Pearl's Wake

Around November 3, 1970 the Associate Press (AP) had an item in lots of papers noting that Janis Joplin had left $2,500 in her will for a big ol' celebration of her life after her passing. Invitations went out reading "The drinks are on Pearl", and it happened at the Lion's Share in San Anselmo. The AP story (e.g., in the Red Bluff Daily News, November 3, 1970, p. 8) says that the GD and other rock groups entertained.

Mastropolo 2015 puts the date of this event as 10/26/70. I don't know how he knows that, but there it is. (update: as usual, Corry was on it before I was --in this case, a decade!!-- and the date comes from his post.) He references the memoir of Janis's road manager John Byrne Cooke in saying that members of the Quick, Big Brother, and the GD formed various playing combinations, which is a little different than a GD gig per se.

As of now, I am listing this as a GD gig. I am also coding the Wales-Garcia Matrix gig advertised for this date --the latest with Howard's name on it, as far as I can recall-- as canceled. Any thoughts on that?

I also note that LIA hipped me to a canceled GD gig in Columbus, OH, between 10/24 and 10/29. Janis's wake may well account for the cancellation.

A Second Hooteroll?

In reporting that Epic/Columbia Custom Records and Douglas Records had re-upped on their distribution deal in spring 1972, Cash Box noted that one expected piece of product was "an encore of the collaboration between Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia and keyboard man Howard Wales". News to me.

! ref: "Col, Douglas Dist. Renewal," Cash Box, April 1, 1972, p. 9.

Hooteroll? with Howard Wales and Jerry Garcia - Crouse Auditorium, Syracuse University, January 22, 1972

Previously unknown gig. Thanks to carville for sharing!

Jerry Garcia, January 17, 1972-January 29, 1972

Here's a visualization of the Garciaverse from January 17-29, 1972. This being blogger, I hope you can see it.

"Jerry Garcia, January 17, 1972-January 29, 1972"

Here is the Codebook as PDF.

There's no particular reason I am showing this slice, just wanted to give you all a look at how some of the cancellations fit in, and how I have my data visualizations currently configured.

Since we're here, though, we can see the Hooteroll? tour contemporaneous with canceled Dead and Jerry gigs. Which is the chicken and which the egg, which the cause and which the effect, I leave to your speculation.

Risk and Challenge in the 1970s

Here's a back-of-the-napkin sketch, my subjective assessment, of the musical risks and challenges associated with Garcia's 1970s bands (qua personnel and repertoire) playing black and race-fusion music. So, this includes Wales-Garcia, all of the Jerry and Merl outfits, and all of the JGBs. It excludes NRPS, OAITW, GAMB/GASB (playing mostly white roots music), and the Lagin construct.

I intend this at some rather inchoate meso level. There are incendiary flashes and moments in every period. There are great shows. But that's micro level, and not what I am after here. This is intended as a map, if you will, of the structural constraints posed by players, their skills and shared repertoires.

Happy to receive questions, criticisms, etc.!

Rough chronology.

• HWJG and early JGMS = highest risk and challenge
• JGMS Forgerty era considerably lower. I didn't include the spring '73 influection Tickner and Sarah experiments, basically show it declining monotonically to July '73.
• JGMS Fierro era, an uptick.
• LOM, perhaps a slight downtick.
• An uptick with Nicky. This is mostly a personnel artifact, less so a repertoire one. Basically, I am saying that Nicky could challenge Garcia in ways that Merl could not (any longer?).
• The opiate-cushioned descent down down down, though 1978 is certainly better (and generally at a faster tempo) than the preceding two.
• Reconstruction uptick.

After that, things are fluid on the personnel front, but not so much in terms of risk and challenge. Garcia and Kahn are tweaking the JGB recipe until the advent of JGB #21b in July 1983, which basically endures until both of the principals are, generally, too sick and far gone to care.

Again, comments, criticisms, etc., most welcomed!

HWJG19710801 question

A little while back we had a whole series of things related to Howard Wales / Jerry Garcia Hooteroll?

1. Hooteroll?--When Was It Recorded?  -- LLD, Jan. 6, 2011
2. Response to LLD's Hooteroll--When Was It Recorded? -- JGMF, Jan. 7, 2011
3. Hooteroll? Next Part -- JGMF, 1/13/2011

In that last one, I mentioned Blair Jackson's information that the JG vault holds "four live multitrack reels from Boston, dated 8/1," which I infer to be August 1, 1971. I had this to say:

Whoa. Is it possible that Wales & Garcia played in Boston on Jerry's 29th birthday, August 1, 1971? Well, the GD did play Yale University (New Haven, CT) on 7/31 ... anyone ever wonder what was up with that? JG's first solo album, Garcia, was said to have been recorded in three weeks in July 1971, and then the GD go out east for a one-off. So JG almost certainly began 8/1 within easy reach of Boston ... is it possible that a Boston gig happened this late in the game, with no contemporary record or memory of it?

Well, I still don't know the answer. But I can report that I scoured several Boston microfilm sources (Boston Globe, Boston Phoenix, maybe Boston After Dark, etc.) from the 8/1/71 timeframe turned up nothing. My thinking has been maybe that there was some studio aspect to this, not sure why. I smell a record company or that type of person around this, though I doubt that hunch is worth much. If it were a record company thing, maybe there wouldn't have been any advertising. If anyone from the standard underground press (Phoenix, B.A.D.) had gone, I'd have to think it would have showed up as a  mention, at least. But nothing.

Anyway, as of now, consider me mystified as to what "live multitrack reels from Boston, dated 8/1" might hold ...

Response to LLD's Hooteroll--When Was It Recorded?

Corry has an important and rich post over at LLD on the mystery that shrouds the recording of Howard Wales / Jerry Garcia, Hooteroll [deaddisc entry]. I started to reply in comments over there, but began to write more than I thought suitable for that little sub-medium (a minimum?), so I thought I'd just let myself go a little over here. Not sure what blogger etiquette dictates in such a situation, but anyway. This will be a little bit of a sloppy mess, so brace yourselves.

Hooteroll? is obviously very important for Garcia scholars as Garcia's first real "side trip" (insofar as "trip" implies travel [excluding the Hartbeats], and "side" implies separate from the Grateful Dead [excluding the JG-era NRPS]). (Whoever named the one live Wales/Garcia release was freaking smart ... I mean, Side Trips really is a genius title ... but I digress.) And Corry is absolutely right that there's a lot of seemingly-deliberate obscurity surrounding this album. Howard Wales is a generally obscure guy, and seems to prefer things that way, but there is a lot of weirdness even in the contemporary record about this album. Corry has laid out a number of elements that strike me as important, but I still can't quite see how they fit together.

Let me throw out a bunch more, and conclude that the album was recorded in late 1970, with its release delayed a year due to record company squabbles. This won't be well organized, but I'll do my best.

I was initially prepared to pin down at least the end date of the sessions, based on an item in Billboard from Nov. 7, 1970 (1), including this: "Recording of the Garcia-Wales LP was completed last week in San Francisco at Wally Heider Studios". That pins the location and would pin the date pretty clearly. Remember the discussion about a possible Garcia return to the Bay Area for a ca. Nov. 1, 1970 NRPS gig? And Janis's wake at the Lion's Share ca. Nov. 1-2, 1970? I have found that some or many of Garcia's odder movements (such as traveling back to the Bay Area from Stony Brook after 10/31 only to return to Port Chester for an 11/5 show -- why not hang in NYC??) had to do with recording obligations. Oh yeah, and let's not forget that there are PERRO tapes (Heider's!) dated 11/3/70. All of this fits together so perfectly, dating at least the completion of Hooteroll? to ca. November 1-4, 1970, and providing another piece of evidence that Garcia was in the Bay Area on those dates.

One more tidbit: Billboard had a little item on Douglas the day before this (2), as well, suggesting that there was a record-company promotional effort underway, also suggesting that word of the sessions' status would have been coming from the horse (Douglas)'s mouth. This is also a good read, totally confirming what Corry says about Douglas's uncompromising approach.

And yet ... and yet ... here are a few spanners for the works.

November 7, 1970: presumed wire report (2): "Former Grateful Dead members Jerry Garcia and Howard Wales have signed a contract with Douglas Records and are expected to start work on their own material in the near future." Given the number of mistakes (the error-to-word ratio is pretty striking), I would discount this, maybe as a bastardization of the contemporary Billboard material. Until I see a ...

... December 19, 1970, report from San Francisco in Billboard (3), with these consecutive items: "Howard Wales has begun working for a new album on Douglas ... The New Riders of the Purple Sage are recording at Wally Heider's ... David Crosby has booked time there through the end of January ... Jefferson Airplane is at work on a new LP ..." This is obviously PERRO incarnate, with what would become Crosby's If I Could Only Remember My Name and Kantner/Slick's Blows Against the Empire, though I had never, ever realized there might be a Wales connection to PERRO. It doesn't explicitly say that Wales was working at Heider's, but the context (looks like they got a call from Barncard or someone!) is suggestive. So is the fact, pointed out by LIA, that Wales came into the studio to lay down some stuff for the GD's American Beauty, which would have been around August 1970 at Heider's.

So the last two items suggest that recording might have started around November-December 1970, rather than finishing then. The November 7 report that things were done by early November seems like the anomaly here ... maybe there was just a miscommunication?

There's also this little tidbit in support of more of a December timeframe. I had forgotten about it, and it is odd, defying otherwise clean break between Howard and Merl as GOTS keyboardists ca. September 7, 1970:

Can't recall if I owe h/t to Ross. Probably, so, thanks, Ross!

Grateful Dead, the Brotherhood, and "Howard Wales and Friends" billed at Pepperland in San Rafael on December 21, 1970. Interesting. We also know that David Crosby was around Pepperland right in this moment because of the David and the Dorks gigs, which would tie back into Heider's in November. We don't know whether Howard and Jerry played together at all, but I do think the billing is instructive. I don't know that Garcia and Wales would ever share a billing again, but for the January 1972 Hooteroll? promotional tour.

One final reflection on late 1970 recording timeframe. Corry mentioned The Music of El Topo. According to deaddisc, this is Douglas Records #6, released in 1970. Hooteroll? is Douglas Records #5, released in December 1971. Not sure this odd sequencing says anything about recording dates (it may reflect contract dates, or expected release order, or whatever), but it might. It might imply that Hooteroll? was in the can by the time El Topo was released ... let's say ca. Christmas 1970? This strikes me as an independent piece of evidence, tenuous on its own but suggestive in the context of everything else, for recording in November-December 1970, probably not much thereafter.

Anyway, I am pretty persuaded that the album was recorded in late 1970. I am hoping to learn more about whether this took place at Heider's -- I have records for other sessions around this time, but nothing for Wales -- but that's my operating assumption for now.

So, why doesn't the album come out until December 1971, with a brief promotional tour in January 1972? I agree with Corry that this had to do with record industry stuff.

Consider this tidbit, from the Nov. 7th Billboard item (1), which I remind you was headlined "Douglas To Record 2 LP's By Grateful Dead Artists":

Joe Smith, Warner Bros. executive, said that the Douglas recordings will be beneficial to Warners in terms of artist exposure as well as enhancing the climate of artistic freedom which is so necessary among serious musicians who want to work with artists from other labels.

As Corry points out, the record was eventually manufactured and distributed by Columbia Records. And the above quote sounds like a bunch of CYA from Joe Smith, who was confronted with a story that leads with the GD working with another label and probably wanted to put a positive gloss on what was actually a turf battle. The fact that it is mentioned also supports the idea of some "industry" tension surrounding the whole thing.

Wild conjecture time. The Nov. 7th Billboard piece (1) informs us that, in addition to Wales and Garcia, there are plans for a Kreutzmann-Hart percussion album.

The Kreitzmann[sic]-Hart LP will be recorded at a fully-equipped 16-track studio Douglas has installed in Hart's barn in Navato [sic], Calif. The studio, designed by Kreitzmann [sic], Hart and Phil Lesh of the Grateful Dead under the supervision of engineer Dan Healy, will be completed within the month.

I would need to go back to look at the history of Mickey's Barn studio, but I do not recall having known that Alan Douglas had paid for it. That would not have been a cheap item in 1970-1971. The Grateful Dead cancel their Port Chester shows in December 1970 with an abject public apology, get back there in February 1971, and Hart abruptly leaves the band after the first of six nights, in connection with his father Lenny's perfidy. Rolling Thunder ends up being released ... on Warner Brothers ... in September of 1972. I note that Kreutzmann is not credited.

What a freaking mess. The bustup with Hart involves a divorce with Kreutzmann and, to a lesser extent, with the rest of the GD. Joe Smith and Warners are pissed that the GD are seeing other people, and lean on them to extract some kind of concession. Douglas has paid for a home studio for one of his artists. Dénoument: the GD/Hart and Warners/Douglas seem to engage in some odd, multifaceted exchange whereby Douglas gets the Wales/Garcia album (a score!), maybe with some weird sweetening by/for Columbia (how the hell did they get involved, anyway?). Hart gets a 16-track studio (score!) and his album. Warners/Joe Smith get Rolling Thunder (d'oh!), maybe save some face? Working all that out delays the release of Hooteroll? by about a year. That's my story.

So I conclude my saga with an answer to Corry's question: Hooteroll? was recorded in November-December 1970, probably at Heider's, and its release was delayed by disputes that ultimately have to do with the recording/music industry.

I have a few broader points, but I am out of gas. Let me just bullet them for now:

• Wales/Garcia timeline
• centrality of Heider's
• Recording industry angle

REFERENCES:

1. "Douglas To Record 2 LP's By Grateful Dead Artists," Billboard, November 7, 1970, p. 4. Accessible via Google Books.
2. "Alan Douglas's Market: People in a State of Consciousness," Billboard, November 6, 1970, p. 40. Accessible via Google Books.
3. Corpus-Christi Caller-Times, November 7, 1970, p. 3D.
4. Billboard, December 19, 1970, p. 37. Accessible via Google Books.

HWJG: Quick Questions on the January '72 East Coast Tour

Howard Wales and Jerry Garcia (HWJG) is another one of these things about which I have a great deal to say, but no time to get it down except in dribs and drabs. So be it.

Quick question or two on the January 1972 east coast tour they did, Jerry's first non-GD-related paying gigs in the northeast, AFAIK.

First, slipnut over at The Jerry Site just posted two new gigs, based on credible-looking information at the Mahavishnu Orchestra set lists site. I believe that MO was also on Douglas Records and that MO was opening for HWJG at a number of the shows on the tour. The newly-considered are as follows:

• Friday, January 28, 1972: Palace Theatre, Providence, RI
• Saturday, January 29, 1972: University of Buffalo, Buffalo, NY

These gigs seem really plausible. Obviously the Friday-Saturday would be good nights to book. The venues also seem plausible: up to Providence from Boston on 1/26, and another college gig after the Villanova show on Sunday 1/23. Probably medium-sized rooms, probably just about right.

Still, it's surprising that these shows have never come to light (that I know of - prepared to be corrected, of course). East coast stuff tends to be documented pretty well.

update: these are now very well established. See Jerrybase on 1/29/72. On 1/28/72, two tunes were released on Hooteroll? +2!

(BTW, the MO site also lists a gig on 1/22 at Union College in Schenectady, NY, but doesn't indicate it was opening for HWJG ... I wouldn't be at all surprised if it was, though ...) update: nope, HWJG in Syracuse on 1/22.

Lots more to say, but I'll just ask a second question --or pose a lament-- re: tapes.

The only circulating tape is January 26, 1972 from the Boston Symphony Hall, which was broadcast on WBCN. Tapes also masquerade under the date of 1/25, but they are from 1/26. There is nothing else in circulation from this tour. Indeed, the only other live HWJG in circulation is from the incredible, breathtaking, begging-for-a-volume-two Side Trips, Vol. 1 (Grateful Dead Records, GDCD 4061, October 1998), which I believe to have been recorded on 5/18/70 at the Matrix. Ken Lee, the usher whose masterful, spread balcony recordings from the Capitol Theater in Port Chester, NY are rightfully legendary, seems to have taped at least one of the shows from the Academy of Music in New York, NY on January 21 (early | late); alas, the Port Chester Resurrection Project, which brought a handful of these (apparently massively numerous) tapes into clear light (some for the first time), has been stalled for several years at least. Please, please, if you know the folks involved, kindly, gently, respectfully ask them if they might be able to preserve those precious historical documents!

I have also long wondered about the Villanova show on 1/23. From the ad below, we see that it was sponsored by WKVU Villanova ... surely there was a broadcast to go alongside? And if so, didn't anyone tape it? Anyone want to check Villanova, starting with the station itself?

update: related, it seems that 1/29/72 in Buffalo was FM broadcast!

All right, enough hectoring. Really just wanted to see if anyone remembers these or other Wales/Garcia gigs in January, 1972!

Jerry Garcia at the Matrix, 1970-1971

As I noted a little bit ago, Ross Hannan sent some wonderful info on Matrix gigs. In this post I respond to some of his listings with questions, additional or different information, etc. I was just going to email this, but one never knows when someone else might see this and be able to weigh-in.

So this is not intended to be a comprehensive list of Garcia at the Matrix. This only touches on dates about which I have something to say. Perhaps after we hash this out I'll just post a full list of Garcia @ the Matrix for the record.

So, top line of each is Ross's entry. His comments, if any, appear on 2nd line in quotes. My response follows.

Monday, April 20, 1970 Jerry Garcia, Merl Saunders
I have Garcia and Wales. Source: Berkeley Barb, April 17-23, 1970, p.6.

Monday, April 27, 1970 Jerry Garcia, Merl Saunders
I have Garcia and Wales.. Source: Berkeley Barb, April 24-May 1, 1970, p. 8.

Thursday, April 30, 1970 Sandy Bull
"Seemingly spurious New Riders of The Purple Sage show listed on The Jerry Site for this date - with associated recording."
I assume there's evidence for Sandy Bull. How does that stack up with the evidence for NRPS (a tape)?

Monday, May 18, 1970    Jerry Garcia, Howard Wales and Friends
Tuesday, May 19, 1970    Jerry Garcia, Howard Wales and Friends
Wednesday, May 20, 1970    Jerry Garcia, Howard Wales and Friends
What is the basis for the second two nights? Sources traditionally list Monday, 5/18.  Evidence for this includes an ad in Good Times (v.3 n.20, 5/15/70, p. 24), and information from the Garcia vault. (Coincidentally, I believe that this is the show that was released as Side Trips.) I'd love for these shows to have happened, so please do tell!

Monday, May 25, 1970    Monday Night Jam
Scenedrome listing in Berkeley Barb (May 22-28, 1970, p. 18) lists "Howard Wales, Jerry Garcia & Friends". I realize that Garcia was probably not home from England ...

Monday, June 01, 1970    Monday Night Jam
I show this as Wales/Garcia, based on calendar item in Good Times v.3 n.22 (5/29/70), p. 24. (I  know these are not mutually exclusive listings ... just want to fill in artists, as possible.)

Wednesday, July 29, 1970 Harvey Mandel
Thursday, July 30, 1970 Harvey Mandel
"The Jerry Site lists NRPS as performing - but it seems spurious to me."
I have the same question as for 4/30/70. Is it possible that NRPS also played? TJS listing is based on tapes, nothing more. AFAIK, FYI and FWIW.

Wednesday, September 02, 1970 Seatrain, Kracker Jacks
"The Jerry Site lists NRPS as performing - but it seems spurious to me."
As just above: the tape is the only evidence for a NRPS gig, AFAIK.

Monday, October 12, 1970 Jerry Garcia, Merl Saunders and Friends
Obviously, if GD were in New Jersey, JG would not have been at Matrix, however it was billed. Deadlists says this about this GD date: "According to Marc Schaeffer the Dead played another, unscheduled concert at this venue [Marion Shea Auditorium - Paterson State College, Wayne, NJ] on 10/12/70. There is a review in the student newspaper (not informative, according to Schaeffer) but apparently no tapes of the show. There is no SBD of this show in the vault." I'd like to find this review. In its absence, I'd be willing to consider that this GD date is a phantom.

Tuesday, October 13, 1970 Jerry Garcia, Merl Saunders and Friends
Wednesday, October 14, 1970 Jerry Garcia, Merl Saunders and Friends
After 10/12 GD gig in NJ, they were in Philly on 10/16. Of course they could have come home in between, though why they would have done so isn't clear to me. I am skeptical that Garcia was at the Matrix on these nights.

Monday, October 19, 1970 Jerry Garcia, Merl Saunders and Friends
Seems more possible to me than the previous. GD were in Minneapolis on 10/18 and would go to DC on 10/23. Everyone has always assumed that they didn't fly home (one of the many reasons that the "10/21/70 Matrix Jam" tape, said to include JG, has been called into question). But the more I learn from Lost Live Dead & related, the more closely I look, the more I am open to the possibility that, for whatever reason, he could well have gone from Minn to CA back out to DC.

Wednesday, October 21, 1970 Santana, Quicksilver Messenger Service [without John Cippolina]
Some day there needs to be a whole post on this. Any thoughts on whether the circulating tape has Garcia on it? Some discussion of circulating recordings at db.etree.org.

Monday, October 26, 1970 Jerry Garcia and Friends
GD were in St. Louis on 10/24 and would head out to Stony Brook for show on 10/30. The more I know, the more I buy that Garcia could have flown home in between and played this Monday night Matrix session with Merl.

Tuesday, November 03, 1970 Jerry Garcia, Merl Saunders and Friends
In years past I would have doubted this (from Stony Brook on 10/31/ to Port Chester on 11/5, via San Francisco in between?). But given other evidence (e.g., here and here), I find this date plausible.

Monday, February 08, 1971 Jerry Garcia, Merl Saunders
Tuesday, February 09, 1971 Jerry Garcia, Merl Saunders
I have never seen these dates. What info supports this listing?

Wednesday, March 03, 1971 Jerry Garcia, Merl Saunders
Didn't GD play Fillmore West this night? It's on the COAU Carousel list. Wouldn't that preclude Garcia at Matrix, ads notwithstanding?

Jerry Garcia and Howard Wales: June 7, 1970, Matrix, San Francisco, CA (PHANTOM)

The Jerry Site still doesn't have any way to keep a list of deleted shows. If one is deleted or its date is changed, the old entry evaporates. So I am trying to keep track of what disappears under this "TJS-deletion" tag.

Anyway, TJS has listed a Garcia/Wales show for Sunday, June 7, 1970, probably based on a listing in the Berkeley Barb contributed by Joey Newlander. Gordon Sharpless was also credited as an information contributor, though I don't know in what capacity. Here was the note for the show:

Billed as "Jerry Garcia, Howard Wales and Friends". Listing from newspaper advertisement. The Dead played this same date at the Fillmore West. Although it's a possibility both shows took place (this being in the afternoon), it's unlikely.

As Ross points out to me, Sunday shows almost never happen at the Matrix. Gary Jackson's list of Matrix dates has the club closed on June 7th. The GD were playing at Fillmore West, as noted above. Finally, there is good evidence, apparently including a recording in the Garcia vault, for a June 8, 1970 Garcia/Wales gig at Matrix, their usual Monday Night thing.

In brief: seems like there was no HWJG thing at the Matrix on June 7, 1970. I'd guess that the Barb had a typo or other misinformation.