMS at the Share, June 5, 1974

LN jg1974-06-05.jgms.s2.sbd.8062.shnf

Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders
Lion's Share
60 Red Hill Avenue
San Anselmo, CA 94960
June 5, 1974 (Wednesday)
sbd set II shnid-8062

--set II (7 tracks, 76:57)--
s2t01. ambience [0:27]
s2t02. La-La [20:30] [3:22]
s2t03. Finders Keepers [7:43] [1:44]
s2t04. The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down [5:58] (1) [1:31] %
s2t05. //Kansas City Blues [6:54#] [1:32]
s2t06. Harder They Come [13:52] (2) [0:30] % repeated section [0:19]
s2t07. That's Alright, Mama [12:26] (3) [0:07]

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - el-g, vocals;
! lineup: Merl Saunders - keyboards;
! lineup: Martin Fierro - flute, saxophone;
! lineup: Tony Saunders - el-bass [confirmed];
! lineup: ?Bill Kreutzmann? - drums;
! guest: Alice Stuart - el-g, vocals (last four songs).

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/19740605-01.  There is a first set setlist, from Eaton's transcriptions: That's What Love Will Make You Do; Instrumental -> Space -> Instrumental; I Second That Emotion. Gaaaahhhhhh.....

! db: http://etreedb.org/shn/8062 (this fileset). There are no other sources in circulation, though a complete recording exists from the third batch of Betty reels. Per Eaton: "06/05/74 The Lion Share, San Anselmo Ca - complete; 4.9, 154min, Sbd, A0D0, Reel M->Dat 1, 44k; 10inch Master Reels @ 15ips 1/2trk -> 3700 x 0 -> 3800 x 1." There were probably recorded by Betty on her Nagra machine ... and at 15ips, I bet they sound unbelievable!

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/uTCwRCdomAUSS1zC6

! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/06/lions-share-60-red-hill-avenue-san.html

! R: unknown sbd recording > CD; "Extraction (EAC), slight re-tracking (WavMerge
and CD Wave), sector boundary verification (shntool), and .shn encoding (mkwACT) by jupillej@mediaone.net." The story behind the entry of this tape into the lossless realm (on 12/13/2001) is one of a million such stories in the history of tape collecting. An obsessive is scouring the internet for Garcia recordings to trade for. Unceasingly. 6/5/74 II figures on the list of a Japanese trader, who agrees to a trade of CDs. The material is distinct, special, and has still never turned up in any other collection. I am sure there's an interesting story behind how our Japanese friend got it, too. It's very nice soundboard recording. I don't guess it's as clean as the previous night's tape, but it's not far from it.

! P: The material is quite good, more clean than adventurous (which is OK). I would love to hear the first set instrumental(s). I also hear Garcia hint at "The System" before a tape splice here, which would have been interesting.

! Historical: The main thing of interest here is the guest shot by Alice Stuart, which has been long-established and is confirmed by the tape. See my brief notes on her below. She brings with her the setlist oddity of "Kansas City Blues", which is real nice. Jerry exclaims after in considerable satisfaction. Right on.

! Personnel: Tony Saunders on bass, Bill Kreutzmann on drums.

! Personnel: Alice Stuart is an interesting guest. She also sat in the night before (JGMS, Tuesday, June 4, 1974), also at the Lion's Share. I will revisit that tape in light of this one [edit: Done], but here she shows herself to be really talented musician, both picker and singer. She gets a nice, almost hollow-body sound on her rhythm playing and is always super tight and tasteful. She leads a time or two and, again, girl can play. I won't write up a ton about her here, but she's an old folkie. Here's how the program for the 1964 Berkeley Folk Festival describes her: "a 22-year old girl from Seattle, is the most important young artist to come out of the folk music movement in years, and the Berkeley Festival represents her first major appearance anywhere. Heavily influenced by blues, country music, ballad singing and the contemporary songwriters, she sings in a unique and beautiful style, accompanying herself on guitar and banjo." Ms. Stuart is all over the Bay Area club listings in around 1974, often billed as "Alice Stuart and Snake". I don't know where Snake is on this night, but Alice is in the house and she plays very, very well. Wonder if any of the mystery guitar players from '74 (2/16, 7/12) are her?

! R: s2t01 Kansas City Blues cuts in, not much missing?

! (1) JG: "Alice Stuart sitting in on guitar, here." Alice: "Merl, can you give me an 'E'? 'E' as in 'elephant'."

! s2t04 @ 7:05 Jerry hits the notes for "The System". I wonder if they played it before "Kansas City Blues", because those two numbers are in, shall we say, rather different spaces.

! setlist: s2t05 Kansas City Blues is a singleton, as far as is known. I can't identify one blues style from another (e.g., how many bars is this? How would one describe the blues subtype?). It's a nice performance, and Jerry seems to enjoy himself with it.

! P: s2t06 Alice Stuart's chunka-chunka rhythm is really nice, and she ain't shy. Then she takes a nice lead in the 5-minute mark. Nicely done! She is really good.

! s2t06 @ 14:10 (2) JG offstage: "One more easy one." He mumbles more stuff, but it would take a very close listen to discern it. Anyway, a neat tidbit. "That's Alright, Mama" certainly fits the bill for this group of people.

! s2t07 (3) JG: "See y'all ... later."

Listening Notes

If I've remembered to tag everything, the Listening Notes label should get you to all of my listening note posts. Otherwise, for reasons that aren't clear to me, I have decided to keep a running list going over at db.etree.org at http://db.etree.org/jgmf. My thinking is that perhaps I need to use that site to keep specific date references, since I guess they'd be really unwieldy as blogger tags (i.e., labels).

Thoughts? In the meantime, it's good for me to be able to just check where I have listening notes.

Melvin in the House: JGB, Keystone Palo Alto, January 22, 1981

LN jg1981-01-22.jgb.partial.aud-latvala.97266.flac1644

Corry listened to this and said he didn't hear two keyboards (in comments to his main post on Jimmy Warren). I don't think I do, either, but I'd love for someone to check the 2-minute mark of I'll Take a Melody and the 6-minute mark of Like a Road.

I have a much longer post about all of this, but for now I thought I'd post my listening notes.

Jerry Garcia Band
Keystone Palo Alto
260 South California Avenue
Palo Alto, CA, 94306
January 22, 1981 (Thursday)
partial show

--(5 tracks, 58:36)--
jg1981-01-22-latvala-partial-t01. Let It Rock [8:04] [0:03] % {8:07}
jg1981-01-22-latvala-partial-t02. Simple Twist Of Fate [12:53] [0:06] % {12:59}
jg1981-01-22-latvala-partial-t03. Like A Road [13:27] [0:04] %
jg1981-01-22-latvala-partial-t04. … Sitting Here In Limbo [9:09] [0:07] %
jg1981-01-22-latvala-partial-t05. [0:04] I'll Take A Melody [14:29] % [0:07]
[MISSING -> Midnight Moonlight

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia Band #12a
! lineup: Jerry Garcia – el-g, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn – el-bass;
! lineup: Melvin Seals – keyboards (Hammond B3);
! lineup: Daoud Shaw – 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.

! Jerrybase: https://jerrybase.com/events/19810122-01

! db: http://etreedb.org/shn/97266 (this fileset). There are no other known recordings.

! band: JGB #12a (http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-
1995.html). This is a quartet, very rare. Only these two shows (1/22-23) in this configuration. Then Jimmy Warren comes in, and later they add backing vocalists to turn it into a septet. See further notes below.

! R: Field Recordist: Dick Latvala;

! R: Field Recording Equipment: Nakamichi CM-300 microphone(s) > Technics 686 cassette recorder;

! R: Field Recording Location: front tables

! R: Post-Master Lineage: 1st generation cassette played back on Tascam 112mkII > Manley SLAM! > Anagram ADC (16/44.1) > HHB CDR 850 > CD > EAC > WAV > tracking (CDWave) > flac encoding (FLAC Frontend, level 8). All transfers and edits by df.

! Notes: “ - A huge thanks to Jeffrey Knudsen for supplying the analog tapes”

! Notes: “- Dick put this as fill on the 01-23-81 tapes sent to Jeffrey.”

! R: This is a really nice recording. Everything is there. Keys, bass, drums also captured very nicely.

! Setlist: my sense is that this is the end of set II (one can faintly hear Midnight Moonlight starting up). This fragment of tape supplies the only setlist information for the show.

! Historical: Personnel: I have noted that this is probably the great Melvin Seals’s debut with the Jerry Garcia Band, with which he’d play nearly without substitute for the next 15+ years. Melvin enters the taped record of his time with the Jerry Garcia Band with a nice, full, sweeping, on-key, sufficiently loud drop into this version of Let It Rock, about 25 seconds in. He is right there with everything to start Let It Rock. An impressive debut. This is also the public debut of Daoud Shaw with the JGB. On current understanding, he would play through June 1, 1981, though I’d want to widen my confidence bands around that estimate. Finally, as of December 2011, this has also been considered the public debut of Jimmy Warren, who played a Fender Rhodes electric piano. For almost a year and a half (into June 1982), the JGB would feature a twin keyboard attack almost unique in Garcia’s entire musical career. Yet it is not clear to me whether Jimmy Warren is here. Corry noted at Hooterollin’ Around that he is not present. I thought I heard a piano twice in listening to this, around 2: If that’s the case, then this is a previously-unknown quartet –Garcia, Kahn, Seals, Shaw—a relatively rare formation for Jerry. I guess now I need to listen to the next few shows, to learn more.

! P: t01 Let It Rock @ 2:20 he just does a second solo right away, and by 2:30 it's fanning like a motherfucker. Then he runs another bar of solos at 2:50ish formed not of malevolent fanning, but of aggressive, brassy picking and bending. Second verse comes in maybe 3:25 and Jerry is positively *enthused*. Melvin had been a little forward for a bit prior to this second verse, but we aren't really doing the Everything-I-Needed-To-Know-I-Learned-In-Kindergarten thing (to wit: “Share your toys”) thing here. Jerry’s just gonna keep soloing. That’s great. This is a brand new band. These other guys have maybe just been learning their charts and haven’t had time to think (nor reps to practice) soloing. And, hell, “When in doubt, let Garcia solo” is not a bad rule of thumb. Garcia is shredding like a motherfucker here, very much akin to what we’d hear on, say, February 4, 1981 at the start of the east coast tour.

! P: t01 LIR JG solo @ 6:50 just filthy. Not surprising that the only shows that sound remotely like this are also first-half of 1981. In fact, I’d say that there is a distinctive sound to the first half of 1981 (and obvious historic reasons for which they should sound of a piece).

! R: t02 enters with more hiss. There are a couple of indeterminate little clicks in the first 0:45, but give the picture that one can paint of taping this gig at this time/place (see the gloriously mindblown narratives that attach to the contemporary Jeff Knudsen tapes), and so one can infer that it’s from the master, its true nature is probably indeterminate, and it’s to be enjoyed as another artifact, brought to the future, of the glorious space-time confluence of the Keystone Palo Alto, on this night.

! P: t02 STOF @ 12-min mark is kind of a clusterfuck. It’s good that Jerry is trying to be assertive in signaling to these new guys that he wants to wrap it up, but it just comes off a little abrupt. And, for this era, it is pretty abrupt. This may well be one of the shorter pre-coma versions of STOF out there.

! setlist t03 This is the first “Like A Road” since March 14, 1974 (TJS).

! t03 Audience member calls out Like a Road while they are warming it up. What a knowledgeable audience! (I know it was released on Live at Keystone.) That’s gotta feel great to Garcia, to play to these people who know him so well, even in Palo Alto. I’d bet Freddie Herrera is on the peninsula when Jerry’s there. A nice, friendly, comfy crowd.

! P: t03 LAR Melvin Seals is a genius.

! P: t03 I think I can hear the electric piano in the 2-min mark of LAR. Piano playing while Melvin has got two hands, making his Hammond testify to us that there is, indeed, “a road leading home”. He is right there. I am not 100% sure it’s not Melvin playing organ with one hand and a little keyboard with the other … I just don’t know.

! P: t03 Like A Road is nice. It’s a little shaky, a little fragile. But think about what a genius choice it is when you have Melvin Seals, who has been spending 15 years of Sundays in Oakland churches, on the bench over there.

! R: t04 SIL enters in progress, not much missing. First 30 seconds sound is low (levels, loose cable, I dunno), more hiss and so forth, but things click in @ 0:32 or so and we’re back to a nice tape.

! P: t04 SIL @ 4:30 Garcia does repeats a nice little upward three-note run maybe three times. It’s pretty, not something I recall hearing him do much. @ 5:15 Melvin does a powerful blast off, where the Hammond is really vocalizing and says to the audience “I’m here!”. An aggressive, confident, and picture-perfect note. And you can feel the crowd jump back a little bit, and cheer. And even at this remove, that note gave me a little jolt. Well, guess what … Jerry heard it too! And they double-time it (not quite, maybe time-and-a-half-time it) for just a little bit. Really nice interplay between Melvin and Jerry, and I have to say that Daoud Shaw is right there in the pocket. That guy’s a pro.

! P: t03 LAR @ 11:57 Jerry shows a little vocal strain on “you travelin’ on” … it’s a little rough, but someone in the audience claps a little bit to pick him up. And in the context of the song (“and the road \ you’ve been travelin’ on \ doesn’t seem to be goin’\ anywhere”), it’s powerful. Not much sense speculating too deeply about people’s personal lives and proclivities, so that’s not the point. The point is just that that snapshot in time (Jerry feeling it, trying to get there but falling short, audience member picking him up and dusting him off, and Jerry gamely picking it up) is really evocative. The crystal of that moment embodies a lot of truth, tells us a lot. If the arc of anyone’s life is a series of moments, and if the idea of prosopography is that, given the time, energy, data, measurement technology and so forth, we can know things in ways approximating “truth”, then we could hold the jewel of that moment up, spend a long time with it, and learn an awful lot. The meaning of life might be hidden in that moment if we care to unlock it.

! Q: t05 Are there two keyboards @ 6:08 of ITAM, or is that all Melvin?

! P: t05 ITAM Daoud Shaw jumps onto a little double-time thing for awhile and gets Jerry to put his cape on. John keeps reasserting a slower pace (which I guess is his job), and after galloping around for a few bars Garcia digs deep and loud into a slightly more deliberate pace. But it’s a neat 30-second speed interlude in a song that almost never featured such a thing. @@ May well be unique (or I could find that it was always there, I just never noticed it until now).

! setlist: one can clearly hear the first notes of Midnight Moonlight coming out of ITAM.