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.
Showing posts with label JGB#12a. Show all posts
Showing posts with label JGB#12a. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 06, 2011
Monday, December 05, 2011
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.
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.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
When did Melvin Seals begin with JGB?
Edited 20110216
The Jerry Garcia Band show listed as Saturday, December 20, 1980, Keystone Palo Alto, Palo Alto, CA, has always struck me odd. I argue here that (1) "12/20/80" is a "phantom" listing, a mislabel of 12/20/79. Along the way (2) I argue that "1/18/81" is also a phantom, a mislabel of 1/18/83. This leads to a new-to-me understanding of when Melvin Seals joined the band; I (3) conclude here that Melvin Seals's public debut as keyboardist with the Jerry Garcia Band was Thursday, January 22, 1981 at the Keystone Palo Alto, Palo Alto, CA. This can be seen as a companion piece to my query about the start of the Garcia-Saunders relationship.
Observation #1: all circulating tapes of "12/20/80" are actually copies of 12/20/79. No-one with ears to hear (or eyes to see, if one had been there) could confuse Melvin and his Hammond B-3 with Ozzie Ahlers and his electric piano (can't remember the precise gear right now).
Observation #2: the last reasonably well documented JGB show before "12/20/80" is August 9 (*shiver*), 1980, Keystone Palo Alto, Palo Alto, CA (shnid-29088 [partial sbd]). As we presently understand it, that is the last show of the Garcia-Kahn-Ahlers-Errico quartet version of the Jerry Garcia Band. (Errico would return on October 13, 1982, for another 8-month stint.)
Observation #3: I know of no hard evidence (newspaper ad, ticket stub, attendee recollection, distinct tape, etc. etc.) of a JGB show on 12/20/80. Gordon Sharpless, credited as contributor at TJS, has shared his conclusion that "12/20/80" is a misdate of 12/20/79 in comments.
Observation #4: there have been tape recordings labeled "Melvin Rehearsals", dated Wednesday, January 14, 1981 through Friday, January 16, 1981, at Club Front in San Rafael, CA. I have January 16th to listen to (thank you, wk!) but haven't gotten around to it yet. It's the kind of thing that is going to be all consuming for 90 minutes, and I tend not to have chunks of time like that. Tape datings are among the least reliable data sources we have --I have created a new tag called 'methodology', by the way-- but the coincidence of Wed-Fri rehearsals right before starting up the new configuration the next week is a strongly suggestive one. (I would have guessed that they'd gig on Saturday 1/17, but if they weren't ready they probably spent a few more nights rehearsing.) There may well have been further rehearsals, but there is no public information about that. Anyway, these rehearsals are consistent with a later starting date than "12/20/80" ... I don't think workaholic Jerry would have been rehearsing this new band for the 3-4 weeks required to have started up before 12/20/80 and still been rehearsing in the third week of January.
Observation #5: The next conventionally-listed JGB gig is Sunday, January 18, 1981, Catalyst, Santa Cruz, CA. This would be a plausible first gig for a band with a new lineup: Sunday night at the relatively out-of-the-way Catalyst. I see three reasons to conclude that this date is bogus, though. First, the tapes circulating with this date are all from January 18, 1983 (same venue, the Catalyst). Mislabels being what they are, this doesn't mean an '81 show on this date and venue didn't happen. Second, TJS had this note: "DeadBase's setlist for this show is a duplication of their 01/18/83 setlist and incorrect", and it credits gorshar as a contributor. This is exactly like the profile of 12/20/80, of course. Third, the manucript tradition (i.e., Corry's lists) never contained information on this show. Strike three and this date is out, as far as my current reasoning goes.
Interim Analysis. Here's what I think happened for both "12/20/80" and "1/18/81". The old manuscript tradition correctly had no listing for these shows. At some point a tape of 1/18/83 gets mislabeled "1/18/81" (easily enough), just as a tape of 12/21/79 became "12/20/80" (though this one has a less obvious orthographic explanation). This tape forms the basis of a Deadbase listing (most of which, but obviously not this one, drew from Corry's lists). When the Jerry Site comes around in ca. ?1999? or ?2000?, gorshar tells Ryan about the mislabel, but Ryan (rightly, conservatively) makes the note but keeps the entry in, just in case. But I am prepared to conclude here that 1/18/81 is also a bogus listing.
Observation #6: the next known JGB show is Thursday, January 22, 1981, the first of two nights at the Keystone Palo Alto in Palo Alto, CA (Jerrybase, shnid-97266 [Latvala's partial audience recording]). These are Melvin's presumed third and fourth shows, after "12/20/80" and "1/18/81". But I argue there that 1/22/81 is the correct dating for Melvin Seals's public debut with the Jerry Garcia Band. The two preceding dates, "12/20/80" and "1/18/81", are both phantoms, by my analysis.
Aside, re: personnel: Melvin would never leave the JGB's keyboard chair, putting in an astonishing 14+ years. Without checking the numbers, I think this makes Melvin Jerry's #2 onstage musical collaborator (in terms of frequency) outside the Grateful Dead, following Jerry's ol' buddy John Kahn. There is obviously much, much more to say about Mr. Melvin Seals, who continues, 30 years on, to engage this music as "Melvin Seals and JGB".
Aside re: venues: Corry's pathbreaking work on the Keystone complex, including his Garcia shows at Keystone overview, deserves to be borne in mind at all times. His economic analysis is especially important, really providing some good hard evidence about the Garcia-Keystone (let me use that as shorthand for Freddie Herrera and the whole complex here) symbiosis. He mentions the nice complementarities of Jerry being able to rotate through the various clubs, especially in this period when the Keystone Berkeley, Keystone Palo Alto, and the Stone (San Francisco) were all operating. I don't read him as identifying any further division of labor, but I have a hypothesis: the Keystone Palo Alto was more likely to be used midweek than either of the other two clubs. That's not to say the KPA never got weekend shows, just that, by the early 80s, if there was woodshedding to be done and a Keystone club was to be involved, it was more likely to happen in Palo Alto than in Berkeley or SF. Otherwise, it seems like slightly more out-of-the-way places such as the Catalyst and the River Theater got a disproportionate share of the "debut" action. And given the fluidity of JGB membership in the early 1980s (e.g., in terms of backup singers and drummers), there was an unusual amount of woodshedding to be done. I do think we could get at this with some very simple statistic tests, but I'll add that to the "to-do" list.
And a meta point underneath (or "over", anyway) that: maybe the fact that less central venues tended to get the "debut" performances in the early 80s is why information on precise starting and ending dates has been so inconsistent. Fewer notetakers and tapers = less carry-though to the present. An interesting sociology of knowledge involved in all this, but I digress ...
Upshot:
McNally, LST: no mention
Jackson, Garcia, p. 321: Melvin's arrival and tenure noted, but no starting date/timeframe given.
Jackson, cutting room floor: no mention.
The Jerry Garcia Band show listed as Saturday, December 20, 1980, Keystone Palo Alto, Palo Alto, CA, has always struck me odd. I argue here that (1) "12/20/80" is a "phantom" listing, a mislabel of 12/20/79. Along the way (2) I argue that "1/18/81" is also a phantom, a mislabel of 1/18/83. This leads to a new-to-me understanding of when Melvin Seals joined the band; I (3) conclude here that Melvin Seals's public debut as keyboardist with the Jerry Garcia Band was Thursday, January 22, 1981 at the Keystone Palo Alto, Palo Alto, CA. This can be seen as a companion piece to my query about the start of the Garcia-Saunders relationship.
Observation #1: all circulating tapes of "12/20/80" are actually copies of 12/20/79. No-one with ears to hear (or eyes to see, if one had been there) could confuse Melvin and his Hammond B-3 with Ozzie Ahlers and his electric piano (can't remember the precise gear right now).
Observation #2: the last reasonably well documented JGB show before "12/20/80" is August 9 (*shiver*), 1980, Keystone Palo Alto, Palo Alto, CA (shnid-29088 [partial sbd]). As we presently understand it, that is the last show of the Garcia-Kahn-Ahlers-Errico quartet version of the Jerry Garcia Band. (Errico would return on October 13, 1982, for another 8-month stint.)
Observation #3: I know of no hard evidence (newspaper ad, ticket stub, attendee recollection, distinct tape, etc. etc.) of a JGB show on 12/20/80. Gordon Sharpless, credited as contributor at TJS, has shared his conclusion that "12/20/80" is a misdate of 12/20/79 in comments.
Observation #4: there have been tape recordings labeled "Melvin Rehearsals", dated Wednesday, January 14, 1981 through Friday, January 16, 1981, at Club Front in San Rafael, CA. I have January 16th to listen to (thank you, wk!) but haven't gotten around to it yet. It's the kind of thing that is going to be all consuming for 90 minutes, and I tend not to have chunks of time like that. Tape datings are among the least reliable data sources we have --I have created a new tag called 'methodology', by the way-- but the coincidence of Wed-Fri rehearsals right before starting up the new configuration the next week is a strongly suggestive one. (I would have guessed that they'd gig on Saturday 1/17, but if they weren't ready they probably spent a few more nights rehearsing.) There may well have been further rehearsals, but there is no public information about that. Anyway, these rehearsals are consistent with a later starting date than "12/20/80" ... I don't think workaholic Jerry would have been rehearsing this new band for the 3-4 weeks required to have started up before 12/20/80 and still been rehearsing in the third week of January.
Observation #5: The next conventionally-listed JGB gig is Sunday, January 18, 1981, Catalyst, Santa Cruz, CA. This would be a plausible first gig for a band with a new lineup: Sunday night at the relatively out-of-the-way Catalyst. I see three reasons to conclude that this date is bogus, though. First, the tapes circulating with this date are all from January 18, 1983 (same venue, the Catalyst). Mislabels being what they are, this doesn't mean an '81 show on this date and venue didn't happen. Second, TJS had this note: "DeadBase's setlist for this show is a duplication of their 01/18/83 setlist and incorrect", and it credits gorshar as a contributor. This is exactly like the profile of 12/20/80, of course. Third, the manucript tradition (i.e., Corry's lists) never contained information on this show. Strike three and this date is out, as far as my current reasoning goes.
Interim Analysis. Here's what I think happened for both "12/20/80" and "1/18/81". The old manuscript tradition correctly had no listing for these shows. At some point a tape of 1/18/83 gets mislabeled "1/18/81" (easily enough), just as a tape of 12/21/79 became "12/20/80" (though this one has a less obvious orthographic explanation). This tape forms the basis of a Deadbase listing (most of which, but obviously not this one, drew from Corry's lists). When the Jerry Site comes around in ca. ?1999? or ?2000?, gorshar tells Ryan about the mislabel, but Ryan (rightly, conservatively) makes the note but keeps the entry in, just in case. But I am prepared to conclude here that 1/18/81 is also a bogus listing.
Observation #6: the next known JGB show is Thursday, January 22, 1981, the first of two nights at the Keystone Palo Alto in Palo Alto, CA (Jerrybase, shnid-97266 [Latvala's partial audience recording]). These are Melvin's presumed third and fourth shows, after "12/20/80" and "1/18/81". But I argue there that 1/22/81 is the correct dating for Melvin Seals's public debut with the Jerry Garcia Band. The two preceding dates, "12/20/80" and "1/18/81", are both phantoms, by my analysis.
Aside, re: personnel: Melvin would never leave the JGB's keyboard chair, putting in an astonishing 14+ years. Without checking the numbers, I think this makes Melvin Jerry's #2 onstage musical collaborator (in terms of frequency) outside the Grateful Dead, following Jerry's ol' buddy John Kahn. There is obviously much, much more to say about Mr. Melvin Seals, who continues, 30 years on, to engage this music as "Melvin Seals and JGB".
Aside re: venues: Corry's pathbreaking work on the Keystone complex, including his Garcia shows at Keystone overview, deserves to be borne in mind at all times. His economic analysis is especially important, really providing some good hard evidence about the Garcia-Keystone (let me use that as shorthand for Freddie Herrera and the whole complex here) symbiosis. He mentions the nice complementarities of Jerry being able to rotate through the various clubs, especially in this period when the Keystone Berkeley, Keystone Palo Alto, and the Stone (San Francisco) were all operating. I don't read him as identifying any further division of labor, but I have a hypothesis: the Keystone Palo Alto was more likely to be used midweek than either of the other two clubs. That's not to say the KPA never got weekend shows, just that, by the early 80s, if there was woodshedding to be done and a Keystone club was to be involved, it was more likely to happen in Palo Alto than in Berkeley or SF. Otherwise, it seems like slightly more out-of-the-way places such as the Catalyst and the River Theater got a disproportionate share of the "debut" action. And given the fluidity of JGB membership in the early 1980s (e.g., in terms of backup singers and drummers), there was an unusual amount of woodshedding to be done. I do think we could get at this with some very simple statistic tests, but I'll add that to the "to-do" list.
And a meta point underneath (or "over", anyway) that: maybe the fact that less central venues tended to get the "debut" performances in the early 80s is why information on precise starting and ending dates has been so inconsistent. Fewer notetakers and tapers = less carry-though to the present. An interesting sociology of knowledge involved in all this, but I digress ...
Upshot:
- I argue and conclude that the "12/20/80" JGB date is a phantom
- I argue and provisionally conclude that the "1/18/81" JGB date is a phantom.
- I argue and conclude that Melvin Seals's public debut with the Jerry Garcia Band was January 22, 1981, following at least some rehearsals the week prior.
McNally, LST: no mention
Jackson, Garcia, p. 321: Melvin's arrival and tenure noted, but no starting date/timeframe given.
Jackson, cutting room floor: no mention.
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