Monday, November 19, 2018

With and Without Maria: JGB at Keystone, August 6-7, 1977


If "without and with" rolled better off the tongue, that'd be the more accurate title, because here we have a pair of summer '77 JGB shows, the first admittedly only partially available, on which Maria Muldaur respectively does not and does make an appearance. I guess I am working toward pinning down her appearances throughout the year, leading up to the fall east coast tour, at which point she was unambiguously part of the band.

These aren't as sleepy as I had feared. I generally don't love '76 and '77 JGB, but these show some pep, and the tapes --Betty's, I presume, though as I note on 8/7/77, where these tapes came from and where they currently live remains a bit of a mystery to me-- the tapes sound great.

Listening notes below, not much to report.

update: of course, the bigger personnel news here is that these are Ronnie Tutt's final live JGB gigs until fall 1981.

Jerry Garcia Band
Keystone
2119 University Avenue
Berkeley, CA
August 6, 1977 (Saturday)
s2 MSC Miller shnid-106922

--set II (5 tracks, 4 tunes, 46:59)--
s2t01. tuning [1:43]
s2t02. Sugaree [12:35] [2:36]
s2t03. Mystery Train [7:52] [2:12]
s2t04. Simple Twist Of Fate [11:37] [1:54]
s2t05. Don't Let Go ... [6:31#]

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia Band #3
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - guitar, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn - bass;
! lineup: Keith Godchaux - keyboards, backing vocals;
! lineup: Donna Godchaux - vocals;
! lineup: Ron Tutt - 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.
! JGC: https://jerrygarcia.com/1977-08-06

! db: all of these derive from the same source cassette: https://etreedb.org/shn/4448 (shnf), https://etreedb.org/shn/83754 (flac1644), https://etreedb.org/shn/106922 (this fileset).

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/LDc43

! venue: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/02/keystone-2119-university-avenue.html | http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2010/12/2119-university-avenue-berkeley-ca.html | http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2011/01/jerry-garcia-and-keystone-shows.html

! band: JGB #3 (http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html). Maria Muldaur makes an appearance during set II the next night, but I don't hear her here.

! setlist: not sure if this is the complete set II (save for most of DLG) or not. Probably, I guess, as next night's set II ran about 45 minutes.

! ad: BAM, August 1977, p. 60.

! ad: SFSECDB19770731p43.

! R: Recording Info: SBD > Cassette Master (Nakamichi 350/Maxell UDXLI90)

! R: Transfer Info: Cassette Master (Nakamichi DR-1) > Sound Devices 744T (24bit/96k) > Samplitude Professional v11.03 > FLAC/16 (1 Disc Audio / 1 Disc FLAC). All Transfers and Mastering By Charlie Miller, charliemiller87@earthlink.net, February 22, 2010.

! R: nice recording. Betty.

! historical: Keith is playing electric piano.

! P: old notes: overall: Utter mediocrity, to my ears. Great, amazing tape, dull-as-hell music. New note: that's too harsh.

! P: s2t02 Sugaree comes in a little thin. Nothing like the big full swagger the Dead gave it, especially on the bottom end. Scrubbing over 10, it's nice. Not rushed.

! P: s2t04 STOF is rather a mess. Jerry is a little lost. Not good. The only plus for this SFOT is that there is no bass feature (though, to be fair, in 1977 Kahn could, at times and typically on other songs, be amazing).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jerry Garcia Band
Keystone
2119 University Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94704
August 7, 1977 (Sunday)
GMB sbd s1ps2 shnid-86045

--set I (4 tracks, 3 tunes, end of set, missing 4 tunes, 37:47)--    
[MISSING: The Way You Do The Things You Do]
[MISSING: Catfish John]
[MISSING: Stop That Train]
[MISSING: Let It Rock]
s1t01. tuning [2:06]
s1t02. Russian Lullaby [11:49] [1:55]
s1t03. Knockin' On Heaven's Door [11:50] [1:57]
s1t04. Midnight Moonlight [7:55] [0:16] %

--set II (4 tracks, 45:27)--
s2t01. They Love Each Other [7:25]
s2t02. Tore Up Over You [9:26] [2:05]
s2t03. Simple // Twist Of Fate [10:#33] [1:34]
s2t04. The // Harder They Come [12:#11] (1) [0:22]

! ACT1: Jerry Garcia Band #3b
! lineup: Jerry Garcia - guitar, vocals;
! lineup: John Kahn - bass;
! lineup: Keith Godchaux - keyboards, backing vocals;
! lineup: Donna Godchaux - vocals;
! guest/lineup: Maria Muldaur - vocals (set II only);
! lineup: Ron Tutt - 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.
! JGC: https://jerrygarcia.com/show/1977-08-07-keystone-berkeley-ca/

! db: https://etreedb.org/shn/6371 (incomplete MSC shnf); https://etreedb.org/shn/86045 (incomplete MSC, this fileset); 106923 (complete MSC via Miller).

! map: https://goo.gl/maps/LDc43

! JGBP: http://jerrygarciasbrokendownpalaces.blogspot.com/2012/02/keystone-2119-university-avenue.html;

! venue: http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2010/12/2119-university-avenue-berkeley-ca.html;
 URL http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2011/01/jerry-garcia-and-keystone-shows.html.

! band: JGB #3 (http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/01/jerry-garcia-band-personnel-1975-1995.html). * Note that Corry shows Maria coming in with JGB #4 on 11/15/77. We now have her showing up on 2/5/77, 7/2/77 and 7/3/77 (the latter without DJG, IIRC), and this show.

! personnel: Maria Muldaur comes in around 7:20 of TLEO, stays on board for all of set II. Hard to know if she is a member of the band at this point.

! ad: BAM, August 1977, p. 60.

! ad: SFSECDB19770731p43.

! R: Source: Soundboard Master Cassette > DAT

! R: Transfer: Panasonic SV-3700 > M-Audio Audiophile 2496 to Wavelab 5.0; mastering with iZotope Ozone 3 > CDWAV1.9 > FLAC (level 8); Transferred, Remastered by B. Koucky and Seeded by Green Mountain Bros. June 2007. 

! R: I wonder where this tape came from? It would seem associated with the Betty Boards, but by 2015 the presumed full collection of BB cassettes did not have these 8/77 tapes.

! R: sounds beautiful.

! R: s1t02 RL level drop ca. 3:25

! P: s1t02 RL bass feature 6:15ff-8ish. Good.

! P: s1t03 KOHD peppy for the period. KD some nice pie-anner 6 min range.

! P: s1t04 MM Garcia plays with great fluidity this whole night. MM also has a nice pep in its step.

! s1t04 weird that there is no setbreak announcement

! R: s2t01 TLEO the bass sounds so great!

! R: s2t03 STOF splice @ 5:38

! P: s2t04 HTC Tutt is drumming like he was born to play this tune. Stellar.

! R: s2t04 splice @ 10:58.

! s2t04 (1) JG: "[inaudible: maybe "so long"] - thank you."

3 comments:

  1. Well, well, well: a listen to 9/12/76 unambiguously reveals Ms. Muldaur piping in for the last three tunes of the night. This is well more than a year than the conventional understanding, and five months earlier than what I had understood as of a few days ago to be her earliest appearance, on 2/5/77.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Weird, I was listening to 9/12/76 last night and also noticed that it sounded like an extra singer in the second set (is she singing backup on the chorus lines of TWYDTTYD as well?) ...but it's hard to tell, given that there were already 3-4 singers in that lineup. Given Muldaur's relationship with Kahn, I'm surprised that she didn't drop in more often before 'joining officially' in 1977.

    Glad to see you liked this one. I am also fairly cold on the early/mid 77 period, but 8/7/77 has always sounded mighty sweet to me. I confess that I am wondering, however, what was involved in the Keystone's new menage-a-trois $100 dance happy hour =/

    ReplyDelete
  3. No, I clearly heard her on 9/12/76. Here are my notes:

    ! personnel: Maria Muldaur makes herself heard at the end of CJ. She is still audible in TUOY. For a perfectly clear instance, check out TUOY at 11:00.

    ReplyDelete

!Thank you for joining the conversation!