Jerry Garcia Band


The Jerry Garcia Band was a San Francisco Bay Area rock band led by Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead. Garcia founded the band in 1975; it remained the most important of his various side projects until his death in 1995. The band regularly toured and recorded sporadically throughout its twenty-year existence, generally, but not always, during breaks in the Grateful Dead's schedule.

History

Over the years, the lineup of the Jerry Garcia Band changed many times. The one constant member besides Garcia himself was bassist John Kahn, who served as Garcia's principal musical collaborator outside of the Grateful Dead after 1970. Melvin Seals had the next longest tenure, serving as keyboardist from 1980 onward.
Jerry Garcia's musical interests were famously varied, and this was reflected in the diverse music played by his band. Like the Grateful Dead, the Jerry Garcia Band played rock music that was influenced by blues, folk, country, and jazz in an improvisatory milieu that largely served as a framework for Garcia's solos. However, the group eschewed the former band's avant-garde and world music influences in favor of a slower, groove-based "bar band" approach strongly oriented toward rhythm and blues, gospel music and reggae. Rock versions of contemporary Americana were also prominent.
Staples of the band's repertoire included Holland–Dozier–Holland's "How Sweet It Is ", Peter Rowan's "Midnight Moonlight," Jimmy Cliff's "The Harder They Come" and "Sitting in Limbo," the Sensational Nightingales' "My Sisters and Brothers," Hank Ballard's "Tore Up Over You," Bob McDill and Allen Reynolds' "Catfish John," John Lennon's "Dear Prudence," Jesse Stone's "Don't Let Go," Allen Toussaint's "I'll Take a Melody" and "Get Out of My Life, Woman", Little Milton's "That's What Love Will Make You Do," Chuck Berry's "Let It Rock" and "You Never Can Tell," Bruce Cockburn's "Waiting for a Miracle," Irving Berlin's "Russian Lullaby," Smokey Robinson's "The Way You Do the Things You Do" and "I Second That Emotion," Peter Tosh's "Stop That Train," Bob Marley's "Stir It Up," Robbie Robertson's "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down," the Manhattans' "Shining Star," Van Morrison's "And It Stoned Me" and "Bright Side of the Road" and Norton Buffalo's "Ain't No Bread in the Breadbox." The band also performed Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II's "Ol' Man River" and Miles Davis' "So What" on one occasion apiece. As with the Grateful Dead, Jerry Garcia regularly covered many songs by Bob Dylan with the group, including "Tangled Up in Blue," "Simple Twist of Fate," "Knockin' on Heaven's Door," "Forever Young," "Señor," "Tears of Rage," "Tough Mama" and "When I Paint My Masterpiece."
The group did not perform between November 1978 and October 1979; during that year, Garcia, Kahn and keyboardist Merl Saunders briefly performed in Reconstruction, a more egalitarian jazz-funk ensemble.
According to Linda Kahn in a 2017 Reddit Ask Me Anything prompt, much of the band's repertoire was curated by her husband: "e did bring most of the cover material to the table. He has a big record collection and they're all in really good shape, he was pretty anal about his records. I think as far as picking songs, he listened to records all the time, so it depends on whoever was in the band and whatever group was playing at the time and that influenced John a lot."
Although the repertoire was strongly tilted toward covers, several Garcia-Robert Hunter originals were performed exclusively or near-exclusively by the Jerry Garcia Band. Some of the band's original repertoire was shared with the Grateful Dead.
During Garcia's lifetime, the Jerry Garcia Band released one studio album, Cats Under the Stars, and one live album, Jerry Garcia Band. Several more live albums were released posthumously.
The group was an indirect beneficiary of the commercial success of the Grateful Dead's In the Dark ; as the latter group transitioned to summer stadium tours and multi-night arena engagements during their autumn and spring tours, the tour itineraries of the Garcia Band came to encompass arenas and outdoor amphitheaters favored by the Grateful Dead in the early 1980s. During this period, the group continued to play as many as fifteen concerts a year in an informal residency at The Warfield, a 2,300-capacity theater in San Francisco.
Kahn briefly led the group following Garcia's death in 1995. Seals became the bandleader after Kahn's death in 1996; as of 2017, he is the only remaining member from the final iteration of the Jerry Garcia Band in JGB.

Discography

Following are the lineups for the Jerry Garcia Band's live performances.
August 5 – December 31, 1975
  • Jerry Garcia – guitar, vocals
  • John Kahn – bass
  • Nicky Hopkins – piano, vocals
  • Ron Tutt – drums
January 9 – January 10, 1976
  • Jerry Garcia – guitar, vocals
  • John Kahn – bass
  • James Booker – piano, vocals
  • Ron Tutt – drums
    • January 26, 1976 – August 12, 1977
  • Jerry Garcia – guitar, vocals
  • John Kahn – bass
  • Keith Godchaux – piano, vocals
  • Donna Godchaux – vocals
  • Ron Tutt – drums
    • November 15, 1977 – November 3, 1978
  • Jerry Garcia – guitar, vocals
  • John Kahn – bass
  • Keith Godchaux – piano, vocals
  • Donna Godchaux – vocals
  • Maria Muldaur – vocals
  • Buzz Buchanan – drums
    • October 7, 1979 – March 27, 1980
  • Jerry Garcia – guitar, vocals
  • John Kahn – bass
  • Ozzie Ahlers – keyboards, vocals
  • Johnny d'Fonseca – drums
    • July 18– November 16, 1980
  • Jerry Garcia – guitar, vocals
  • John Kahn – bass
  • Ozzie Ahlers – keyboards, vocals
  • Greg Errico – drums
    • December 20, 1980 – June 1, 1981
  • Jerry Garcia – guitar, vocals
  • John Kahn – bass
  • Melvin Seals – organ
  • Jimmy Warren – electric piano, clavinet
  • Daoud Shaw – drums
    • June 25 – August 23, 1981
  • Jerry Garcia – guitar, vocals
  • John Kahn – bass
  • Melvin Seals – organ
  • Jimmy Warren – electric piano, clavinet
  • Bill Kreutzmann – drums
  • Essra Mohawk – vocals
  • Liz Stires – vocals
    • September 7, 1981
  • Jerry Garcia – guitar, vocals
  • John Kahn – bass
  • Melvin Seals – organ
  • Jimmy Warren – electric piano, clavinet
  • Bill Kreutzmann – drums
  • Julie Stafford – vocals
  • Liz Stires – vocals
    • September 18 – November 20, 1981
  • Jerry Garcia – guitar, vocals
  • John Kahn – bass
  • Melvin Seals – organ
  • Jimmy Warren – electric piano, clavinet
  • Ron Tutt – drums
  • Julie Stafford – vocals
  • Liz Stires – vocals
    • December 17, 1981 – June 24, 1982
  • Jerry Garcia – guitar, vocals
  • John Kahn – bass
  • Melvin Seals – organ
  • Jimmy Warren – electric piano, clavinet
  • Bill Kreutzmann – drums
  • Julie Stafford – vocals
  • Liz Stires – vocals
    • October 13 – 23, 1982
  • Jerry Garcia – guitar, vocals
  • John Kahn – bass
  • Melvin Seals – organ
  • Greg Errico – drums
    • October 24, 1982 – June 5, 1983
  • Jerry Garcia – guitar, vocals
  • John Kahn – bass
  • Melvin Seals – organ
  • Greg Errico – drums
  • Jaclyn LaBranch – vocals
  • DeeDee Dickerson – vocals
    • July 20, 1983 – August 28, 1984
  • Jerry Garcia – guitar, vocals
  • John Kahn – bass
  • Melvin Seals – organ
  • David Kemper – drums
  • Jaclyn LaBranch – vocals
  • DeeDee Dickerson – vocals
    • September 15, 1984 – September 28, 1985
  • Jerry Garcia – guitar, vocals
  • John Kahn – bass
  • Melvin Seals – organ
  • David Kemper – drums
  • Jaclyn LaBranch – vocals
  • Gloria Jones – vocals
    • October 7, 1985 – February 2, 1986
  • Jerry Garcia – guitar, vocals
  • John Kahn – bass
  • Melvin Seals – organ
  • Gaylord Birch – drums
  • Jaclyn LaBranch – vocals
  • Gloria Jones – vocals
    • February 21, 1986 – November 19, 1993
  • Jerry Garcia – guitar, vocals
  • John Kahn – bass
  • Melvin Seals – organ
  • David Kemper – drums
  • Jaclyn LaBranch – vocals
  • Gloria Jones – vocals
    • February 4, 1994 – April 23, 1995
  • Jerry Garcia – guitar, vocals
  • John Kahn – bass
  • Melvin Seals – organ
  • Donny Baldwin – drums
  • Jaclyn LaBranch – vocals
  • Gloria Jones – vocals

    • Timeline


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