Jazz Articles about Jerry Garcia

Grateful Dead: Workingman's Dead - 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition

by Doug Collette
September 5, 2020

Released on-line around the time of the fiftieth anniversary of the release of Workingman's Dead (Warner Bros., 1970), The Angel's Share of over two-and-a-half hours of unreleased studio outtakes and fly-on-the wall conversations from the recording sessions somewhat give the lie to the expeditious cost-effective time the Grateful Dead spent recording their landmark album. But it's a profound paradox that the delicious simplicity the likes of which permeates the iconic band's fourth studio effort is usually the result of meticulous ...

Allman Brothers Band: Trouble No More: 50th Anniversary Collection

by Doug Collette
April 5, 2020

The gold-embossed lettering on the front and back cover of the roughly 5" by 7" slipcase enclosing the Allman Brothers Band's box set Trouble No More belies its otherwise generic art work. Yet the graphic design isn't all that gives the lie to an otherwise positive first impression gleaned from 50th Anniversary Collection. A glance at the sixty-one tune track-listing plus a cursory perusal of Kirk West's stellar photos inside the eighty-eight page booklet are also somewhat deceiving: while this ...

Garcia Live Volume Seven: Sophie's, Palo Alto, November 8, 1976

by Doug Collette
September 4, 2016

The openness and vulnerability within Jerry Garcia's singing voice is an often-overlooked virtue among all the others for which he's distinguished, including his ever-so-precise (acoustic and electric) guitar playing as well as his songwriting collaborations with lyricist Robert Hunter. Nevertheless, those vocal qualities also resonate in the best of his solo work and Garcia Live Volume Seven is a prime example.A palpable sense of comfort radiates from this show, recorded at Sophie's in Palo Alto in November of ...

Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders: Garcia Live Volume Six: Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders July 5 1973, Lion's Share

by Doug Collette
July 16, 2016

A cursory review of Garcia Live Volume Six reveals much that's familiar about such titles including personnel (keyboardist/vocalist Merl Saunders, bassist John Kahn and drummer Bill Vitt) and material ("I Second That Emotion," “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down"). But a closer perusal uncovers elements that make July 5, 1973 Lion's Share a distinctive entry in the solo discography of guitarist/songwriter/vocalist Jerry Garcia. Rare choices of song, such as “She's Got Charisma," suggest an expansive approach to ...

Jerry Garcia: Broadway: Act One: October 28th, 1987

by Doug Collette
August 30, 2015

The deliciously relaxed air of the music on these three discs belies the precision in the musicianship as much as it does the operations necessary for a two week run on a Broadway theater. And all this attention to detail, well-served as it is, gives the lie to the moment of serendipity from which it sprung:an offhanded, good=humored exchange between Jerry Garcia and late impresario Bill Graham. Dennis McNally's perceptive recounting of the experience in New York at ...

Garcia Live Volume Five: Keystone Berkeley December 31, 1975

by Doug Collette
December 7, 2014

Garcia Live Volume Five begins appropriately and propitiously enough as the band slowly, inexorably coalesces around the changes of chuck Berry's “Let It Rock," weaving an insinuating rhythm and melody mix that becomes proportionately more dramatic as the leader of the band begins to sing, seeming off-mike (or perhaps he's just not turned up?), at which point the quartet drops confidently into the pocket of the groove they've only suggested to that point. John Kahn's bass pops and pulses emphatically ...

The Jerry Garcia Band: The Jerry Garcia Band: Let It Rock

by Doug Collette
February 18, 2010

Jerry Garcia never officially announced he was embarking on a solo career apart from the Grateful Dead, the band for which he served as titular leader during its entire existence. Moved by the restless work ethic of the truly professional musician, the guitarist/vocalist/composer began working with a group dubbed Legion of Mary in 1975. Only after realigning that personnel over the next year did his unit became The Jerry Garcia Band (JGB).

This two-CD recording from shows at Keystone Berkeley ...