If ACT = JGMS and Taper = Louis Falanga, and YYMM = 7402, does XX = 17?

I recently wrote that

in engaging any Garcia event, I first want to pin down the who, the where, and the what. So I want the sociometric, geometric, and the chronometric particulars ... If I can pin down those three pieces about any given event with reasonable certainty, I feel like it "exists" in a way I can work with.

That has presented some challenges, as some events we know happen, but that don't have crisp metadata (especially the date, truthfully) sort of elude my understanding. I have tried to do the best I can with "placeholders" and such, but this kind of chronometric fuzziness really makes me itchy. Whatever - that's just how some stuff is.

Recently, two folks asked me about the fileset preserved as shnid-8654, a Louis Falanga (supposedly also Bob Menke) tape of Garcia-Saunders that was only labeled "February 1974". Two people asking me within a day or so tells me it was being discussed online somewhere. Anyway, these queries led me to revisit the fileset, which I haven't listened to in probably 15 and maybe as many as 20 years. I don't have huge love for early '74 Garcia-Saunders relative to later in the year, but I really, truly enjoyed revisiting this stuff. Let me draw especial attention to the 27-minute "He Ain't Give You None". I noted it

is absolutely stunning. God, what an overlooked masterpiece! It starts off slow and deep, Billy makes it hop a little in like the 7 minute mark while Jerry plays it clean. It finds some quiet passages, some spacy bits, hot passages (late 19-22 really driving). In 25 it almost sounds like 'Sitting In Limbo'. An amazing piece of musicianship all around, an incredible version --earliest one known-- of this tune.

I really mean it. Go check this fucker out.

But, enough about the music. What about the metadata? :)

I am going to suggest that we should assign this material the date of 2/17/74, not because that date is true, but because it might as well be. I don't have much to go on, but here is my logic.

1) Louis taped 1/17-18/74, and the datings of those tapes got confused over the years, such that 1/18/74 circulated as if it were a three-set show. So, consecutive shows that end up in confusing labeling.

2) I listened to both the 2/16/74 Falanga tape and the 2/xx/74 Falanga tape (both noted below) in close succession, including a side-by-side comparison of "Money Honey", which appears on both, and the room-and-crowd sound of each. The tapes are quite different, with 2/16 much sharper and cleaner. But it does sound like the same room to me, for whatever that's worth. (2/16/74 still has the second guitarist and conguero we can hear on the board tape, natch.)

3) Louis and Bob were known to hit the Great American Music Hall, and Jerry and Merl did play it on 2/5/74 and 2/12/74. We have complete board tape of the former from Ed Perlstein's master reel (thank you, Ed!). Go check it out and tell us [nick | JGMF] how to make sense of the two saxes one can periodically hear. The latter does not circulate, and we lack setlist for the first set. The 2/xx material could well be from this gig. But, see #2 above. We don't have enough tape for me to be confident that this is NOT the Music Hall, instead of Keystone, but there's nothing to suggest that it is.

4) There is also 2/7/74 at the Keystone, but we seem to have enough of a setlist that, if this stuff really is from one night, it's not from that one.

5) [contra] The GD Archives had a bunch of 2/74 material, including money reckonings, including notes on how the take from 2/16/74 was divvied up among band and crew, and also the 2/9/74 Rheem Theater contract. There was no evidence from 2/17 whatsoever. (I don't recall any from any of the other shows, though, either.) So the dog didn't not bark where it might have.

When I put all of this together, I conclude that we might as well call this stuff 2/17/74, unless and until new shit comes to light. Thoughts?

Listening notes for 2/16/74 and "2/17/74" below the fold.

LN jg1974-02-16.jgms.all-2.aud-falanga.8063.shn2flac
LN jg1974-02-xx.jgms.partial.aud-falanga.8654.shn2flac

Two Sax Attack? JGMS at the GAMH, February 5, 1974

LN jg1974-02-05.jgms.all.sbd-ladner.32088.flac1644

I won't elaborate much. I have always held early '74 Garcia-Saunders in rather low esteem, despite my early familiarity with, place-based affinity toward --I attended Campolindo High School, just down the road-- and resulting inordinate love for the 2/9/74 Rheem Theater show. I was prompted to check-in with 2/5/74 by valued commenter runonguinness's observation that there appears to be a second sax present in set II, and esteemed fellow blogger nick's engagement with the issue, raising the possibility that it's Martin doing his best Rahsaan Roland Kirk and playing two horns at once. I was rather gobsmacked at either notion, having produced an earlier lossless fileset many years back from the same Ed Perlstein board patch (shnid-11254), and apparently not having noticed the second saxophone appearing throughout set II. What else have I been missing? God only knows.

Anyway, as you will see from my listening notes below, my method was to try to track moments where the saxes appear to diverge, and I find a number of them. I have posted my basic conclusions as comment at deadthinking, and if you have thoughts or comments on the key question please consider posting them over there, so we don't fragment "the literature" too much. I just have to post my own notes when I have them, because that's how I roll.

I enjoyed the show, a Tuesday at the amazing GAMH, very much. It's LONG, and quite good. I hated the overwrought vocals on Road Runner here in early '74, but there's a lot of good stuff here, including some nice melty stuff at the end of My Funny Valentine.

Listening notes below the jump.