Interestingly, Garcia does not dominate all the jams here.
One can only imagine how many jaws the janitor had to pick up off the floor after this one. Nonetheless, the horns punch through a jam that moves with a driving rhythm, driven by brass. Not surprisingly, Garcia and Saunders kept the song in their repertoire throughout the rest of 1974, and took it with them into Legion of Mary's cache as well.įive years after Miles Davis released Bitches Brew, the "Keystone Jam" approaches territory Miles had begun to stake out in the late 60s, while Garcia was still coping feels from Sketches of Spain. Perhaps the finest treat of all, for Garcia scholars, is with the opening "Neighbor, Neighbor." A New Orleans-influenced blues number, Garcia falls in step with the song's Cajun feel, singing it with authority. The few originals are mostly jazz-fusion instrumentals from Saunders, although much of the night belongs to riverside blues and R & B. Predictably, a couple of Bob Dylan tunes get the treatment ("Tough Mama," "Going, Going, Gone").
And at a time when rock 'n' roll was young to begin with. With this band, he stops to consider heritage. With the Grateful Dead, Garcia forged new musical boundaries. Like most of his collaborations with the encyclopedic Merl Saunders, this particular Garcia project draws from the music that gave birth to rock n' roll, and really becomes a musical revue in that sense. Not surprisingly, some of the songs that appeared on those releases ("Keepers," "Someday Baby") reappear here, with notably different workouts. The only difference? Humphrey was replaced by Ron Tutt.Īnd no, this show is not from the same run as the famed Live at the Keystone releases - those were recorded at the same venue, with a similar Garcia/Saunders band, an entire year earlier. This roster only toured for the second half of 1974 and morphed into the Legion of Mary band by January of 1975. But this glimpse into a smoky neighborhood bar, at summer’s end, 1974, offers delights all its own.īilled as "Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders Band," the line-up on this particular night included future Garcia standby John Kahn on the bass, Paul Humphrey on the drums, and Martin Fierro on sax and flute. After Midnight is a more exciting listen and Pure Jerry’s Lunt-Fontanne ’87 shows sports more thrilling setlists. The fourth release from the vault, Keystone, Berkeley, recorded September 1st 1974, doesn’t take top honors. Ordinarily I'd complain – in addition to bottlenecking, it starts getting downright expensive to be a good fan – except that, so far anyway, everything they've released has been worth its weight. Ever since the Jerry Garcia Estate came to their senses and realized that all the live Garcia tapes they had laying around amounted to a veritable goldmine (both musically and financially), they've been working like mad elves to get as much out as fast as possible.
0 kommentar(er)
