Jerry garcia band garcia live volume two
Each instrument is crispy recorded and easily identifiable with the bass and drums particularly clean. The audio is straight from the soundboard and has been brilliantly remixed to make you feel like you are on stage as these jams are going down. Some of the exploratory jaunts don’t gel as well as others, but in general these musicians are remarkably well locked in with Garcia’s loose groove. The material is wonderfully diverse especially when he works in jazz changes during nearly 14 minutes of Eddie Harris’ “Freedom Jazz Dance.” That’s a song he would never be able to include in a Dead concert which shows Garcia stretching himself, and his terrific group, to new and challenging frontiers.
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Garcia was arguably at the height of his improvisatory prowess in this era and his guitar runs are as sweet, technically sharp and extended as anything he did with his full time group. Needless to say, only the most Garcia/Dead dedicated fans are the audience for this, and for them it’s a fascinating if somewhat inconsistent delight. The average track time runs about 12 minutes with the opening funky “Boogie On Reggae Woman” clocking in at 18 and Saunders’ blues/jazz “Wondering Why” stretched to nearly 25. Only a molasses slow “The Night They Drove Dixie Down,” one of the least interesting selections in the weekend’s repertoire, is repeated in this 2 ½ hour recap of every song played in three sets. The shows eschewed Dead material for Garcia’s usual eclectic batch of soul, blues, roots rock and for this tour some very jazzy selections. The band included longtime jazz/blues keyboard/vocalist cohort Merle Saunders along with bassist John Kahn, Elvis drummer Ron Tutt and reed player Martin Fiero. 14th and 15th of the Northwest tour with his short lived Legion of Mary group. The cover informs us that this three CD package of previously unreleased music was recorded on Garcia’s 1974 break from his Grateful Dead activities on Dec.
Garcia s ever-rusty voice takes a back seat to electric soloing by Fleck and some of the more competent and tasteful accompaniment of the entire set.Garcia Live, Volume Three: Legion of Mary
What truly sets this volume apart from its predecessor is the guest spot by banjo virtuoso B la Fleck on two songs, reaching a burning apex on the group s bluegrass/reggae/jam band hybrid take on Jimmy Cliff s The Harder They Come. The protracted and stumbly vibe of the set presented here evokes the archetypal languid outdoor concert energy that the Grateful Dead all but defined in their endless touring, and Garcia s takes on roots rock classics by the Band, Van Morrison, and later-period Dylan help capture the stoned summertime musical snapshot all the more. 1, which was bluesy and amped by relative Garcia standards. Tracks like That s What Love Will Make You Do, Deal, Midnight Moonlight, and others appear again, though the feel of the set is far more jammy, summery, and laid-back than Vol. 2 shares a lot of the same songs from the set list of Vol.
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Though it was recorded a full decade after the first installment of this Dick s Picks-like concert archive series, Vol. Joined by a later incarnation of the Jerry Garcia Band, Garcia s trademark guitar style and grainy vocals are augmented by a core rhythm section of John Kahn and David Kemper as well as prominently featured organ flair from Melvin Seals and soul- tinged backing vocals from Gloria Jones and Jaclyn LaBranch. The second volume of GarciaLive finds Jerry with some downtime from the Dead in the summer of 1990, doing a laid-back afternoon performance on home turf at Berkeley, California s Greek Theatre.